Change is a normal part of running a business. 

A new roster. A new supervisor. New software. Moving premises. Restructuring a team. Changing someone’s duties. Introducing new equipment. Reducing staffing levels. Changing reporting lines. 

For a small or medium business, these decisions are often necessary to improve efficiency, respond to customers or simply keep the business moving forward. 

But workplace change can also introduce psychosocial hazards. 

This is why businesses should consider completing a simple Psychosocial Change Risk Assessment before significant workplace changes are introduced. 

Why should psychosocial risk be considered before a change? 

The NSW Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work Code of Practice specifically recognises organisational and workplace change as an important part of managing psychosocial risk. 

The Code says affected workers and their Health and Safety Representatives should be consulted as early as possible when changes are proposed to areas such as: 

• organisational restructures and the design or management of work;
• work locations;
• tasks and duties;
• working arrangements;
• new technology;
• plant and equipment;
• production processes; and
• workplace redesign.

It also identifies the need to review controls before significant organisational or workplace changes occur, including changes to organisational structure, work location, equipment, resources, employment conditions and systems of work. 

This is important because a change that appears straightforward from a business or operational perspective may affect workers very differently. 

Think beyond whether workers “like” the change 

A Psychosocial Change Risk Assessment isn’t intended to determine whether everyone agrees with a business decision. 

Its purpose is to ask: 

Could the proposed change alter the way people work in a way that creates or increases a psychosocial hazard? 

For example, imagine a business introduces a new software system. 

The software may eventually make the business more efficient. But during implementation: 

• workers may have to maintain the old and new systems simultaneously;
• workloads may temporarily increase;
• workers may be worried about making mistakes;
• some workers may not have received adequate training;
• responsibilities may become unclear;
• experienced workers may suddenly be expected to support everyone else; and
• workers may feel they have little control over how the new system is introduced.

The problem isn’t necessarily the software. 

The risk can arise from how the change is designed and implemented. 

SafeWork NSW provides a similar example involving workers experiencing uncertainty associated with restructuring and a new IT and performance-monitoring system. Its guidance emphasises consultation, role clarity, manageable workloads, support and training as potential controls. 

What psychosocial hazards could workplace change create? 

SafeWork NSW currently identifies 15 common types of psychosocial hazards. When considering a workplace change, several may be particularly relevant, including role overload, low job control, role conflict or lack of role clarity, poor support, poor organisational change consultation and poor procedural justice. Hazards can also interact or combine, increasing the overall risk. 

A manager therefore shouldn’t simply ask: 

“Have we told everyone about the change?”

They should consider: 

“How will this change affect the way our people actually do their jobs?”

That is a very different conversation. 

A simple Psychosocial Change Risk Assessment 

For most SMEs, this doesn’t need to become another complicated 20-page risk assessment. 

A short pre-change assessment, completed by the manager responsible for the change, provides a practical record that psychosocial risks have been considered. 

The assessment could ask: 

1. What is changing? 
Briefly describe the proposed change and why it is occurring. 

2. Who will be affected? 
Identify the workers, teams, supervisors, contractors or other people whose work may change. 

3. Could workload or work pressure increase? 
Consider additional duties, deadlines, staffing levels, training time and temporary increases in workload. 

4. Will workers have less control over their work? 
Consider changes to rosters, work methods, breaks, decision-making, location or flexibility. 

5. Will roles or responsibilities change? 
Could there be uncertainty about who is responsible for particular tasks or decisions? 

6. Could support or supervision decrease? 
Consider whether supervisors will have sufficient time and resources to support workers during the transition. 

7. Have affected workers been consulted? 
Record who was consulted, when consultation occurred and how workers were given an opportunity to contribute. 

8. What concerns or suggestions were raised? 
Don’t simply record “consultation completed”. Capture the issues workers actually identified. 

9. What controls will be implemented before the change? 
This might include additional staffing, revised workloads, training, clearer procedures, additional supervision, staged implementation or changes to the proposed design. 

10. When will the change be reviewed? 
Set a date to speak with workers and check whether the controls are actually working. 

Consultation is more than communication 

This distinction is particularly important. 

Sending an email saying: 

“From Monday we will be implementing a new roster.”

is communication. 

Consultation involves giving affected workers a reasonable opportunity to provide information, raise concerns and contribute to decisions about managing the health and safety risks associated with the proposed change. 

SafeWork NSW specifically identifies consultation with workers as part of identifying and controlling psychosocial hazards and says PCBUs have a duty to consult workers who may be affected by a health and safety matter. 

