Injury prevention
Psychosocial Risk Management & APHIRM
Build a Safer, Healthier Workplace by Managing Psychosocial Risk
What Is a Psychosocial Hazard?
A psychosocial hazard is anything in the design or management of work, the work environment or workplace interactions that has the potential to cause psychological or physical harm.
Psychosocial risk is the likelihood that exposure to these hazards will negatively affect a worker’s health and wellbeing.
Safe Work Australia identifies four key areas where psychosocial hazards can arise:
Work Design & Management: High job demands, low job control, poor change management and unclear roles.
Work Environment: Remote or isolated work, challenging physical environments and exposure to traumatic events.
Equipment & Tasks: The tools, machinery and systems workers rely on to perform their roles.
Workplace Interactions: Poor support, workplace conflict, bullying, violence or sexual harassment.
PSYCHOSOCIAL FACTORS AT WORK
Psychosocial Risk Can Impact More Than Mental Health
Psychosocial hazards can arise from how work is designed, managed and experienced including high job demands, low job control, poor support, unclear roles, workplace conflict and organisational change.
THE COST OF INACTION
Invisible Risks Can Create Very Visible Costs
Psychological injury can significantly increase the complexity, duration and cost of workplace claims. Managing psychosocial risk proactively can help reduce injury complexity, support earlier intervention and create a healthier workplace culture.
303 DAYS
Average time away from work for physical injuries with a secondary psychological component.
5× HIGHER
Cost of physical claims that develop a secondary psychological component.
6.2× FASTER
Growth of psychological and secondary psychological claims compared with other injury types.
35.7 WEEKS LOST
Median time lost for mental health condition serious claims; almost five times longer than other serious claims.
WHAT WE HELP YOU DO
Turn Psychosocial Risk Into Practical Action
Turn Psychosocial Risk Into Practical Action
Employ Health helps organisations understand psychosocial risk, identify where it is showing up and build stronger systems to manage it over time.
Gain Visibility Into Risk
Build a clearer picture of psychosocial risk using workforce data, validated assessment tools and organisational indicators.
Understand What’s Driving It
Identify the underlying job demands, work design factors and workplace conditions contributing to risk.
Engage Your Workforce
Involve workers directly to uncover practical insights and ensure proposed controls reflect how work is actually performed.
Strengthen Prevention
Shift from reactive responses toward better job design, stronger systems and earlier intervention.
HOW THE PROCESS WORKS
The APHIRM Process With Employ Health
Getting Started + Understand
Establish the project team, engage leadership and define the workforce groups being assessed.
Hazard + Risk Survey
Survey workers to establish the organisation’s psychosocial and physical risk profile.
Consult + Survey Feedback
Develop a prioritised action plan with controls, responsibilities and measurable next steps.
Action Plan
This replaces the more detailed APHIRM process + general risk framework + consultation sections.
The Employ Health Difference
Employ Health combines physical and psychosocial risk expertise with a participative approach, helping organisations move beyond assessment to identify root causes, develop practical controls and create a clear pathway for improvement.
With Employ Health, you can:
- Understand the interaction between psychosocial and physical workplace risks
- Engage workers directly to uncover underlying causes
- Translate assessment findings into practical workplace controls
- Develop prioritised action plans with clear responsibilities
- Monitor progress and support measurable improvements
Contact us
Ready to Better Understand Your Psychosocial Risk?
Whether you are responding to new psychosocial WHS requirements, experiencing increasing claims or simply want a clearer picture of workforce risk, Employ Health can help you identify priorities and build a practical path forward.
Talk to our team about psychosocial risk assessment and APHIRM.
Frequently Asked Questions
How are psychosocial hazards related to MSK injuries?
Psychological and physical job demands compound each other. Occupational stress, interrupted sleep and fatigue lead people to take shortcuts, make more errors and become more fatigued, which increases the risk of musculoskeletal injury. Physical demands also raise that risk on their own.
How much does the risk increase?
According to Cantley et al. (2016), high psychosocial job demands increase the risk of serious MSK injury (LTI, MTI or WRI) by 49%.
What is APHIRM?
APHIRM is an evidence-based participative risk management framework that helps organisations identify psychosocial and physical hazards, understand their causes and develop practical solutions with employees.
It stands out for three reasons:
- It assesses psychosocial hazards and physical or musculoskeletal hazards at the same time.
- It is participative: it engages workers directly to identify risks and design practical solutions.
- It maps how psychological stress and physical strain compound one another.
How is APHIRM different from an employee wellbeing survey?
APHIRM goes beyond measuring employee perceptions. It incorporates hazard identification, worker consultation and action planning to support practical workplace risk controls.
Can psychosocial hazards contribute to physical injuries?
Yes. High psychosocial demands can contribute to stress, fatigue and reduced recovery. When combined with physical demands, this can increase musculoskeletal injury risk.
Why do organisations need to address this?
Because there is a legal duty. The PCBU (the person conducting a business or undertaking) must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health (physical and psychological) and safety of workers. Officers must understand the nature of the business’s operations and the hazards and risks associated with them.
Using WorkSafe QLD data:
- Cost: a physical claim that develops a secondary psychological component costs about 5x more than a standard physical claim (in excess of $130k). A standard psychological claim costs $67k, about 4x a standard physical claim ($16k).
- Time lost: an average of 303 days off work for physical injuries with secondary psychological claims, versus 38 to 43 days (national average).
- Trend: psychological claims and secondary psychological claims are growing 6.2x faster than all other injury types combined.
How does safety culture affect this?
A workplace without a positive, proactive safety culture creates an environment where early symptoms of MSDs are ignored until they become severe, compensable tissue damage.
The benefits of addressing psychosocial risk are:
- Fewer secondary psychological injuries
- A lower rate of MSDs
- Faster return to work
- Lower workers’ compensation costs
- Better engagement and productivity
Which interventions have the greatest impact?
Preventative ones. From greater to lower impact: psychological safety climate, protective system and job design, manager capability and organisational resilience. Next come early intervention (health and wellbeing programs) and reactive measures (return-to-work processes and EAP services).