Start with the law where work happens.

Legal framework

Under the model WHS approach, a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) must eliminate psychosocial risks so far as is reasonably practicable, or minimise them where elimination is not reasonably practicable. The WHS Regulations include specific psychosocial risk-management requirements. Codes of practice can be relevant evidence of expected practice, but their approval and legal effect must be checked in the applicable jurisdiction.

What employers should do

• Identify reasonably foreseeable psychosocial hazards in work design, systems, interactions and the work environment.
• Assess risks where needed, considering exposure duration, frequency and severity, how hazards combine, and the design and management of work.
• Select controls that address causes in work design and systems; provide suitable information, training, instruction and supervision.
• Monitor whether controls work and revise them when the applicable review triggers are met.

Worker consultation

Consult workers who are, or are likely to be, directly affected while identifying hazards, assessing risks, choosing controls and reviewing them. Use existing health and safety representatives and committees where applicable. Consultation should give workers a genuine opportunity to raise how work is experienced.

Training and systems

Build training into a broader risk-management system. Match information and instruction to roles, hazards and controls; support managers to respond and escalate concerns; and ensure workers know how to participate and raise issues. The cited model sources do not prescribe one universal psychological-safety course or a fixed number of annual training hours for every employer.

Review and audit

The model WHS approach requires control measures to be reviewed and, if necessary, revised to keep the workplace without risks so far as is reasonably practicable. Review is ongoing and can be required by matters such as ineffective controls, relevant consultation outcomes, changes in circumstances or a health and safety representative request. This is not the same as a blanket legal requirement for an annual independent audit.

Board oversight and recommended governance

Directors and officers should understand the applicable duty-holder structure, ask how psychosocial hazards are identified and controlled, test whether worker consultation reaches decision-makers, and receive evidence on actions, control effectiveness and emerging risks. Confirm officer duties and regulator expectations under the law that applies to each operation.

Legal framework

A person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) has the primary duty to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers and other people affected by the work. HSWA also places due-diligence duties on officers. Work-related mental health is part of health; psychosocial hazards should be managed through the same practical risk-management approach as other work risks.

What employers should do

• Identify psychosocial hazards arising from how work is designed, organised, managed and experienced.
• Eliminate risks where reasonably practicable; otherwise minimise them so far as reasonably practicable.
• Put workable controls in place, support workers and managers to use them, and check whether the controls reduce exposure.
• Review controls when they are not effective, risks or work change, or worker engagement and other information show a review is needed.

Worker consultation

Engage with workers and their representatives when making decisions about health and safety. WorkSafe’s psychosocial risk guidance treats worker participation as part of identifying hazards, selecting controls and checking whether those controls work.

Training and systems

Provide workers with the information, training, instruction and supervision needed for their work and the risks they may face. Include role-specific manager capability, clear reporting pathways and support for worker participation. The cited sources do not set one universal annual psychosocial-training course for every workplace.

Review and audit

HSWA requires risks to be managed on an ongoing basis; WorkSafe guidance describes monitoring and reviewing controls rather than relying on a one-off assessment. An annual governance review can support assurance, but the cited sources do not create a universal annual psychosocial-audit requirement. Review sooner when controls, work, risk information or worker feedback indicate a need.

Board oversight and recommended governance

Officers should exercise due diligence by understanding the organisation’s health and safety risks, ensuring appropriate resources and processes exist, and checking that those processes are used. Board reporting should show worker engagement, control implementation, unresolved risks and how effectiveness is tested—not only training completion or survey scores.

Legal framework

Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 requires employers to ensure employees’ health, safety and welfare so far as reasonably practicable. Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires a suitable and sufficient risk assessment. HSE confirms this includes work-related stress and action to address it. HSE’s Management Standards are guidance, not a separately mandatory certification scheme.

What employers should do

• Assess work-related stress risks and act on the findings; include work design and organisational causes, not just individual coping.
• With five or more employees, record significant assessment findings and groups especially at risk (reg.3(6)); the assessment duty also applies below that threshold.
• Use HSE’s six work-design areas as a recommended aid: demands, control, support, relationships, role and change.

