By Sophie Fahey, People & Culture Manager, Pay Cat. Updated October 2026.
When people hear "psychosocial hazards", they may imagine micromanagers, overflowing inboxes and lengthy meetings.
In the care sector, the picture looks a little different. A participant who becomes aggressive during personal care. A coordinator juggling a dozen cancellations before 7am while families call to complain. A worker who supports someone through the end of their life, then drives straight to the next shift.
These are real scenarios, and they happen all the time. That's why managing psychological risk is one of the most important things a care provider can do, both for your people and for the people you support.
A psychosocial hazard is anything in the design, management or environment of work that can cause psychological harm. That includes job demands, low job control, poor support, lack of role clarity, poor organisational justice, traumatic events, violence and aggression, bullying, harassment and poor workplace relationships. These hazards can lead to psychological or physical harm, such as stress, anxiety, burnout or trauma. Source: Safe Work Australia, psychosocial hazards.
Managing psychosocial hazards is a legal duty. Queensland's Managing the risk of psychosocial hazards at work Code of Practice has applied since 1 April 2023. In New South Wales, from 1 July 2026, employers must follow the Code of Practice for managing psychosocial hazards at work, or manage the risks to an equal or higher standard. Other states and territories have their own psychosocial duties under their WHS laws.
You might be thinking, "We already invested in an EAP. What more do they expect?" But an Employee Assistance Program, no matter how good, is not a risk management plan.
| Hazard | How it often shows up in care |
| Aggression and violence | Verbal abuse, hitting, spitting or threats from participants or family members |
| Remote or isolated work | Working alone in homes or the community, often after hours, with limited backup |
| Traumatic events | Deaths, serious incidents, disclosures of abuse, medical emergencies |
| High emotional demands | Supporting people with complex needs, distress or grief, shift after shift |
| Poor support | Supervisors who are hard to reach, and no debrief after hard shifts |
| Low job control | Last-minute roster changes and little say in how work is done |
| Poor role clarity | Not knowing what to do when a situation falls outside the care plan |
| Harassment | Including sexual harassment from participants, families or colleagues |
| Poor workplace relationships | Conflict within dispersed teams that rarely see each other |
| Poor change management | Funding, system or structural changes pushed through without explanation |
Source: Safe Work Australia, Psychological health and safety in the workplace, February 2024.
Burnout is a productivity and financial risk.
No employees, no business. When workers are psychologically unsafe, the quality of care drops and the risk to participants rises.
Psychosocial harm directly affects participant outcomes, service reliability and your organisation's reputation. Your people are your business, and their safety is your priority.
Work through four steps. Safe Work Australia sets out the same approach in its guide to identifying, assessing, controlling and reviewing psychosocial risks.
Ask your employees, through anonymous surveys, team meetings, incident reports and exit interviews (but please ask before the exit interview). Look for patterns: particular participants, sites, shift times or teams.
For each hazard you identify, consider how often it happens, how severe the harm could be, and how many employees are exposed.
Work from the most effective controls down:
Check whether the changes you made are actually working. Are incidents reducing? Do workers feel safer?
The most common mistake I see is treating psychological safety as an individual resilience problem: offering a wellbeing webinar and an EAP number, and assuming that's enough.
Don't get me wrong, resilience matters, and building resilience capacity is a great starting place. But you can't train someone to be resilient enough to cope with a system that keeps exposing them to harm.
The question to ask is not "How do we help people cope?" but "How do we design the work so they are exposed to less harm in the first place?"
Your team leaders and coordinators are often the single biggest factor in whether psychological risk is managed well. They're the ones building the rosters, answering calls at 9pm, noticing when someone is struggling, and deciding whether a debrief happens. Investing in their capability, and making sure they aren't overloaded themselves, is one of the most effective controls you have.
Giving them time back helps too. When payroll runs on a SCHADS Award template that interprets every shift automatically, coordinators spend less time checking pay and more time with their teams. Book a Pay Cat demo to see how.
Pay Cat are payroll specialists for SCHADS and community services employers. Pay Cat Payroll runs on our SCHADS Award template, which interprets the award automatically, and Pay Cat Toolbox adds the reports payroll teams usually build by hand.
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Pay Cat has changed our lives. I can sleep now.
Natalie, NDIS Provider
Not on Pay Cat Payroll yet? It runs on our SCHADS Award template, which interprets the award automatically, so your team stops checking every shift by hand.
Disclaimer: This article is general information only and does not constitute legal or professional advice. WHS requirements vary between states and territories. Consider your specific circumstances and seek advice where needed.