Partnership program to tackle 75% increase in workplace bullying reports

Human Resources: Work-related psychological injuries have longer recovery times, higher costs, and require more time away from work. Managing the risks associated with psychosocial hazards not only protects workers, it also decreases the disruption associated with staff turnover and absenteeism, and improves broader organisational performance and productivity.

A world-first partnership has been launched by the University of South Australia and Australian software business, Teamgage. The new program – Healthy Workplaces by Design – identifies and mitigates the root causes of bullying, extending beyond more obvious interpersonal triggers into psychosocial hazards, such as workplace environments, workload demands, and working practices.

As a risk audit and prevention program it will help businesses meet new work health and safety (WHS) obligations to proactively risk manage psychosocial hazards, especially workplace bullying.

About 1.1 million Australian workers experience serious workplace bullying, with 39% of mental disorder claims caused by workplace bullying, harassment, or violence.

Psychological health and safety are foremost on the agenda of Australian WHS policymakers, statutory agencies, and peak bodies, particularly since Safe Work Australia published the Model Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work in August 2022.

UniSA researcher Professor Michelle Tuckey said the partnership will deliver a risk management process that uses work redesign to prevent workplace bullying and other psychosocial hazards.

“Every employer has a legal responsibility to provide a safe workplace, but there’s an increasing pressure for businesses to better manage psychosocial risks, including workplace bullying and sexual harassment,” Prof Tuckey said.

“Workplace bullying already causes up to $36 billion of lost productivity in each year. And with Safe Work Australia recording a 75% increase in the frequency of bullying claims over the past ten years, it’s a problem that is not slowing down.

“The amended legislation will require businesses to proactively address workplace bullying (and other psychosocial risks) with the same rigour as physical health and safety hazards, which means they’ll need to go above and beyond administrative controls like policies and training.

“The UniSA + Teamgage partnership will enable businesses to undertake a tailored risk audit of their workplace and generate specific recommendations, actions, and evaluations to remedy any concerns. It shifts the emphasis from responding to interpersonal bullying behaviour, to proactively identifying and mitigating the root causes of bullying embedded within work environments.”

Teamgage CEO and Co-Founder, Noelle Smit, said the UniSA-Teamgage partnership will ensure people have safer, healthier workplaces, in Australia, and around the world.

Ms Smit said “We empower teams to continuously improve how they work together, and a part of this is by ensuring a safe and healthy workplace. For this to happen, we need organisations to be constantly alive to the risk of workplace harassment, toxic cultures and mistrust between staff and management – all of which can affect performance, customer outcomes, profit and most importantly people’s wellbeing.”

Trialled across 85 sites, the Healthy Workplaces by Design program has demonstrated 34% reduction in exposure to bullying behaviour, 46% reduction in workplace bullying complaints and 73% reduction in sexual harassment complaints.

In reimagining healthcare across the entire patient journey, Health Industry Hub^TM is the only one-stop-hub uniting the diversity of the Pharma, MedTech, Diagnostics & Biotech sectors to inspire meaningful change.

The Health Industry Hub^TM content is copyright protected. Access is available under individual user licenses. Please click here to subscribe and visit T&Cs here.