Worker consultation

Consult employees or their representatives in good time on health and safety measures, risk information and training arrangements. Recognised-union appointed safety representatives fall under the 1977 Regulations; for employees not represented through those arrangements, the 1996 Regulations provide for direct consultation or elected representatives. Both sets can apply in one workplace. HSE’s cited consultation leaflet concerns onshore workplaces.

Training and systems

Regulation 13 requires adequate health and safety training on recruitment and exposure to new or increased risks, including relevant role, technology or work-system changes. Repeat periodically where appropriate, adapt to changed risks, and provide it during working hours. Role-specific stress prevention and manager response training is a recommended way to support the system; these sources do not prescribe one annual psychological-safety course.

Review and audit

Legal duty: review the assessment when there is reason to suspect it is no longer valid or a significant relevant change occurs (reg.3(3)), and amend it as required. HSE guidance recommends monitoring action delivery and asking employees whether solutions work; do not wait for a scheduled review if they fail. An annual independent psychosocial audit is not a blanket requirement in these sources.

Board oversight and recommended governance

Recommended governance, distinct from the employer duties above: assign an accountable executive, resource changes to work design, and track consultation, overdue actions and evidence of effectiveness. An annual board assurance review can help, but should not delay legally triggered reassessment or be described as a statutory audit.

Legal framework

Articles L4121-1 and L4121-2 require measures to protect workers’ physical and mental health: prevention, information, training, adapted organisation and resources, with collective protection prioritised. L4121-3 and L4121-3-1 require risk assessment and recording in the document unique d’évaluation des risques professionnels (DUERP). Psychosocial risks belong in this occupational-risk process, not in a separate universal audit certificate.

What employers should do

• Assess psychosocial risks by work unit and record them in the DUERP; address causes in work organisation and relationships.
• For 50 or more employees, translate the assessment into an annual prevention programme (PAPRIPACT), with measures, resources, indicators, costs and timetable (L4121-3-1).
• Below 50 employees, define prevention and protection actions and record the list in the DUERP and its updates; smaller size does not remove prevention duties.

Worker consultation

Under L4121-3, the social and economic committee (CSE) and its health, safety and working conditions commission, if they exist, contribute to assessment; the CSE must be consulted on the DUERP and its updates. The designated prevention staff and the occupational prevention and health service also contribute. Recommended practice: involve workers in examining real work situations rather than relying only on a survey.

Training and systems

L4121-1 includes information and training in prevention measures. L4141-2 requires practical, appropriate safety training for recruits, workers changing jobs or techniques, temporary employees subject to its exception, and certain returning workers at the occupational physician’s request; repetition follows regulatory or collective-agreement rules. Adapt psychosocial-risk content to work and roles; no single annual course is prescribed by these provisions.

Review and audit

R4121-2 requires a DUERP update at least annually for enterprises with at least 11 employees. At every size, update for major changes affecting health, safety or working conditions, or additional information relevant to a risk assessment; update the prevention programme or action list if necessary. These are document and prevention duties, not a universal annual independent psychosocial-audit requirement.

Board oversight and recommended governance

Recommended governance, not an additional statutory board-audit duty: ensure the DUERP leads to funded work-design improvements, check CSE consultation, and monitor the applicable annual programme or action list. Independent assurance can test implementation but does not replace employer duties, consultation or legally required DUERP updates.

Legal framework

OSH Act section 5 requires covered employers to address recognized hazards causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm and comply with applicable standards. OSHA currently lists no specific federal workplace-violence standard; its prevention guidance is not itself a training statute. California Labor Code 6401.9 separately requires a workplace violence prevention plan and training for covered workplaces. Government Code 12950.1 creates a separate sexual-harassment training duty.

What employers should do

• Legal scoping: check applicable federal, state-plan, sector and state/local requirements before setting a training schedule.
• California 6401.9: covered employers must identify plan owners, address hazards, maintain an incident log and provide effective training. Check exemptions, including specified remote work and qualifying non-public workplaces with fewer than 10 workers present; healthcare has separate rules.
• OSHA guidance recommends site-specific violence prevention, engineering and organisational controls and response training. General psychological-safety learning is recommended support, not a substitute for those controls.

