What is ISO 45003 and Why is it a Game Changer for Mental Health in the Workplace?
All you need to know about the world’s first international standard for mental wellbeing at work.
In June 2021 the world’s first international standard for mental wellbeing at work was published — ISO 45003. Its official title is ISO 45003:2021 Occupational Health and Safety Management — Psychological Health and Safety at Work — Guidelines for Managing Psychosocial Risks — which goes a long way to explaining what this international standard is all about. In this article we break down ISO 45003. What does it mean for organisations and individuals? What exactly are psychosocial risks and how can you manage them? And how can we move towards a safer workplace from a mental wellbeing perspective?
What is ISO 45003?
ISO45003 is the world’s first international standard for mental wellbeing at work. It’s a globally agreed best practice manual for how workplace mental health should be done. The great news is that the focus is on risk management and not on random acts of wellness (so you won’t see any mention of wellbeing apps, resilience talks or yoga classes in the standard). It covers the development, implementation, maintenance and continual improvement of psychologically healthy and safe workplaces.
There has never been a more important time for an international standard on psychological health and safety. The past year has taken a serious toll on our collective mental health — months spent indoors, strained work-life balance, reduced social interactions.
The number of people citing symptoms of anxiety or depression alone has surged since last year. In the UK it rose from 10% before the pandemic to 19% during the pandemic. In the US it went from 11% to 42%. According to the UK Labour Force Survey, the number of working days lost to mental ill health in the UK for the period of 2019/2020 increased from 12.8 to 17.9 million days. Mental health is the main occupational hazard that companies need to be focusing on right now which is why the ISO 45003 will play such a vital role in organisational health and safety procedures in the coming years.
The goal of ISO 45003 is to ‘prevent work-related psychological injury’ in the workplace. Its mission is to help companies establish an occupational management system that monitors and controls psychological health and safety.
Who is ISO 45003 for?
It’s aimed at all types and sizes of organization, across all sectors. Specific users will include:
· Line managers
· HR staff, Wellbeing leaders
· Business owners
· CEOs and board members
What is a Psychosocial Risk?
ISO 45003 aims to provide guidance on managing psychological risk at work. A psychological risk is anything that negatively impacts your health, safety and wellbeing at work such as ‘aspects of work organisation, social factors at work, work environment, equipment and hazardous tasks’. Here are the three main areas of risk that are highlighted in the document:
How your work is organised e.g. role ambiguity, overwhelming workload, inflexible work schedule, lack of control over workload, underutilised skillset, lack of support during organisational change.
Social factors at work e.g. conflict, bullying, lack of transparency in communication, lack of clear vision, lack of planning for personal development, no evaluation or platform for feedback, inability to achieve a work/life balance.
Work environment e.g. poor workplace conditions such as low lighting or extreme temperatures, lack of the necessary tools to complete tasks.
ISO 45003 is a comprehensive framework for understanding the risks employees face at work every day — the obvious and not so obvious. Some of the above risks may already be on your company’s radar — particularly given the transition towards remote work and the challenges it has presented. However, there are risks that may not be given much consideration such as communication concerns or underutilised skill sets. The newly published standard offers guidance on identifying such risks.
Let’s Talk About Language
The language we use is important and I think it’s really important to explore the language used in IS045003 because it has been very carefully chosen. The standard itself is called Psychological Health and Safety at Work — Guidelines for Managing Psychosocial Risks. We defined what a psychosocial risk is above, let’s break down some of the other terms used in the standard as clearly as possible:
Psychological Health
The standard uses the term psychological health instead of mental health. They mean the same thing; we can use the terms psychological health and mental health interchangeably. The reason psychological health was chosen by ISO is because, unfortunately, when people hear mental health, it’s often associated with mental illness. When people hear psychological health, people ask what is that? Psychological health is the wellbeing of every human being not just those that may have a diagnosis. So, the language was chosen to bring people away from the idea that mental health is about mental illness to make it clear that we’re talking about everyone.
Similarly, the term Psychological Injury is used rather than mental illness or any work-related mental health disorders or conditions.
Psychological Health and Safety
The term health and safety has been around for many years. Historically this has almost exclusively referred to physical health and safety and indeed there’s legislation and standards in many countries around this. The reality is though that health and safety in the workplace should encompass both physical and psychological health and safety and ISO45003 is the standard that helps define the guidelines for psychological workplace health and safety.
