human resources – SafetyAtWorkBlog

Why does the Human Resources profession struggle with preventing psychological and psychosocial harm?

I am not immune to the worries and potential of using Artificial intelligence (AI) tools in my occupational health and safety (OHS) work and writings. As with millions of others, my relationship is a work in progress.

I have long used the transcription software Otter.ai to transcribe short interviews. It remains less accurate than human transcription, but it remains useful. One of its new AI tools is that it can analyse all of the conversations recorded through Otter.ai or uploaded to it for transcribing. I have years of recordings at OHS conferences, seminars, webinars, and interviews, so I asked this question:

“Why does the Human Resources profession struggle with preventing psychological and psychosocial harm?”

This was its response:

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Significant workplace culture investigation but OHS missed again

Australia’s news media is reporting a shocking report about the workplace culture of parts of the Nine Entertainment organisation – bullying, sexual harassment, abuse of power – all the elements of organisational culture that can be found in any company if one scratches the surface. Scratching is one of the aims of the occupational health and safety (OHS) discipline – investigating the causes of harm at the source.

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Positive duties everywhere

One area where human resources (HR) and occupational health and safety (OHS) do not overlap in practice is diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), but they should. OHS cannot operate without effective consultation, and part of that effectiveness comes from a diversity of information, respectful conversations, and the inclusion of sometimes uncomfortable perspectives or truths.

Recently, the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission (VEOHRC) published a guideline on race discrimination in the workplace, which illustrated the need for HR and OHS to begin talking (and listening to) the same language.

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HR is “evolving” but slowly

Human Resources (HR) is on a slow journey to fully understand the efforts and strategies for preventing workplace psychosocial hazards. This article from Phoebe Armstrong in HRMonthly is a good example. It will nudge HR readers in the right direction. Still, the article has many curiosities and a reticence to fully accept the legislative occupational health and safety (OHS) approach.

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The Human Resources changes required for mentally safe workplaces.

In a recent LinkedIn discussion Professor Johanna Macneil asked me how the Human Resources (HR) discipline should change to meet the “new” occupational health and safety (OHS) duties about psychosocial hazards. Below is my response:

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Digitalisation, Artificial Intelligence, OHS and Work

What do Safe Work Australia (SWA) executives do outside National Safe Work Month? Several times each year, they appear before Senate committees. Recently, SWA’s CEO Marie Boland, Sinead McHugh, and Katherine Taylor spoke at a Senate Inquiry into the Digital Transformation of Workplaces.

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Psychological health and safety book seems dated

There is a new book about psychological safety for organisations. Many have been published over the last twenty years, but the climate, at least, in Australia has changed. Psychological safety is now part of a broader and more inclusive concept – Psychosocial Safety – but many psychologists have not yet caught up, or are in denial or are too embedded in their established services to be able to or willing to change.

Any new book on psychological safety in workplaces needs to be contemporary and reflect these changes. Gina Battye‘s “The Authentic Organisation—How to Create a Psychologically Safe Workplace” is not quite there.

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