What is a psychosocial hazard in the workplace?
Short answer
A psychosocial hazard is anything in the design or management of work, or in the social or organisational context of work, that has the potential to cause psychological or physical harm. Examples include high job demands, low job control, poor support, role ambiguity, bullying, traumatic exposure, harassment and remote/isolated work.
A psychosocial hazard is a hazard arising from the design or management of work that has the potential to cause psychological or physical harm.
Safe Work Australia's Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work Code of Practice (2022) and ISO 45003:2021 identify a consistent set of psychosocial hazards:
- Job design: high or low job demands, low job control, low role clarity, poor change management, low recognition, low reward.
- Social factors: poor support from supervisors or co-workers, poor workplace relationships, bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, discrimination, exposure to violence and aggression.
- Work environment: poor physical work environment, lone or remote work, exposure to traumatic events, low procedural justice.
These hazards have to be managed using the same risk management approach as physical hazards: identify, assess, control (with the hierarchy of controls applied), monitor and review.
Every Australian state regulator now has a Code of Practice for managing psychosocial hazards. In Victoria, the OHS Amendment (Psychological Health) Regulations are in force from 1 December 2025 and impose specific written prevention plan requirements for designated psychosocial hazards.
In New Zealand, WorkSafe NZ's Mentally Healthy Work Good Practice Guide (May 2024) sets out equivalent expectations, with Te Whare Tapa Whā as an additional cultural framing.
RAE IQ's psychosocial register is built around the ISO 45003 hazard categories and supports anonymous worker surveys, control reviews with effectiveness ratings, and a board-ready executive summary.