That doesn’t mean every business decision has to be made by committee. 

It means the people who actually perform the work can often identify consequences that aren’t obvious to the person designing the change. 

An SME example – introducing a new roster 

Consider a registered club introducing a new roster to reduce labour costs. 

The proposed roster may make financial sense, but completing the Psychosocial Change Risk Assessment might identify that: 

• fewer experienced employees will be working during busy periods;
• supervisors will have responsibility for larger teams;
• some employees will lose predictability in their working hours;
• workers may have less opportunity to take breaks;
• customer aggression is more difficult to manage with fewer experienced staff available; and
• the duty manager may become the escalation point for significantly more incidents.

The answer isn’t necessarily to abandon the new roster. 

Instead, the assessment allows management to consider controls before implementation. 

For example, the club could adjust staffing during peak periods, ensure an experienced supervisor is always available, provide rosters further in advance, establish an escalation process and review the new roster with workers after four weeks. 

SafeWork NSW’s guidance itself uses examples involving adequate staffing during peak periods, experienced workers on shifts and releasing rosters ahead of time when discussing psychosocial risk controls. 

Another example – introducing new software

A 20-person business decides to introduce a new job management system. 

Rather than simply purchasing the software, providing one training session, and setting a go-live date, the Psychosocial Change Risk Assessment identifies that employees will need to use two systems temporarily. 

Management recognises this could increase workload and uncertainty. 

Controls might therefore include: 

• reducing other administrative requirements during implementation;
• providing practical training before go-live;
• nominating an internal system champion;
• allowing additional time to complete tasks;
• providing clear instructions about responsibilities;
• establishing a process for workers to report problems; and
• reviewing workloads two and six weeks after implementation.

The business still implements the technology. 

It simply manages the people risks associated with the change. 

Don’t forget to review the change 

One of the most useful questions on the assessment may be: 

“When will we review this?”

A risk assessment completed before implementation is based partly on what management expects will happen. 

Once the change is operating, the business can determine what is actually happening. 

SafeWork NSW states that control measures should be maintained and reviewed to ensure they remain effective, and that workplace changes that could create new risks should be reviewed. 

The review can be simple: 

What is working? 
What isn’t working? 
Has workload changed? 
Are responsibilities clear? 
Do workers have enough support? 
Have any new hazards appeared? 
Do we need to change any controls? 

Record the discussion and any actions that result. 

Making this practical for SMEs 

Psychosocial risk management doesn’t always require another large policy. 

Sometimes the most effective approach is to incorporate psychosocial considerations into decisions the business is already making. 

A Psychosocial Change Risk Assessment could become a simple trigger whenever a business proposes a significant change involving people or how work is performed. 

For example: 

• New roster → complete the assessment.
• New software → complete the assessment.
• Restructure → complete the assessment.
• New supervisor or reporting structure → complete the assessment.
• Relocation → complete the assessment.
• Significant change in duties → complete the assessment.
• New production process or equipment → complete the assessment.

For a small business, that creates a straightforward rule: 

Before we significantly change how people work, we consider how the change could affect their health and safety. 

The completed assessment also provides evidence that the business identified potential hazards, consulted affected workers, considered controls and planned to review whether those controls were effective. 

Good change management is also good risk management 

Businesses will always need to change. 

The objective of psychosocial risk management isn’t to prevent change or make management afraid to make decisions. 

It is to recognise that how change is planned, communicated, consulted on, implemented and reviewed can affect workers’ psychological and physical health and safety. 

A five or ten-minute assessment before implementing a relatively simple change may identify an issue that would otherwise become a much larger problem several weeks later. 

For SMEs, that’s exactly what good WHS management should look like: 

identify the risk early, talk to the people doing the work, put sensible controls in place and check that they are working. 

References 

SafeWork NSW, Code of Practice: Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work. 

SafeWork NSW, Psychosocial Hazards. 

SafeWork NSW, Designing Work to Manage Psychosocial Risks. 

I think this would work particularly well as part of the CIRT Psychosocial Risk Register rather than as a standalone “HR form”. A manager could select New Psychosocial Change Risk Assessment, answer the 10 questions, record consultation and controls, nominate responsible people, and set a review date. That would create a very practical evidence trail from proposed change → consultation → risk assessment → controls → review. 

#CHDPartners #CIRT #RTO #WHS #WorkHealthAndSafety #Training #RiskManagement #SecurityAndSafetyCompliance #SME #SmallBusiness #MichaelHuggett #PsychosocialHazard