This post was originally published on LinkedIn
The risks associated with poor Psychological health have long been known. However, they haven’t been given the platform they need to be addressed at the same level as Workplace Safety. We know that Leadership influences Culture, Culture drives Behaviours and Behaviours yield results, but what about the critical inputs to Leadership? If we want to optimise our people, we need to proactively consider and implement processes to support their mental health and wellbeing.
Despite the disruption and tragedy that COVID-19 has brought, one positive outcome is the increased focus on mental health and wellbeing. This is creating a platform to manage it as a operational critical risk and accelerate programs that help organisations prepare and respond to mental illness.
As a result of this acceleration and focus, we are excited to see the introduction of ISO 45003, Occupational health and safety management – Psychological health and safety at work – Guidelines for managing psychosocial risks. This standard guides managing psychological health and safety risks within a safety management system. It addresses the many areas that can impact a worker’s psychological health, including ineffective communication, excessive pressure, poor Leadership and organisational culture.
We like that this world’s first global standard for psychological risk draws attention to promotion, prevention, and intervention; and how to identify conditions, circumstances, and workplace demands that could impair your workers’ psychological health and wellbeing.
ISO45003 isn’t ‘another standard’, it’s designed to help you meet the requirements of ISO45001, so if you’re on that journey, this will only help.
In addition to ISO45003, the NSW Government (Australia) have also released a Code of Practice for Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work, reaffirming their legal position on this matter.
Reasons for not including Leadership, culture and proactive mental health initiatives in your strategy are getting narrower. However, the strategic considerations of these areas in your environment, social and governance framework are increasing.
If you are in the process of developing or reviewing a strategy to integrate psychosocial risk, then be sure to plan for measuring and monitoring its effectiveness.
About Global Safety Index
With over 64,000 users and ~4,000,000 data points, Global Safety Index is the worlds first and largest integrated Leadership, culture and mental health monitoring, measurement and benchmarking tool and offers solutions that support ISO45001 and 45003, such as:
- SLI – Safety Leadership Index (Understand your leaders strengths and opportunities to improve)
- SCI – Safety Culture Index (Understand your safety culture and obtain granular insights across your entire organisation)
- MHI – Mental Health Index (Understand
- cMHI – Community Mental Health Index
- 1HSE – Wellbeing Check-In App