Are We Overlooking the Biggest Psychosocial Risks at Work?
- Philly Powell
- Nov 4
- 3 min read
I had a realisation at the Workplace Wellbeing Professionals Aotearoa Hui a few weeks ago.
It’s encouraging to hear about more workplaces starting to tackle psychosocial risks (or in simpler terms, the way work itself can harm wellbeing).
Yay for progress! 🙌
For a long time, I’ve been saying that bullying is one of the most well-understood psychosocial risks. It’s regularly discussed, and most workplaces now have policies, training, and awareness campaigns in place – hello Pink Shirt Day 👚
Another area gaining strong attention is customer aggression. Awareness, education, and risk management in this space is growing fast – and you can see visible signs of this focus at airports, government services, and banks.
So, let's leverage this!
Let’s take what we’ve learned from how we recognise and manage these two psychosocial risks, and apply those lessons to the ones still sitting quietly in the “too hard” basket.
Here’s what struck me about bullying and customer aggression: both are social factors, driven by human behaviour.
I found it quite fascinating that while we’ve made great strides in addressing these behavioural risks, we’re still overlooking the risks of poor work design that drive stress, fatigue, burnout, and disengagement.
Using WorkSafe’s guidelines, Work Design risks include:
⚡ long working hours
⚡ heavy or unmanageable workloads
⚡ constant time pressure
⚡ low job control or unclear roles
⚡ repetitive or meaningless work
⚡ underuse of people’s skills
⚡ shift work with insufficient rest
⚡ over-reliance on technology or digital surveillance
Sadly, these remain largely ignored – even though the data speaks for itself:
26% of Kiwis are at risk of burnout (Prof Jarrod Haar, 2025)
35% of global employees report feeling burnt out (The State of Workplace Burnout Report, Infinite Potential, 2025)
49% of Australians and New Zealanders are dissatisfied with their ability to manage work stress (The Nation’s Wellbeing Report, Human Synergistics, 2025)
I do believe as employers you actually have more control over these work design factors than you do over human behaviours like bullying or aggression.
Long working hours and unmanageable workloads are systemic risks – and they directly shape how people experience work.
From a business perspective, they also impact performance, productivity, and ultimately, profit. The negative impacts are clear. For people. And for business.
So as you start to build or evolve your psychosocial risk strategy, ask yourself:
👉 Do we have the data to understand our psychosocial risks and their severity?
👉 Are we ignoring the risks we have the most control over because they’re complex or uncomfortable to address?
👉 Do we have the right capability and leadership buy-in to manage these risks effectively?
Need support?
All of Wellbeing First’s workplace wellbeing offerings are designed to guide and support organisations in aligning with WorkSafe’s guidelines, and are based on global standards such as ISO 45003 and the Australian Codes of Practice.
Our flagship programme, Wellbeing Tick, includes an entire pillar focused on psychosocial risk management. It helps workplaces start the journey by defining the language, identifying and monitoring risks, and creating processes for raising and resolving psychosocial hazards. The work evolves with a case study on an identified psychosocial risk, contributing 25% to the overall accreditation outcome.
👉 Want to know more or chat about how to get started (or evolve) your psychosocial risk strategy? Book a free intro chat here.
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