Psychological safety deals with protection from exposure to risk of harm or injury. Employers can take precautions to avoid risk to the psychological health of employees at work. This applies to what is within the employer’s responsibility and control. From a strategic perspective, it’s important to do everything possible to ensure safety, before promoting health.
A psychologically healthy and safe work environment promotes employees’ psychological well-being. Everyone involved is held accountable to actively prevent harm due to negligent, reckless or intentional acts.
Why is psychological health and safety (PHS) important?
There are many reasons to assess and address PHS at work:
- Current and emerging legal and regulatory mandates declare employer responsibilities in this area.
- Compelling financial incentives like reducing costs and improving the bottom line.
- Scientific and practical evidence demonstrates the impact psychosocial factors have on employee well-being.
The legal and business case
The argument for addressing PHS varies across sectors, regions and teams within organizations. This includes the:
- Desire to provide a great and safe place to work for all employees
- Financial incentive, including productivity, growth and attraction of talent or investment
- Need to follow organizational, legal or regulatory obligations
What are psychosocial factors?
Psychosocial factors are conditions known to impact the PHS of employees. Each factor ranges on a continuum from protective to harmful. Where possible, the goal is to eliminate any risk. Where this is not possible, like in dangerous jobs, the goal is to increase the protective nature of other factors. One example is psychological protection. To eliminate this risk there would be no discrimination or harassment at work. But in workplaces that deal with patients or clients, it may be impossible to guarantee their behaviour will always be ideal. To reduce risk to employee psychological health and safety, the employer may invest more time and resources into the psychosocial factor of psychological and social support. They might reinforce how staff support each other when dealing with a difficult client.
Basic human rights and needs
The psychosocial factors also support certain basic human needs that can be reasonably addressed in the work environment. These needs include the protected rights of various provincial and federal statutes.
So, organizations have a crucial role in protecting these needs:
- Dignity and respect for the person. This means that the person has a sense of self-worth, self-esteem and inclusion
- Security, integrity and autonomy of the person. This is feeling safe both physically and psychologically
- Organizational justice. Feeling one belongs to a community where there’s respect for due process and fair procedures
Psychological health and safety is focused on the protection and promotion of these three major clusters of needs and rights.
Employer liability for psychological injury
Employees may bring psychological distress to work from their personal lives. But psychological injury can be created, or at least aggravated, in the course of the work experience. It’s important to distinguish psychological injury from mental illness. For example, someone may experience harassment and suffer psychological injury without a diagnosis of a mental illness.
Psychological injury, as reported by employees, can include:
- Mental harm
- Suffering
- Dysfunction
- Sub-clinical depression and anxiety
- Severe demoralization
- Disengagement
- Alienation
A defining aspect of psychological injury is that it is a direct result of some action or failure to act by another person. When such conduct occurs at work, the employer may face liability for it. This could either be directly or by association.
Regularly assessing and addressing psychological health and safety can help employers maintain a psychologically safe work environment. This may help to meet evolving legal requirements.
Learn more about the cost benefits of psychological health and safety.
The health case
Psychosocial factors can influence psychological health. This can be either in a positive or negative direction. Each factor can act as either a risk or protection for employee well-being.
Risk factors increase the likelihood an individual will experience increased stress. This in turn increases the likelihood of developing or worsening mental or physical health.
Physical and mental health is the result of a complex interplay among a range of individual and environmental factors. This includes but is not limited to:
- Family history of illness and disease
- Health behaviours such as smoking, exercise or substance use
- Health risks such as exposure to harmful chemicals
- Genetics
- Personal life events, circumstances and history
- Access to timely healthcare, social supports and other resources
Does work cause psychological health problems?
Work can contribute to psychological health problems in the following ways:
- An extremely stressful event that results in psychological trauma. For example, being robbed or assaulted on the job. If there isn't a similar incident, it may be difficult to connect a person's work situation and their developing a mental disorder.
- Work environment factors may:
- Increase the likelihood of a mental disorder
- Make an existing disorder worse
- Impede effective treatment and rehabilitation
- Certain work environment factors could be a direct cause for psychological distress. For example, demoralization, depressed mood, anxiety or burnout. Psychological distress may not reach the level of a diagnosable mental disorder. If work conditions are judged to have contributed to an employee's suffering and disability, this distress can still be a source of:
- Considerable suffering for the employee
- Productivity loss for the employer
- Legal consequences
- A supportive work environment may help reduce the onset, severity, impact and duration of a mental health disorder.
- Organizations that make the effort to identify psychosocial risks and to create a psychologically healthy work environment see benefits in productivity, sustainability and growth.