The Managing Psychosocial Hazards and Risks in the Workplace course(external site) was jointly produced by SafeWork SA and ReturnToWorkSA and is delivered by specialist training provider GPEx.

The course takes one to two hours to complete and is designed to help equip businesses with the knowledge and practical skills needed to prevent harm associated with psychosocial risks in the workplace.

It also helps participants:

• identify psychosocial hazards such as high job demands, poor communication, lack of support and workplace bullying
• assess risks to workers’ health and safety
• control the risks with a mix of preventative and reactive measures where possible
• review and monitor the effectiveness of the control measures to ensure psychosocial risks remain well-managed over time.

The course also includes practical psychosocial case studies to unpack realistic scenarios from the retail, health care and construction industries.

Participants are also given access to a suite of handy resources and a certificate of completion at the end of the course.

Sign up for the free course here(external site)

The duty for businesses to do what is reasonably practicable to either eliminate, or if not practicable to minimise exposure to psychosocial hazards or minimise the impact of exposure has always been an implicit requirement under the Work Health and Safety Act and the Work Health and Safety Regulations 2012 (SA).

However following amendments to the regulations, that became effective in South Australia in December 2023, it is now very clear on the positive duty imposed on those businesses.

The new regulations define psychosocial hazard and risk and set out requirements for how to protect workers from them through a consultative risk management approach.

The introduction of these regulations was largely driven by the need to increase awareness and understanding of the significant impact of work-related psychosocial hazards on workers’ health and safety.