Psychosocial hazard #3 – Poor Support

The third psychosocial hazard identified in Safe Work Australia’s Model Code for Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work is “poor support”.

Why is “poor support” a psychosocial hazard?

There are a range of ways in which people might be poorly supported – like how their supervisors or other workers interact with them or not having the availability or the quality of resources available to enable them to do their job and lots more.

Some questions that you might ask to assess whether there are any poor support related psychosocial hazards in your workplace include:

• Do people receive insufficient, unclear or contradictory information related to their work?
• Do people have all of  the things they need to do their job properly or on time and/or do they have to wait or compete for what they need ?
• Are tools and systems and other resources  poorly maintained or inadequate for the work that is supposed to be undertaken? 
• Are people given the instruction, training and time to develop skills that are necessary for the work they are to do? 
• Can workers access supervisors consistently to make decisions and provide them with the guidance that they need?
• Are there sufficient workers available to perform tasks safely?
• Is it difficult for workers to call out for help when they need it because they cannot leave their workstation, or because they are working on their own or remotely?
• is the workplace culture competitive and discouraging of people helping each other out?
• Is it hard to find somewhere psychologically safe to talk to someone because there are no private facilities or meeting rooms in the workplace? 
• Do people think that management doesn’t listen and doesn’t respond if anyone raises a concern?
• Do people not get good performance feedback as it is not constructive, or helpful or it is non-existent?

This list is not exhaustive and, while we have based these posts of the model code produced by Safe Work Australia, there can be differences in the specific details for each State or Territory. So you need to check that in the jurisdiction in which your workplace lies.