Senior HR leaders are facing an uncomfortable truth: traditional approaches to job security are no longer enough
Restructures, AI, and cost pressures matter. But beneath the headlines sits a deeper issue that is driving insecurity, disengagement and risk: employees’ sense of psychosocial safety.
This refers to the management of workplace factors that have the potential to cause psychological harm.
In discussion with HRD, Lifeline Narrm and Canberra CEO, Carrie Leeson, highlighted just how crucial psychosocial safety policy is in the modern workplace.
Whose responsibility is employee wellbeing?
One of the core challenges is a growing confusion about where the responsibility for wellbeing begins and ends.
Leeson noted that historically, employees were expected to leave their problems at the door, with many drawing a definitive line between personal and work lives.
However, this line has since blurred, with many encouraged to bring their whole selves to work.
The pandemic propelled this phenomenon. With the rise of working from home, where the workplace ends and home begins became increasingly blended.
What has resulted is personal struggles, mental health challenges, and complex life circumstances turning up in the workplace.
This raises big questions:
- What is the employer’s duty of care versus the individuals?
- How far should workplace policies and leaders go in supporting emotional and psychological needs?
- Where does legal and regulatory responsibility sit?
When those expectations are unclear – for both employees and leaders – it undermines people’s sense of safety, and that quickly spills into feelings of job insecurity, even when no restructure is on the table.
A two-way street
The onus isn’t on one or the other. Both the employee and employer are responsible for maintaining and nurturing psychosocial safety.
Employees have a responsibility to work on their own self-awareness, coping skills and self-compassion, said Leeson.
Many people place themselves in roles or environments that don’t suit them purely to earn money. Over time, this incompatibility affects performance, heightens scrutiny, and exacerbates insecurity.
On the other hand, organisations and leaders have legal and ethical obligations to create safe workplaces – physically and psychosocially.
This includes setting clear expectations around behaviour, workloads, and responsibilities.
It’s also crucial that leaders build cultures and systems that allow for honest conversations about mental health, stress, and performance.
HR must be equipped to respond effectively when someone says, “I’m not coping.”
Why psychosocial safety has accelerated so fast
Psychosocial safety may feel like a buzzword, but it’s a concept whose time has clearly come.
According to Leeson, several factors are at play:
- Regulatory change: Laws and WHS regulations are increasingly explicit about psychosocial risk. Mental health injuries are now being treated more like physical injuries – even if systems and forms are still catching up.
- Recognition of impact: If someone is emotionally injured, they are just as unable to perform at work as someone with a physical injury. The cost to the organisation is financial and cultural; the cost to the individual is life-altering.
- Insurance and compensation pressures: Insurers and workers’ compensation systems are being forced to engage with mental health claims more seriously, even though many processes were designed for physical injuries.
- ROI evidence: There is growing acknowledgement that when “the mind is right, the body follows.” If people are emotionally well, they’re more likely to be safe, productive and engaged – a clear return on investment.
Psychosocial safety isn’t a phase; it’s becoming as fundamental as physical safety. And like physical safety, there may come a time when people are tired of the language – but the obligation will remain.
From concept to practice: What HR can do now
For HR leaders, the question is clear: how do we translate this into practical action that improves both psychosocial safety and perceived job security?
Leeson provided some foundational steps that can be taken:
- Treat psychosocial safety like physical safety
- Train leaders to have tough, complex conversations
- Clarify the boundary – what the organisation can and cannot do
- Invest in employee capability – not just crisis response
- Tap into the resources available for support
In doing so, you won’t just be complying with emerging legislation. You’ll be building workplaces where people can genuinely stay well, perform well, and feel more secure.
