Codes of practice, regulations and draft regulations suggest that more is being required of employers in identifying risks to people’s mental health and safety, a term dubbed psychosocial risks.

Jerome Doraisamy spoke with Maddocks partner Catherine Dunlop on the topic and delved into the role of employers and leaders and how the issue can be addressed effectively. 

In the review of the model work health and safety legislation, which applies across most of Australia, it was identified that there was a need to be more specific with exactly how employers should meet their obligations to protect people’s mental health and safety at work, Ms Dunlop explained. 

The legislation now in place in Queensland and NSW, which is likely to extend country-wide, requires employers to identify psychosocial risks arising out of the nature of the work and the workplace collaboration, assess the impact of the risks, and control the risks by implementing strategies to eliminate and reduce them — along with control measures to ensure strategies are effective, Ms Dunlop explained. 

This direction of the legislation, and overall cultural expectation, gives rise to a weight placed on the role employers play in the issue. 

Where can employers begin?

“When identifying risks and thinking about ways to eliminate them or reduce them, employers must speak to their workers,” Ms Dunlop emphasised. “If you don’t have a formal mechanism for consulting with your people, if you don’t have a health and safety committee that is broadly representative of your people where you get together and discuss ideas, you really need one.”

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Ms Dunlop highlighted another essential strategy: “Preventative work is going to be much more important.”

“In the courts, there is increasing recognition and discussion of the preventative role that employers play in this space.

“Employers are being expected to identify risks and deal with them ahead of time,” she said. 

Whilst this can be done through wellbeing programs, often, a larger impact can be had by encouraging a culture of open dialogue and communication, Ms Dunlop posited. 

“There’s a role for leaders in encouraging people,” she continued. There are conversations to be had that are done from the perspective of looking at health, safety and wellbeing. “Is the workload too high? You don’t have to prove yourself in this way. You can’t continue to work at this pace for the rest of your career,” she said.

Leaders can also influence the culture of openness by sharing what is going on in their life. Ms Dunlop highlighted: “The real issue here is how do we reduce the stigma about talking up?

“We need to ask these questions. What’s going on? You can come and talk to me anytime. The ability to do that and to be doing it in a sincere way, I think, is vital for leaders going forward in this space.

“Having a leader who’s prepared to be involved in the conversation and monitor how someone’s going so we can have a conversation early may be better than simply relying on employee assistance programs.”

This is especially pertinent for organisations where there is a heightened risk of trauma because of the type of work, Ms Dunlop continued, “having those regular check-ins is more important because it gives you a baseline and an ability to measure how people are going”.

“It’s important that we have to remember that tough times don’t just affect lawyers,” Ms Dunlop reflected. “They affect in-house counsel, they affect barristers, they affect partners, they affect leaders of law firms.”

“When we identify a risk, we must be prepared to have that conversation — not just with the people who work for us, but the people we work with,” she said. “Do it for your peers, your colleagues and yourself.”