Worker consultation

California 6401.9 requires active involvement of employees and authorised representatives in developing, implementing and reviewing the plan, including training design and hazard correction. Do not extrapolate this state duty to every US employer. Elsewhere, check local participation and reporting requirements.

Training and systems

California 6401.9(e): initial training when the plan is established, annually thereafter, and additional training for new/unrecognised hazards or plan changes; use accessible language and interactive questions with a knowledgeable person. California 12950.1: employers with 5 or more employees must provide California supervisors at least 2 hours and nonsupervisory employees at least 1 hour of effective interactive sexual-harassment training every 2 years; generally within 6 months of hire or taking a supervisory role. Seasonal/temporary employees have special deadlines. These are topic-specific duties, not a nationwide annual psychological-safety course or a requirement to buy our courses.

Review and audit

California 6401.9(c)(2)(L): review the plan at least annually, when a deficiency appears and after a violence incident. This is not a universal independent psychosocial audit. Other jurisdictions and sectors require their own checks; optional refreshers and board assurance should follow risk and evidence, not an invented national interval.

Board oversight and recommended governance

Recommended governance: have executives map state and sector duties, fund controls, monitor training and investigate failures. These sources do not impose one psychological-safety course or annual independent audit on every board member.

Local responsibilities and recommendations: Boards

Recommended oversight: ask which state and sector laws apply, who owns implementation and whether controls work. Board membership alone does not establish a training duty under the cited California employee rules.

Local responsibilities and recommendations: Executives

The covered employer is accountable. Recommended executive action: assign plan owners and budgets and verify scope, training access and records; taking a course does not discharge employer duties.

Local responsibilities and recommendations: Managers

California supervisors covered by 12950.1 need the supervisory training, not the shorter employee version. Plan owners need knowledge of the local violence plan. Recommended practice elsewhere: learn safe response, escalation and non-retaliation.

Local responsibilities and recommendations: Workers

Covered California employees receive the applicable violence and harassment training. Recommended foundation practice: understand reporting, emergency response and respectful conduct; check local duties rather than assuming California rules apply.

Legal framework

The federal Work Place Harassment and Violence Prevention Regulations, SOR/2020-130, require joint risk assessment, preventive measures, policy, emergency procedures and workplace-specific training (sections 5–12). Section 14 requires a designated recipient for reports. These are enforceable federal duties, not a nationwide requirement to take a branded psychological-safety course.

What employers should do

• Federal duty: jointly assess harassment and violence risk factors with the applicable partner and implement preventive measures (sections 5, 8 and 9).
• Federal duty: jointly develop a prevention policy and emergency procedures, make them available, and designate a person or work unit to receive reports (sections 10, 11 and 14).
• Federal duty: provide workplace-specific training addressing the policy, prohibited discrimination grounds and recognition, prevention and response. Broader psychological-safety programmes are optional support, not proof of compliance.

Worker consultation

The applicable partner is the policy committee or, if none, the workplace committee or health and safety representative (section 1(2)). Jointly develop or identify training and review it with that partner (section 12). Do not substitute an informal survey for the statutory joint process.

Training and systems

Federal section 12: employees must be trained within 3 months of starting, at least every 3 years thereafter, after training updates and on assignment to a new activity or role with increased or specific harassment/violence risk. The designated recipient must be trained before assuming duties and at least every 3 years thereafter. The employer must also undergo training at least every 3 years, following the initial transitional deadline. Training must fit the workplace’s culture, conditions and activities; no particular commercial course is prescribed. Provincial/territorial rules may differ.

Review and audit

Federal sections 5, 10 and 12 require assessment, policy and training reviews on their respective 3-year schedules, with earlier monitoring/update triggers: changed risk factors or ineffective measures, policy/training changes and specified occurrence circumstances under section 6. Section 11 requires emergency-procedure review after implementation. These are not a universal annual independent psychosocial audit; do not apply the federal interval to provincial workplaces.

