20/12/2025
If you are an employer, manager or HR read this - if you are an employee feel free to share this with people that manage:
As you review 2025: how did your workplace go with psychosocial risk?
- safety performance
- incident numbers
- workers compensation claims
- retention
- culture
In November 2024, a revised Code of Practice for Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work came into effect. From my perspective as a clinical psychologist who treats people with work related PTSD, it marked a clear shift — not in expectations that were entirely new, but in how clearly those expectations were finally articulated.
It reflected something I had already been seeing clinically for some time:
a widening gap between good intentions and what actually happens when someone is psychologically injured at work.
What I saw clinically in 2025
Earlier this year, I found myself thinking that I was seeing the height of employers doing the wrong thing.
Not deliberately.
Not through lack of care.
But through lack of understanding.
Would you believe that out of around all clients I’ve worked with this year who developed psychological injury in the workplace, only one had an employer who, in my professional opinion, managed the situation in a way that aligned with best practice.
That statistic has stayed with me.
Because it tells us something important:
Many employers are still operating without clear systems for managing psychosocial injury — despite clearer guidance now being available.
Where employers most often struggle
From a clinical perspective, problems rarely arise solely from the incident itself.
They arise afterwards.
I commonly see:
- long gaps with no contact
- rushed or poorly timed return-to-work conversations
- inconsistent messaging
- well-intended comments that unintentionally cause harm
- confusion about roles and responsibilities
These are not small issues.
They shape how safe a person feels, how quickly they recover, and whether psychological injury resolves or becomes prolonged.
A genuine review question for employers
So as you reflect on 2025, I’d invite you to ask yourself what systems have you created to manage these incidents and claims before they happen?
If the answer to these questions is “I’m not sure,” that uncertainty itself is worth paying attention to.
Because psychosocial risk is no longer something that can be managed informally or reactively.
It's time to recognise that psychological injury is shaped by workplace systems, not just individual resilience.
The revised Code didn’t change human psychology.
It clarified what employers are expected to understand — and to do — to avoid causing further harm.
For many workplaces, 2026 will be the year to move from intention to capability.
From where I sit as a psychologist, that shift matters — for workers, for leaders, and for organisations themselves.
See:
https://lnkd.in/gjYxNW-q
