By Diana Fernandez
for the 2025 Risky Women Writing Competition, presented in partnership with Ocorian
While companies tout care and support, many employees feel like cogs in a machine. Perhaps it’s time to shift from mere awareness of psychosocial risks to genuine, actionable change—because it seems the stakes are alarmingly high.
Anna Perayil, a 22-year-old Chartered Accountant at E&Y India, died just after four months of joining. Pratik Pandey, a 35-year-old Indian origin software engineer at Microsoft, was discovered dead at the company’s Silicon Valley campus. Wells Fargo employee found dead at her desk days after she last clocked into work. Do all of these raise a red flag? Do these indicate weak labour laws, gruelling work schedules and fostering harmful work culture. All these signal emerging Psychosocial Risk!
Post-pandemic, employees have experienced record-high stress and burnout. A 2024 Gallup survey indicates that the percentage of employees who strongly agree that their organisation cares about their overall well-being has plunged from 49% in 2020 to 21% in 2024. Organisations are superficially adopting caring practices and policies under the term ‘carewashing’ without genuine commitment. This certainly raises ethical concerns while promoting care but not giving adequate support.
So, what is Psychosocial risk? Psychosocial Risk is an occupational hazard that degrades an employee’s psychological wellbeing- like poor role clarity, excessive job demands, bullying and lack of social support – are among the most pressing occupational challenges today. Psychosocial safety is not a “soft” topic but a strategic risk management where we aim to protect the body and mind by building a safer, more resilient and more human workplaces.
Like any other physical risk assessment, we should identify psychological and social aspects within a working environment and assigning a level of risk to examine where the priority should be. One can design controls based on the risk profile and then evaluate. Work pressure is cognitively and emotionally demanding, but there are reasonable controls that can be put in place to reduce the likelihood of this hazard occurring and reduce the harm.
Effective systems and awareness to reduce risks will bring individual benefits, benefits to the team can bring in productivity and motivation that can prevent work injury. As Dr Hillary Bennett, Director, Leading Safety states that mental wellbeing is not a matter of luck but a matter of design. It requires a deliberate effort to control psychosocial risks and build in the protective factors associated with ‘good work’.
Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC) reflects the process and climate that an organization has in place to protect the psychological health and wellbeing of workers (Dollard et al., 2019). It comprises of four key domains – Management Prioritisation, Management Commitment, Organisational Communication and Organisational Participation. A growing body of research shows organisations that foster a strong PSC are likely to benefit from lower levels of employee stress and burnout, greater job satisfaction and engagement, and generally better employee wellbeing (Dollard & Bakker, 2010; Idris et al., 2012). At a macro level, Scandinavian countries have already created much gentler working environments.
Work that is well organised, competently managed and resourced, where strong interpersonal relationships and inclusive supports exist, is likely to encourage higher levels of employee wellbeing and other positive Organisational outcomes. According to a workplace mental health services survey, 91% of Australian employees say mental health is important in the workplace, but only 52% feel supported by their employer (SuperFriend 2023). Business Leaders or Executives can conduct a survey risk assessment tool to identify impacts, commonly occurring hazards and where they are can be found in the organisation. Review of job designs and meeting the nuanced needs of the job may not solely address issues which are not captured and clearly visible. In recognising the hierarchy of controls in occupational health and safety, organisational level controls such as structural changes, remapping of job value streams, how work is organised, designed, span of control and reworking reporting structures can tremendously help in effective management of this risk. Build an effective Employee Assistance Program which designs for a psychologically safe and feedback-friendly culture. Under Australian work health and safety laws, directors and officers have a positive duty to eliminate or minimize psychosocial risks, just like physical risks. ‘Fixing the work rather than the worker’ is the key mantra gaining momentum to remove poor efficaciousness of individual level interventions. ‘From Quiet Quitting to Quiet Thriving’ reflects strong leadership focus in creating that shift. It’s important to build a culture to reframe mindset, redesign workday, build meaningful connections, seek learning and practice gratitude. With the growing emphasis on mental health and psychosocial safety, leaders who can connect authentically and inspire their teams will be the ones who drive sustainable success. Leaders like Megan Hopkins (Calvary Health Care), Dr. Libby Brook (WorkSafe Victoria), Johanna Birgersson (Australian Gas Infrastructure Group) and Rachel King (Human Risk Management) have championed psychosocial safety through their leadership behaviours pushing tailored organisational design changes, robust risk management processes and a strong focus on open communication and employee involvement.
Big Companies like Google have successfully implemented PSC through its innovative programs such as ‘Project Oxygen’ and ‘Googlegeist’ which emphasises on fostering a sense of trust, embracing diverse perspectives and meaningful feedback. In 2024, Samsung was awarded for launching its Semiconductor program to provide professional medical services and a personalised health program including counselling centers offering benefits to employees who are under stress.
Let this be the moment where we shift from awareness to action – where we prioritise mental health alongside physical safety, where we hire for potential, nurture with purpose and lead with integrity. When psychosocial safety is embedded into the DNA of the organisation design, we don’t just protect people, we cement sustainable growth.