Why Psychosocial Risk management is fundamental to business success 

The 2020’s have been a decade of disruption.  From the pandemic to political and economic uncertainty, to rapid evolution of hybrid work, organisations are navigating more complexity than ever before.  With all this change, one truth has become more evident: business success depends on people. A safe, supportive and fulfilling environment drives high performance and lasting results. 

When we talk about stress in the workplace – or psychosocial hazards, we tend to think of them through the lens of work demands, job clarity and control, relationships and team dynamics, through to support and leader/ manager styles. Where workplaces don’t have the optimal balance of these, we generally see reduced safety behaviours and psychological safety, lower employee engagement and ultimately lower business and bottom-line performance.   

All the elements we know that can present psychosocial hazards in a workplace are the same things that drive the bottom-line performance of a business. Done wrong, and they can present risks; but done right, they enable people and in turn the organisation, to thrive.   

Ultimately, what we are talking about when we talk about psychosocial risk management, is employee experience and optimal business performance. Recognising and addressing them isn’t just good practice (and a legal duty in many countries), it’s essential to building a healthier, more resilient future of work.  

Everyone is responsible for health, safety and wellbeing in an organisation – and the same applies to psychosocial risk management, which is why it should no longer be largely seen as a function of HR and/ or Health & Safety in isolation.  

The latest UK data shows a clear pattern. Mental health issues linked to work are not only common, but they are also rising. 

These figures remain well above pre-pandemic levels, demonstrating the lasting impact the pandemic has had on employment experiences. Flexible working, economic pressure and shifting employee expectations are reshaping the occupational health and safety landscape. Also, according to the CIPD’s 2025 Good Work Index, around 8.5 million UK workers say their job harms their workplace mental health – especially where support is lacking or workloads are too high.  
  
Added to this, the prevalence of burnout - a syndrome that is the result of chronic unresolved or ineffective management of stress in the workplace – is much higher than we previously thought. The 2023 global study by McKinsey that explored the health of workforces in 30 countries and over 30,000 workers, showed that around 1 in 5 workers reported symptoms of burnout. Nearly half of the UK workforce respondents self-reported symptoms associated with exhaustion; 20% reported symptoms categorised as mental distancing (aversion or reluctance to work) and nearly a third indicated attention and concentration deficits, memory problems and reduced performance. Add this to global workforce engagement data – such as Gallup’s 2024 data, which shows only 20% of the global workforce are engaged; 60% are disengaged – and 20% are just plain unhappy.  

Stress and burnout represent a significant cost to UK business, both in financial and, more importantly, human terms – but talking in terms of financial impact means little compared with understanding how stress and burnout impacts your own organisation’s people, performance and bottom line. No matter which studies you look at, the evidence for addressing stress and in turn burnout – and improving wellbeing – is a no brainer. Ultimately, higher wellbeing and engagement drives down turnover, absence and safety incidents – whilst turning up customer loyalty, sales, innovation, production, and profitability.

Ultimately, what we’re talking about is optimising our people experience in the workplace. There is very limited scientific evidence to support the effectiveness of tertiary interventions – such as helplines and health apps – in addressing stress and burnout, largely because we’re rarely comparing homogeneous approaches to workplace wellbeing. However, it is the primary factors, driven from the top down, that make life at a company amazing or awful. Does the design of my job, the way my work is organised, the quality and safety of my working environment, the culture, the working relationships etc. enable or inhibit my work experience?    

Fundamentally, we need to understand our people’s ‘enablers’ and our people’s ‘inhibitors’ so we can create informed, relevant and impactful approaches. Know what data and information to look at – look at it holistically – and know what to do with it.   

For example, are your people managers creating stress or do they help your people thrive in their work? Do they simply manage – or do they lead, inspire and coach? Are you ‘managing’ or ‘mitigating’ stress? How well do you understand your exposures to work stress? How well do you understand the relationship between work-stress and your employee engagement? How well are your managers equipped to identify and address signs of stress in their teams? Do your teams have sufficient control over their roles? What meaning do your employees find in their work? Recognise that everyone plays a role in managing ‘stress’ – our HR and Health & Safety teams are there to help empower leaders, managers and employees to play their part – not to do it for them.   

Only by having an informed picture of your enablers and inhibitors, can you embed relevant and effective interventions. Otherwise, are you just hoping that your approach is going to work? In our work, we’ve encountered hundreds of different approaches in organisations in addressing worker wellbeing – both informed and creative, to the typically less effective ‘off-shelf’ approaches. Beating burnout fundamentally requires senior leaders and decision-makers to understand the prevalence and drivers of stress in their organisation.    

Addressing psychosocial risk is not about one-off initiatives, or undertaking stress risk assessments when things go wrong. It requires long-term thinking and a willingness to look at how work is structured and supported. Psychosocial risks – like poor communication, conflicting demands or lack of control – should be identified, assessed and managed just like any other workplace risk.  
  
Small changes in how people are supported can make a big difference to wellbeing and how well teams work together. 

This approach supports people before challenges escalate. It also helps create a more open, trusting environment where people feel able to speak up and contribute.  

To help organisations take practical, meaningful steps toward managing psychosocial risks, British Safety Council has developed a comprehensive Psychosocial Risk Solution. This expert-led service is designed to help employers understand where risks may be emerging and how to proactively address them through practical, people-focused strategies. 

This end-to-end approach aligns with ISO 45003, the global standard for psychological health and safety at work, and is designed to create sustained, positive change, moving beyond legal compliance. 

Because effective psychosocial risk management requires more than policy. It demands understanding, engagement, and education at every level. Our support helps build trust, improve culture, and embed wellbeing into the way your organisation operates. 

Psychosocial risk is one of the most urgent health and safety challenges organisations face today, but it’s also a powerful opportunity for transformation. By embedding support into everyday practice, businesses can build workplaces where people feel valued, energised, and proud to contribute. 

That’s what drives resilience, innovation, and sustained performance. 

And that’s why psychosocial risk management must be at the heart of every forward-thinking business strategy.