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 …

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Dr Kat Page’s Good Work Book Is A Blueprint for Preventing Harm

LinkedIn is an enormously inhumane software, but it does have some positive uses. One of them is being invited to meet people who might find you interesting or admire your work. Earlier this year, I jumped at the chance to have coffee with Dr Kat Page, who lived only a few suburbs away, as an …

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Why Leadership Empathy Is Not Enough to Prevent Psychosocial Harm

In 2000, Graeme Cowan‘s world collapsed after the “dot-com crash“, leading to an attempt to end his own life. His new book, “Great Leaders Care: Developing Safe, Resilient and Successful Teams“, is an analysis of the consequences of those times and the tools he discovered to stabilise his mental health. There are two clues to …

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The American Approach to Psychological Safety

Harvard Business Review (HBR) is an active publisher of articles on business management. In 2024, it released a collection of essays on psychological safety as part of its Emotional Intelligence series. HBR’s psychological safety advice is written for a U.S. corporate audience. It largely ignores the legislative duties that shape psychosocial risk management in Australia, …

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Workism: Australia’s Most Socially Acceptable Form of Self‑Harm

Safe Work Australia states that : “A psychosocial hazard is anything that could cause psychological harm (e.g. harm someone’s mental health).” Preventing these hazards is most effective and sustainable through redesigning work, but this approach should not deny that personal decisions can also be hazardous. In the broader social and occupational contexts, it is worth …

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Why Corporations Reject the Models That Would Prevent Harm

Walk through any corporate sustainability report and you’ll find the same familiar choreography: a glossy declaration of “unwavering commitment to safety,” a handful of photos featuring smiling workers in immaculate PPE, and a CEO foreword that reads like it was written by a risk‑averse committee. What you won’t find is any serious engagement with the …

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Culture is the New Compliance in Victoria’s Psychological Health Code

The most significant challenges for employers in Victoria’s new OHS (Psychological Health) Regulations, supported by a new Compliance Code, are likely to be fostering a strong workplace safety culture. ​ Occupational health and safety (OHS) advocates have been emphasising the importance of culture for several decades now (Sociologists examined it decades before). It appears that …

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