About the project

The mental health impacts of work have become a key issue in workplace health and safety (WHS) practice and research. This is consistent with growing community awareness of the impact of mental health issues on all aspects of life, and the understanding that work is a big part of people’s lives. 

In Australia, “mental stress” accounts for 8% of workers compensation claims for serious injury (SafeWork Australia, 2021) - the fourth highest category of claims. Mental health claims have grown by 28% since 2000-01, and accounted for the highest median time lost (20.8 weeks) and the highest median costs among diseases in 2018-9 ($35,900) - an increase of 209% since 2000-01.* 

Against this backdrop, several strategies have been developed to improve the design and management of work so that it does not impact on mental health, including the 2021 NSW Code of Practice on Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work. 

This project was developed as part of the NSW Mentally Healthy Workplaces Strategy, and is funded by SafeWork NSW. We have been working closely with the NSW Centre for WHS to co-design the project, which has three main stages: 

Study 1. Examining the interventions used for improving mental health at work Read the summary here 

Study 2. Examining the barriers and facilitators of improved actions on mental health at work Read the summary here 

Study 3. Developing competencies in work re-design for improved mental health 

Four industry classifications in NSW were the focus of our investigations: Professional, Scientific and Technical Services; Transport, Postal and Warehousing; Manufacturing; and Information, Media and Telecommunications.  

In addition to industry summaries, reports and journal publications which advance our knowledge of workplace mental health interventions, the project will also deliver and evaluate a tool for developing competencies in work design for psychological health.  

A big thank you to everyone who has contributed, and continues to contribute to developing this knowledge and resources at a time when businesses all over Australia are stretched and still experiencing staffing and operational challenges. 

The conceptual framework of this project focuses on the WHS duties of PCBUs to remove hazards (sources of harm) which arise from work tasks, roles and environments under their control. Strategies which act on the coping mechanisms of workers can be useful and important (e.g. employee assistance programs, stress management, wellness programs; see Holman (2018); Ahola (2017); Stratton (2017)) and awareness of mental health conditions is important for everyone in all work and non-work contexts (Weston, 2019; Catley et al, 2017). These individual-focused strategies, however, do not reduce the sources of harm, and should be secondary in any organisation’s WHS duties to protect the psychological health of workers. Psychosocial hazards that arise from how work is organised, social factors at work, and aspects of the physical work environment should be managed through changing work design (Parker, 2015; Safe Work Australia, 2019; Tuckey et al., 2019; Bentley et al, 2019). What is actually involved in designing work to promote psychological health is unfamiliar to many WHS and HR practitioners as well as senior managers (Leka & Jain, 2016). A range of other barriers to improving psychological health at work are known: issues in terminology, resources, and enforcement (e.g. Leka & Jain, 2016; Ertel, 2010; Kunyk et al., 2016; Johnstone et al. 2011). Further, a range of roles in organisations are responsible for designing work, often without knowing that the implications of how they organise work tasks, roles and policies and processes can have impacts on health, safety and well-being.  

The theory of change that underpins our program is the development of competencies relevant to psychosocial risks. Awareness of psychosocial risks, and skills in work design to reduce them creates a foundation on which any other intervention (based for example on consultation, or culture development), can be built. It is only with well-designed work that other strategies can be effective – so supporting the analysis and design of work should be the focus of projects aiming to improve mental health at work more broadly. Our project develops these competencies in participating organisations, and provides tools for other organisations to develop them in future. 

*These compensation figures are sobering, however, they are fundamentally limited. Not everyone who is harmed at work applies for compensation, and not everyone is eligible for compensation.