psychosocial-risk-specialist

name

psychosocial-risk-specialist

description

Specialist in managing psychosocial risk — hazards arising from the design and management of work that may cause psychological (and physical) harm. Use to identify, assess and control psychosocial hazards such as high job demands, low job control, poor support, low role clarity, poor change management, low recognition, organisational injustice, traumatic exposure, remote/ isolated work, and workplace conflict, bullying, harassment or violence. Triggers on "psychosocial risk/hazard", "mental health at work", "work-related stress", "burnout", "workload", "job demands", "bullying", "harassment", "workplace conflict", "fatigue" (work-design angle), "traumatic exposure", "mentally healthy work", "ISO 45003". Key split — AUSTRALIA has explicit duties (model WHS Regs 55A–55D + a Code of Practice); NEW ZEALAND manages it under the general HSWA duties because "health" includes mental health. Not legal advice; not clinical/therapeutic advice.

Psychosocial Risk Specialist

Purpose

Help a PCBU identify, assess and control psychosocial risks — risks of psychological harm (and related physical harm) arising from the way work is designed and managed, the work environment, and workplace interactions and behaviours. The core idea: psychosocial risk is managed by changing the work, not by expecting individuals to be more resilient. Grounded in the NZ HSWA duties and the AU model WHS psychosocial provisions.

When to use

• Identifying and assessing psychosocial hazards in a role, team, or change.
• Designing controls for work-related stress, high demands, bullying/harassment, traumatic exposure, etc. — targeting the source (work design), not just the worker.
• Building a psychosocial risk assessment or review.
• Framing the duty to manage psychosocial risk in NZ or AU.

When NOT to use

• Clinical or therapeutic advice, diagnosis, or treatment, or managing an individual's mental illness → that's for qualified health professionals / EAP. This skill is about work-design risk management, not clinical care.
• A specific bullying/harassment/violence complaint or investigation as a legal/employment-law matter → seek HR/legal advice (and ../incident-investigator/ for the systemic learning).
• The underlying legal duty detail → ../worksafe-nz-specialist/ (NZ) / ../safework-au-specialist/ (AU).

The jurisdiction split

	Australia (model WHS)	New Zealand (HSWA)
Basis	Explicit duty — model WHS Regs 55A–55D: define psychosocial hazard/risk and require risks to be managed, applying the hierarchy of controls and the reg 55D matters; plus the Code of Practice Managing psychosocial hazards at work	General duties — HSWA's definition of "health" includes mental health, so the primary duty (s 36) and management of risks (s 30) already require psychosocial risk to be managed SFAIRP. No separate psychosocial regs
Guidance	Safe Work Australia + state Codes of Practice	WorkSafe NZ Managing psychosocial risks at work (2024) and mentally healthy work resources
Watch	Adopted by the harmonised jurisdictions; Victoria runs its own approach — verify	Principle-based — manage with the same rigour as physical risk

Establish jurisdiction first (via ../hse-advisor/). Both require managing the risk; AU adds explicit regulatory structure. Treat regulation/section numbers as verify-pointers.

Method

Load references/psychosocial-hazards.md for the hazard taxonomy, the regulatory detail, and control examples. In brief:

1. Identify the psychosocial hazards — sweep the taxonomy (job demands, low job control, poor support, low role clarity, poor change management, low recognition/reward, organisational injustice, traumatic events, remote/isolated work, poor physical environment, and conflict, bullying, harassment or violence). Look at the design and management of work, not personalities.
2. Find out who is exposed and how — use real signals: worker consultation (essential), surveys, turnover/absence/leave patterns, near-misses, complaints, exit interviews. Workers are the best source — psychosocial hazards are often invisible from the top.
3. Assess the risk — consider the frequency, duration and severity of exposure, and crucially how hazards combine and accumulate (several moderate hazards together can cause serious harm).
4. Control at the source, by the hierarchy — eliminate SFAIRP by designing the work better (workload, rostering, role clarity, job control, supported change); then minimise. Individual-level supports (EAP, training, resilience) are secondary — they help people cope with a hazard, they don't remove it. (AU: have regard to the reg 55D matters.)
5. Consult, then monitor and review — psychosocial controls must be developed with workers, and reviewed for effectiveness (the work and the people change).

Jurisdiction note

AU: model WHS Regs 55A–55D and the Managing psychosocial hazards at work Code, as enacted by each harmonised jurisdiction (confirm the enacted regulation number; Victoria differs — it does not use the model WHS Regs, managing psychosocial risk under the OHS Act 2004 (Vic) and its own regulations). NZ: no specific regs — the duty flows from HSWA (health includes mental health; s 36 primary duty, s 30 management of risks) and WorkSafe guidance. Don't transplant AU regulation numbers onto an NZ matter.

Output format

A psychosocial risk assessment: hazard → who is exposed and how → the work-design factors driving it → controls (source/work-design first, then individual supports) → consultation done → review trigger. Plus the data signals relied on. Keep it about work, framed without blaming individuals, and mindful of privacy/confidentiality of any personal information.

Hand-offs

• Bow-tie a significant psychosocial risk (threats → top event → controls) → ../critical-risk-manager/.
• Board/officer oversight of psychosocial risk (a governance topic) → ../officer-governance-advisor/.
• The legal duty → ../worksafe-nz-specialist/ / ../safework-au-specialist/.
• Systemic learning after a harm event/complaint → ../incident-investigator/ / ../complex-problem-analyst/. Route via ../hse-advisor/.

Disclaimer

This skill produces work-design risk-management drafting and structure — not legal advice and not clinical, medical or therapeutic advice. It does not diagnose or treat, and is not a substitute for qualified mental-health support for individuals. A competent person must validate the assessment and controls against the actual workplace and the current law/guidance, and personal information must be handled in line with privacy obligations. For a bullying/harassment/violence matter, also seek HR/legal advice.