WHS measures are undertaken as part of a risk management process that respond to an identified hazard in the workplace. WHS measures are aimed at eliminating or minimising risk by implementing and monitoring control measures.

Worker wellbeing strategies initiatives are aimed at improving the general mental, physical, and emotional health of workers by encouraging engagement with health and recreational activities.

Whilst worker wellbeing initiatives can have positive impacts, they do not protect workers from hazards.

Wellbeing Initiative Example

• Inviting staff to develop their own ‘self-care plan’, which could include initiatives such as a mindfulness practice, exercise or social activities.

Alternative WHS process

• Consulting with workers on the current system of workflow to identify processes generating stress

• Adapt the process to reduce psychosocial hazard

• Adapt the process to create opportunity for worker to recover from stress and prevent constant hyper-arousal

• Monitor the effectiveness of the change by consulting with workers

To identify whether psychosocial hazards are present in your workplace, Safe Work Australia recommends:

• Consult workers. Workers may talk about hazards in different ways. For example, they may say they feel stressed, upset, anxious, on-edge, burnt out, helpless or have trouble sleeping.

• Use surveys and tools.

• Observe work and behaviours. For example, tasks taking longer than expected, frequent mistakes or workers being less empathetic can be caused by exposure to traumatic events or materials.

• Review available information. For example, records of overtime, time off, injuries, incidents or workers’ compensation.

• Have a way for workers to report and encourage reporting. Treating workers’ concerns seriously and respectfully will help encourage reporting.

• Identify other hazards present and consider them together. Hazards can interact and combine to create new, changed or higher risks. For example, traumatic events or materials may create a higher risk in workplaces with high job demands if workers are already feeling pressured.

• Consider how long, how often and how severely workers are exposed to hazards. The longer, more often and worse the exposure to traumatic events or materials the higher the risk that workers may be harmed.

Several tools have been developed to support organisation to assess psychosocial hazards and manage risk - access them here.

Australian WHS law states that it is the primary duty of the employer to manage both physical and psychosocial risks arising from work.

By putting emphasis wholly on self-care in the face of known psychosocial hazards — without properly addressing the hazards — the employer unfairly shifts the responsibility onto workers and bypasses their responsibility as an employer.

Self-care strategies may be effective in supporting a worker to cope with the impact of vicarious trauma or burnout, however they do not prevent the harm from occurring⁴.

Learn more about organisational Risk Management and Prevention of VT & burnout.