In today's fast-paced work environments, prioritizing the health, safety, and wellbeing of our workforce isn't just important—it's essential. Supporting workers in this manner starts by understanding what may be contributing to physical or psychological harm. Performing risk assessments brings to light the level of risk associated with potential hazards at the organizational and job level. This blog post explores how job-level risk assessments benefit not just workers but entire workplaces. As you continue to read on, you will learn about Radius - a tool from PSHSA for performing job-level psychosocial risk assessments.
What Are Job-Level Risk Assessments?
While organizational-level risk assessments provide a broad overview of workplace hazards, job-level risk assessments offer a more detailed analysis of a job by focusing on the unique risks faced by workers in a given role. For example, the risks for an Emergency Room Nurse are different from that of a Front Desk Clerk, a Communications Officer, or a Secondary School Teacher. Job-level risk assessments are designed to identify risk and related solutions to reduce harm associated with specific job roles. Job-level risk assessments explore tasks, responsibilities, and the work environment of each job in a workplace. By doing so unique and critical hazards are identified which might otherwise be overlooked.
PSHSA has developed a job-level risk assessment called Radius. Try Radius today for investing in psychological health and safety in through psychological hazard prevention. Visit pshsa.ca/radius.
How Can Job-Level Risk Assessments Help Workers?
Job-level risk assessments involve direct input from workers who perform the job. These assessments encourage workers to speak up and provide feedback. When workers notice their tasks and responsibilities are assessed for potential risks and they are included in the process of evaluation, they can feel valued and empowered. This may lead to increased job satisfaction and morale to foster a strong safety culture, as workers are more likely to:
- Trust that their health, safety and wellbeing is a priority for the organization
- Engage actively in initiatives and contribute to a safer work environment
- Encourage co-workers to be more vigilant and proactive about their own safety
When these assessments focus on job factors across psychosocial domains such as job demands, job control, and job support, they can significantly impact worker mental health and wellbeing. The reason for this is that job-level risk assessments identify practical and relevant strategies to address sources of psychological harm during a typical workday. Workers can take the first step today by participating in the risk assessment process and advocating for comprehensive support.
How Can Job-level Risk Assessments Help Workplaces?
Job-level risk assessments allow for more targeted identification and mitigation of risks, ensuring controls and interventions implemented by workplaces are tailored to the unique needs and conditions of each job role. Insight from workers can significantly enhance action planning to reduce psychological harm. Workplaces can benefit financially from these assessments through cost savings, including reduced:
- Absences (sick time, short or long-term disability)
- Turnover rates
- Workers’ compensation claims (physical or psychological)
What’s more is that a strong commitment to job-level health, safety, and wellbeing not only enhances a workplace's reputation but also ensures compliance with legal standards, helping avoid legal fees and fines. In short, workplaces can benefit from performing job-level risk assessments in more ways than one.
Start prioritizing job-level risk assessments today to enhance safety, boost morale, and ensure compliance. As promised, here is the job-level risk assessment tool for a job-level psychosocial risk assessment; it’s called Radius.
How Can You Seek Further Support?
PSHSA is committed to helping workplaces build a strong foundation to support worker wellbeing. To access a risk assessment for reducing psychological harm at the job level, check out Radius at pshsa.ca/radius.
Contact your Workplace Wellbeing Consultant to learn more at pshsa.ca/find-a-consultant.