Psychosocial vs Psychological
The word ‘psychosocial’ is used in the sense of ‘mental behavior of society as a whole’ or an environment as a whole e.g. the workplace. On the other hand, the word ‘psychological’ is used in the sense of ‘mental behavior’ of an individual.
Finally, Psychological Safety means feeling respected and safe to challenge the status quo without fear of negative consequences.
What impact will ISO 45003 have on my organisation?
For organisations who adopt the ISO framework they will see improved engagement, reduced burnout and stress at work, reduced sick leave, improved retention rates, and a boost to the company’s overall reputation. Adopting a proactive approach to mental health sends a powerful message to your shareholders, customers and people that you care about your staff. This commitment can facilitate a safer work environment where employees feel valued. In a research project called Aristotle, Google found that teams that experience a large degree of psychological safety are more successful. This is because they feel safe to share their thoughts and opinions, because of high degrees of interpersonal trust and mutual respect. Such environments are not only good for mental wellbeing but also for job satisfaction and engagement.
What do organisations need to do now?
Organisations need to approach mental health in the same way as they do physical safety. Physical safety is built into the everyday work environment. Regular assessments are carried out to ensure that standards are continuously met. If something goes wrong, there’s first aid or PPE available. But the aim is to avoid something going wrong in the first place and keeping staff physically safe. This is the responsibility of the employer. And we need to start thinking this way about mental safety too.
The groundwork for mental wellbeing needs to be in place — creating a workplace where employees are not just safe but can thrive. ISO 45003 is a real shift away from the tendency for psychosocial initiatives to be reactive and encourages organisations to work in a more preventive way to ensure that psychological issues do not arise in the first place.
You can start by familiarising yourself with the standard and setting clear objectives. ISO has made the decision to make ISO 45003 free to read as part of its COVID-19 response. View the full standard here.
We already have an EAP and Mental Health First Aiders?
An argument I hear all the time from companies is that we already have an EAP and some mental health first aiders. ‘We’ve done mental health’. Unfortunately, this is an example of an organisation that is not addressing the risk factors, the sources of harm.
Are you that organisation?
Employee Assistance Programs are excellent but they are a tertiary intervention. For the most part they are there to support employees that are already in a state of psychological distress, injury or illness. Mental Health First Aid and other similar programmes again have a role to play but they are a secondary intervention. The focus is on awareness and minimising the adverse effects of a hazard. ISO45003 on the other hand is a primary intervention (well actually it encompasses the entire package, primary, secondary and tertiary). It focuses on hazard reduction and stress prevention activity ‘at source’, in order to prevent stressors developing.
So we’re not waiting until the stressors have already developed here, we’re tackling them at source and addressing various work-related hazards within systems of work which are known to be potential sources of psychosocial harm. ISO45003 is concerned with managing these psychosocial risks, and a large part of that comes from early identification of risk factors, for example:
· Unfair treatment at work
· Excessive workload
· Unfulfilling work
· Discrimination
· Poor physical work environment
· High demand and/or low control
Communication and facilitating an open and honest culture wherein employees feel empowered to speak up about their struggles is crucial.
Summary
A psychologically healthy and safe workplace is defined as one that ‘promotes workers’ psychological wellbeing and actively works to prevent harm to psychological health, including in negligent, reckless or intentional ways’.
ISO54003 is a proactive attempt to make good mental wellbeing part and parcel of a company’s culture.
The release of 45003 is an opportunity for organisations to move their focus from the tertiary wellbeing supports such as EAP programmes and the secondary awareness interventions such as MHFA on to the primary and preventive interventions such as risk management, hazard identification and controls.
I appreciate that for many HR and wellbeing professionals, psychological health and wellbeing is an entirely new world. ISO 45003 is the roadmap that can support you in creating and maintaining that psychologically healthy and safe workplace.
You don’t have to do it on your own either. The Work Well Community is here to help your organisation implement ISO 45003. In fact, our own 8 Step Framework for Developing a Workplace Wellness Programme that Lasts can empower workplace wellbeing leaders to integrate ISO 45003 into their overall wellbeing programme.
Remember, at the Work Well Community, we believe that creating healthy workplaces is the right thing to do, it’s the legal thing to do and it’s the smart thing to do.
Thanks for reading all the way to the end 😊
Brian
