Implement a prevention program

Comcare's prevention and easy reference guides provide information to assist in the design and implementation of strategies to prevent work-related psychological injury:

Working well: an organisational approach to preventing psychological injury [pdf] outlines a systematic and structured approach to risk management for stress and psychological injury.
Working well: steps to prevent and manage psychological injury [pdf] provides an easy reference guide
Working well: strategies to prevent psychological injury at work [pdf] identifies potential risk factors and indicators and provides suitable solutions.

Characteristics of successful approaches¹

1 Sustained prevention and leadership support

Sustainable improvement can be achieved if leaders implement a strategic risk management approach to identify and address the causes of psychological injury in the workplace - paying particular attention to underlying 'psychosocial issues', including work team climate.

2 Adequate risk analysis

Risk analysis and assessment is the key to effective injury prevention and management. Surveys can be a valuable way to identify underlying psychosocial factors, but should only be undertaken if there is a clear intention to take timely action on the results. Analysis of claims data, interviewing claimants and their managers, monitoring unplanned absence and the use of employee assistance programs can also help to identify 'hot spots' and assess risk.

3 Thorough planning and a stepwise approach

Effective risk management requires clear aims to be set, target groups, priorities and tasks identified, and responsibilities and resources allocated to ensure the process is effectively supported by program activity.

4 Combination of work-directed and worker-directed measures

Priority must be given to organisational interventions to tackle risks at source. Worker-directed measures should be used to complement other actions-not as a substitute. Australian research suggests that the greatest impact can be made by building morale, supportive leadership and a quality work team climate to buffer employees against the impact of operational stressors.

5 Context specific solutions

Employees' on the job experience is a vital resource in identifying problems and solutions that are tailored to the circumstances of particular work teams. It is important that employees and managers work together to improve work team climate.

6 Experienced practitioners and evidence-based interventions

Be guided by evidence-based information about key causal factors and successful interventions. Outside expertise may be necessary, but only competent experts should be used.

7 Partnerships

The involvement and commitment of employees, middle and senior managers is crucial at every stage of an intervention. Successful prevention rests with every member of the organisation from senior management to the individual employee.

Stressful Characteristics of Work²

Category	Conditions defining hazard
	Context to work
Organisational culture and function	Poor communication, low levels of support for problem-solving and personal development, lack of definition of organisational objectives
Role in organisation	Role ambiguity and role conflict, responsibility for people
Career development	Career stagnation and uncertainty, under-promotion or over-promotion, poor pay, job insecurity, low social value to work
Decision latitude/control	Low participation in decision making, lack of control over work (control, particularly in the form of participation, is also a context and wider organisational issue)
Interpersonal relationships at work	Social or physical isolation, poor relationships with superiors, interpersonal conflict, lack of social support
Customer-related	The need to hide negative emotions during interactions with clients/customers, unrealistic customer expectations, and/or verbally aggressive clients/customers. Risk factors for violence include exchange of money with customers, few employees on site, and evening or night work.
Home-work interface	Conflicting demands of work and home, low support at home, dual career problems
	Content of work
Work environment and work equipment	Problems regarding the reliability, availability, suitability and maintenance or repair of equipment and facilities
Task design	Lack of variety or short work cycles, fragmented or meaningless work, under-use of skills, high uncertainty
Workload/workpace	Work overload or underload, lack of control over pacing, high levels of time pressure
Work schedule	Shift working, inflexible work schedules, unpredictable hours, long or unsocial hours.

Organisational climate and morale³

In Australia, the work of Cotton and Hart distinguishes operational demands and the context in which work is conducted, and recognises that contextual factors (such as leadership and managerial practices, climate and culture) strongly influence how employees cope with and manage their operational demands. Cotton and Hart have found that contextual factors tend to exert a stronger influence on employee wellbeing outcomes when directly compared with a wide range of operational stress risk factors. In particular, their research shows that ‘supportive leadership’ and a high quality ‘work team climate’ strongly influence individual morale, which buffers employees against the impact of work-related stress risk factors.

This work suggests that employees in workgroups with high morale and supportive leaders are much less likely to perceive their workload as excessive, or to submit workers’ compensation claims. Cotton and Hart have also found that organisational climate (specifically supportive leadership, key people management practices, and the quality of the work team climate) will influence performance and productivity as well as minimising psychological injuries.

1. The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work has identified seven key factors as important focus points for successful stress prevention. This information has been adapted from Agency's publication How to tackle psychological issues and reduce work-related stress, 2002, and Peter Cotton and Peter Hart, 'Occupational Wellbeing and Performance: A review of Organisational Health Research, Australian Psychologist, vol 38, no 2, 2003. Also see Beacons of Excellence in Stress Prevention, prepared by Robertson Cooper Pty Ltd and UMIST, HSE Research Report 133, 2003.

2. Tom Cox, Amanda Griffiths and Eusebio Rial-Gonzales, Research on Work-related Stress, European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, May 2000; and Tom Cox and Eusebio Rial-Gonzalez, 'Work-related stress: the European picture', Working on Stress Magazine 5, European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, 2002.

3. Cotton P and Hart P M, ‘Occupational Wellbeing and Performance: a Review of Organisational Health Research’, Australian Psychologist, 38(1), 2003, pp. 118-127; and Cotton P, ‘Developing an Optimal Organisational Climate: Towards Australia’s Safest Workplaces II Conference Paper’, March 2004, Canberra.

Page last updated:July 2, 2008