Psychological health and safety for employers

Creating a healthy and safe workplace

Employers are responsible for ensuring a healthy and safe workplace. This includes enabling workers to work in psychologically safe workplaces. Not only is it good for your workers’ well-being, but it’s good for your bottom line, too. Plus, emerging legal and regulatory mandates articulate employer responsibilities in this area.

Workplace safety and health committees or representatives should be actively involved throughout the development and implementation of the safety management system. This includes assessing the workplace for potential psychological hazards, recommending improvements, tracking results and fostering a psychologically healthy and safe environment.

A psychosocial hazard is anything that:

Arises from or relates to:
- the aspect of work organization, or the way the work is structured or
- the social factors at work or the workplace interactions or behaviours or
- the work environment including equipment and hazardous tasks, or
Could reasonably be expected to present a risk to psychological safety of a worker over a prolonged period that is excessive or unusual in intensity.

The 13 psychosocial factors

There are 13 identified factors that are known to influence worker psychological safety, job satisfaction and organizational effectiveness.

1. Psychological support	A work environment where coworkers and supervisors are supportive of workers’ psychological safety concerns and respond appropriately as needed.
2. Organizational culture	The degree to which a work environment is characterized by trust, honesty and fairness. Organizational trust is imperative for any positive and productive social processes within any workplace.
3. Clear leadership and expectations	A work environment where there is effective leadership and support that helps workers know what they need to do, how their work contributes to the organization, and whether there are impeding changes.
4. Civility and respect	A work environment where workers are respectful and considerate in their interactions with one another, as well as with customers, clients and the public.
5. Psychological job fit	A work environment where there is a good fit between workers’ interpersonal and emotional competencies and the requirements of the position they hold.
6. Growth and development	A workplace that provides a range of internal and external opportunities for workers to build their repertoire of competencies, which will not only help their current jobs, but also prepare them for possible future positions.
7. Recognition and reward	A work environment where there is appropriate acknowledgement and appreciation of workers’ efforts in a fair and timely manner.
8. Involvement and influence	A work environment where workers feel they have meaningful input into their work, how their work is done and how important decisions are made.
9. Workload management	A work environment where tasks and responsibilities can be accomplished successfully within the time available.
10. Engagement	A work environment where workers feel connected to their work and are motivated to do their job well.
11. Work-life balance	A work environment where there is recognition of the need for balance between the demands of work, family and personal life.
12. Psychological protection	A work environment where workers’ psychological safety is ensured. This is demonstrated when workers feel able to put themselves on the line, ask questions, seek feedback, report mistakes and problems, or propose a new idea without fearing negative consequences.
13. Protection of physical safety	A work environment where management takes appropriate action to protect the physical safety of workers.

Steps to follow to start preventing psychosocial hazards

Perform a risk assessment.
Create a hazard priority list.
Implement controls.
Monitor controls for effectiveness.
Review the effectiveness of controls through worker feedback and surveys.

Our tools and resources page guides you through these steps.

Integrating psychological health and safety within the workplace

Unlike traditional health and safety approaches, psychological safety focuses on organizational factors—such as workload, recognition, support and workplace culture—that affect workers’ mental well-being.

There are many occupational safety and health policies and procedures that employers currently have in place that can also supplement and support a psychological safety program. Existing occupational safety and health policies and procedures, like hazard identification and risk control, directly support psychological safety by providing frameworks for risk assessment, control implementation and management of psychosocial hazards in the workplace.

Workplaces that are psychologically safe are better protected and can experience additional benefits, including:

Increased worker engagement, retention, and performance: Engaged workers are motivated, committed, and invested in their work and workplace. They see their goals as aligned with the organization’s, which improves performance, encourages long-term retention, and drives higher productivity and quality of goods and services.
Reduced absenteeism, burnout, and turnover: will lead to lower operational costs for the employer, and create a positive cycle where workers feel valued and supported resulting in improved morale, plus physical health and well-being. Lower workforce turnover will result in experienced workers staying longer and brining their expertise and efficiency to the workplace for every shift.
Lower risk of physical or psychological injury claims: A psychologically safe workplace becomes safer by creating a workplace where workers feel comfortable reporting potential hazards, near misses, and incidents without fear of reprisal.

Psychological safety is a strategic advantage—and it starts with intentional planning and assessment. It is achieved through active collaboration with workers, sustained through ongoing evaluation, and evolves through continuous improvement.

Psychological considerations when building a safety and health program

Section 7.4(1) of The Workplace Safety and Health Act (WSH Act) outlines that a workplace safety and health program must be established in workplaces with 20 or more workers. Section 7.4(5) a-k of the WSH Act outlines the required content of the program.

Below are ways to incorporate psychological considerations into a workplace health and safety program.

Policy statement	Include psychological health and safety in your workplace policy statement.
Hazard identification and control	The workplace has control over at least 13 psychosocial factors, which can promote positive mental health or may conversely cause harm. Use surveys, focus groups, incident reports and disability statistics to identify psychosocial hazards. Eliminate or manage the hazards using the same methods as other hazards in the workplace.
Emergencies	Mental health emergencies may arise in the workplace which may be related to individual circumstances or may arise from a trauma experienced in the workplace. The workplace needs to be equipped to respond to emergencies by knowing who they can contact in their community and/or by having a mental health first aid program. Workplaces whose workers are exposed to trauma (such as first responders) should have critical incident response and resiliency programs in place.
Roles and responsibilities	Clear roles and responsibilities are important to psychological health and safety and part of the internal responsibility system. Everyone can be a mental health champion.
Inspections	Psychological considerations can be incorporated into formal and informal inspections as items on a checklist, through conversations during a walk-through and as part of policy and incident reviews. Inspections may identify areas where there could be higher risk such as working alone, managing cash, dealing with emergencies, etc.
Contractors	Remember, contractors are part of the workplace and should be provided the same respect and consideration offered to all others in the workplace.
Training	Mental health awareness is an important starting point. Workers need to be trained in any new responsibilities (for example, how to report concerns). Supervisors can benefit from training in accommodations and disability management.
Investigations	Confirm the method and process for mental health incidents. Investigations should be conducted by a person who is experienced in mental health and health and safety investigations. Encourage reporting of psychological health and safety concerns and incidents and ensure a compassionate and diligent response. Be sure to follow up with information and corrective actions.
Participation	Committees play an important role in promoting psychological health and safety by making recommendations, including in inspections, and having a standing item on agendas. Everyone in the workplace is a stakeholder in psychological health and safety – look for their input!
Evaluation	When conducting regular program reviews, look for ways to incorporate psychological considerations.

Harassment and violence

Employers have a legal obligation to protect workers from harassment and violence.

Learn more