Key takeaways
- Build psychological health and safety strategies and solutions with employees instead of for them
- Leverage these free tools to help drive productivity and prevent unintended harm
- Use evidence-based actions to drive results and strengthen policies
Psychologically healthy and safe workplaces are a strategic driver of organizational performance. Protecting psychological health and safety (PHS) at work does not have to be complicated. We offer practical, evidence-based resources that help you choose the right strategies, involve employees in a meaningful way, and implement improvements that actually work.
Start with engagement that leads to real change
Most Psychological health and safety efforts fail when they are “done to” employees instead of “built with” employees. A more effective way to achieve better results is to involve employees in the solution – creating space for honest, structured conversations about what will make work success easier and safer.
Short on time or don’t know where to begin? Use these simple steps:
- Hold a short team conversation asking what might get in the way of team members doing their best work. You can use our facilitation tips for leaders if this is new or uncomfortable for you.
- Identify the top 1–2 psychosocial factors affecting work by linking the answers to the descriptions offered.
- Choose strategies for improvement using the evidence-based actions by factor and confirm these with your employees.
- Apply the change process to prevent unintended impacts.
- Lock in improvements with policy where it matters.
You don’t need a perfect system to get started. You need a clear path and the right tools.
More strategies and solutions to help you
What we offer
Facilitation guides for team conversations (simple scripts, questions, and activities):
- On The Agenda: a workshop series built to discuss each psychosocial factor with your team
- Conversation starters for PHS for shorter, less formal team meetings
- Asking good questions provides a wide range of questions you can modify to improve your communication skills
- Facilitation tips for leaders helps with difficult interactions
- Debrief questions to include as a matter of process after difficult or complex team projects or experiences.
What this helps you do
- Build trust and clarity
- Reduce resistance and “initiative fatigue”
- Focus on changes that support employee success (and better operational outcomes)
Use a change process that drives productivity and prevents unintended harm
Even well-meant initiatives can backfire. For example, new policies that add workload, tools that reduce autonomy, or changes that create inequity. That’s why we provide a simple change process to help you think through unintended consequences before you take action.
Choose the right type of solution
Not every problem benefits from the same response. We organize solutions into four clear pathways to help you match your actions to your intended outcome.
- Eliminate the psychosocial hazard
Remove the source of harm where possible. For example, unclear roles, chronic overload, toxic behaviour, or poorly designed processes could be eliminated.
2. Reduce or mitigate risk from hazards
If you cannot fully remove the hazard, take action to reduce exposure and strengthen protections. For example, update or improve staffing plans, conflict resolution supports, and safer scheduling practices. Some employees may still be overloaded at times, but it can help ensure that it is not chronic overload and it is not widespread. The protections can include providing more autonomy and flexibility on the job to balance out the higher demands.
3. Prevent psychosocial harm
Put supports in place to prevent harm before it occurs. For example, psychologically safe leadership practices, respectful workplace processes, and early support pathways. Psychological health and safety policy recommendations includes many more suggestions for prevention.
4. Promote wellbeing and productivity
Strengthen the everyday conditions that help people do good work. For example, improving recognition, autonomy, development opportunities, teamwork, and practical resources that reduce friction in the job. Psychologically safe team assessment can help you identify actions that could help.
Find evidence-based actions
This is where you will find practical and cost-effective strategies and solutions. We provide evidence-based actions, so you can go straight from “Here’s what our people are experiencing” to “Here are practical and relevant strategies we can try.”
You’ll find:
- Clear actions mapped to common psychosocial factors. For example, workload management, growth and development, psychological and social support, recognition, or involvement and influence.
- Sector-specific actions that can help where risks and realities differ from most sectors. This helps you avoid generic advice that doesn’t fit the work done by your employees.
Strengthen PHS with policy recommendations
Programs and initiatives help, but policy is what makes improvements consistent and sustainable.
We provide plain-language policy recommendations to support:
- Psychological health and safety expectations
- Hiring, orientation, and termination practices that reduce harm
- Employee stress prevention processes
- Accountability, roles, and reporting pathways
- Respectful workplace and early resolution practices
These recommendations help you move from “good intentions” to clear, fair, repeatable practice.
What’s next?
When you are implementing any strategy, it is critical to have an evaluation plan in place so you can determine if the strategy had the outcome you intended. This also helps you advocate for more support to continue your work.
Throughout the employment life cycle, there are opportunities to protect psychological health and safety while meeting organizational goals and objectives. This includes considering accessibility, inclusion and equity at the point of hiring, orientation and termination. There are many strategies to consider. Choose what works for your organization.