Psychosocial risk: transformation barrier or opportunity?

If ever there was a need for transformation it is now. Business models are broken, markets have melted away, many organisations stand on the brink. McKinsey has dubbed 2021: the year of transition. But it feels like a tough ask. Individuals’ capacity for yet more change appears to be at an all-time low.

If things are not easy now, they could soon get even harder. Arriving this summer is a new set of guidelines bosses will have to get their heads around in the form of ISO 45003. For the first time, this new subset of previously broader health and safety measures introduces the concept of psychosocial risk.

This is the anticipated psychological impact that staff could face from the very way work is organised for them, from the design of people’s jobs to the workloads they have or the stress it puts people under.