Board oversight and recommended governance

Recommended governance: verify which jurisdiction covers each operation and that the employer, committees and designated recipient have resources and suitable competence. Optional annual assurance can test implementation but cannot replace federal training, joint review or earlier update triggers.

Local responsibilities and recommendations: Boards

Recommended oversight: confirm federal versus provincial coverage and evidence of prevention and training. These sources do not make all directors complete one course solely because they sit on a board.

Local responsibilities and recommendations: Executives

The federal employer retains accountability and must undergo the section 12 training. Recommended executive action: resource the applicable partner, qualified prevention work and designated recipient; do not shift accountability to a course provider.

Local responsibilities and recommendations: Managers

Managers who are employees follow the federal employee schedule; an increased-risk new role can trigger further training. A manager acting as designated recipient needs training before assuming those duties and at least every 3 years thereafter.

Local responsibilities and recommendations: Workers

Federally covered employees need the section 12 training within 3 months and at least every 3 years, plus the update/new-risk triggers. Learn local reporting and prevention procedures; provincial employees need their own jurisdiction checked.

Legal framework

WSH Act section 12 requires employers, so far as reasonably practicable, to ensure employees’ safety and health. Section 12(3)(e) includes adequate instruction, information, training and supervision necessary for the work. The WSH (Risk Management) Regulations impose risk assessment, control, communication and review duties. The MOM/SNEF/NTUC mental-health advisory recommends practical measures; it does not itself prescribe a universal annual psychological-safety course.

What employers should do

• Legal duty: assess work risks and eliminate or control them under the Risk Management Regulations; training alone is not risk elimination.
• Legal duty: provide necessary instruction, information, training and supervision and communicate risks and controls to exposed people (Act section 12; regulations 3, 4 and 6).
• Advisory recommendation: examine work stressors, improve workloads and support, train managers to recognise distress and refer to professional help, and consider mental well-being champions. These recommendations are not a mandatory course catalogue.

Worker consultation

Regulation 6 requires information on risks and controls for exposed people. The tripartite advisory recommends employee surveys, focus groups and open conversations; these are recommended engagement methods, not a universal statutory psychosocial consultation procedure. Check additional sector-specific participation requirements.

Training and systems

Legal duty: adequate work-specific training and supervision under section 12(3)(e); check any sector or task-specific rules separately. Advisory practice: train managers, HR, WSH representatives and union leaders to recognise distress and refer people for help, and train peer supporters if used. No fixed annual refresher or named psychological-safety course is mandated by these cited general provisions.

Review and audit

Risk Management regulation 7 requires risk-assessment review and revision if necessary at least every 3 years, and review and revision after bodily injury due to a workplace hazard or significant change in work practices/procedures. The advisory recommends regular mental well-being monitoring without fixing an annual independent audit. Optional refreshers and assurance should respond to risk, not replace statutory reviews.

Board oversight and recommended governance

Recommended governance: ensure management funds risk controls, necessary instruction and safe referral systems. Mental well-being champions and annual assurance are optional practices in this overview, not substitutes for duty holders’ legal responsibilities or a universal statutory board-audit duty.

Local responsibilities and recommendations: Boards

Recommended oversight: ask for evidence that duty holders manage work risks and resource necessary instruction. The cited provisions do not mandate one psychological-safety course for every board member.

Local responsibilities and recommendations: Executives

The employer is accountable for section 12 duties. Recommended executive action: assign competent implementation owners, fund work-design controls and check effectiveness; a champion does not replace the employer.

Local responsibilities and recommendations: Managers

Provide the instruction and supervision necessary for work. The advisory recommends learning to recognise distress, respond sensitively, review workloads and refer for help; it does not qualify managers to diagnose or treat mental illness.

Local responsibilities and recommendations: Workers

Receive work-specific instruction and follow applicable safety procedures. Section 15 requires persons at work to cooperate with relevant duty holders and not misuse protective provisions. Peer-support training is an advisory option, not a general statutory course.