Identify psychosocial hazards across workload, role clarity, relationships and organisational change.
Occupational Health & Safety
Psychosocial Risk Assessment and Control Using ISO 45003
Trains HR and safety professionals to assess psychosocial hazards such as workload, role clarity and workplace relationships using ISO 45003 and build proportionate controls.
🗓️Duration5 training days
📚Content4 modules · 8 sessions
🎓On completionAccredited attendance certificate
About the programme
Course Overview
Psychosocial hazards such as excessive workload, unclear roles, poor workplace relationships and unmanaged organisational change cause as much lost time and harm as physical hazards, yet many organisations still lack a structured way to assess and control them. This course trains HR professionals, safety advisors and people managers to apply ISO 45003 guidance for identifying psychosocial hazards, running risk assessments that go beyond a generic staff survey, and designing controls proportionate to the level of risk identified. Through hazard-mapping exercises and case scenarios covering restructuring, conflict and remote working, participants learn to gather qualitative and quantitative evidence, involve workers in identifying real pressure points, prioritise hazards by likelihood and severity of psychological harm, and design organisational and individual controls that address causes rather than symptoms. The course also covers monitoring and the governance needed to keep psychosocial risk on the board agenda. Participants leave with a psychosocial risk register, an assessment method and a control action plan for their own organisation.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Apply ISO 45003 guidance to structure a psychosocial risk assessment process.
Gather qualitative and quantitative evidence of psychosocial risk without relying on a single survey.
Involve workers and their representatives in identifying and prioritising psychosocial hazards.
Design organisational controls that address root causes rather than only individual coping support.
Build a psychosocial risk register that tracks hazards, controls and residual risk over time.
Report psychosocial risk performance and trends to senior management and the board.
Who Should Attend
HR professionals and people managers responsible for psychological health at work.
Health and safety advisors extending risk assessment practice to psychosocial hazards.
Occupational health practitioners supporting stress and mental health referrals.
Line managers leading teams through restructuring or significant organisational change.
Employee wellbeing and engagement leads designing organisational-level interventions.
Trade union and employee representatives raising psychosocial concerns on behalf of staff.
Course Modules
Select any module to see its sessions and points.
01Identifying Psychosocial Hazards
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Mapping Hazard Categories Using ISO 45003
- Map psychosocial hazard categories set out in ISO 45003, including work organisation and social factors.
- Identify workload, pace and control hazards specific to different roles and departments.
- Identify role clarity, conflicting demands and job security hazards affecting particular teams.
- Identify relationship hazards, including conflict, harassment and poor leadership behaviour.
Session 2Recognising Organisational Change and Environmental Hazards
- Identify psychosocial risk arising from restructuring, redundancy and organisational change programmes.
- Assess remote and hybrid working arrangements for isolation and blurred work-life boundary hazards.
- Recognise environmental and equipment-related hazards that contribute to psychological strain.
- Map hazard interactions where multiple psychosocial factors compound risk for the same worker group.
02Assessing Psychosocial Risk
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Gathering Evidence Beyond a Single Survey
- Combine survey data, absence records, exit interviews and grievance trends as risk indicators.
- Run focus groups or listening sessions to surface hazards a survey alone would miss.
- Analyse turnover, sickness absence and performance data by team to identify hotspots.
- Triangulate evidence sources to avoid over-reliance on any single measure of psychosocial risk.
Session 2Assessing Likelihood, Severity and Priority
- Assess the likelihood and severity of psychological harm for each identified psychosocial hazard.
- Prioritise hazards affecting the largest groups or carrying the most severe potential harm.
- Distinguish hazards requiring immediate action from those suited to longer-term organisational change.
- Document the assessment method and evidence base to support later review and audit.
03Designing and Implementing Controls
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Designing Organisational-Level Controls
- Redesign workload distribution, staffing levels or job design to address identified hazards at source.
- Clarify roles, reporting lines and decision authority where ambiguity is driving psychosocial risk.
- Redesign change management processes to reduce uncertainty and improve communication during transitions.
- Set management behaviour standards that address identified relationship and leadership hazards.
Session 2Complementing Organisational Controls with Individual Support
- Provide manager training on recognising and responding to signs of psychological strain in their teams.
- Establish referral pathways to occupational health, counselling or employee assistance programmes.
- Design reasonable adjustments for workers experiencing or returning from psychological ill health.
- Avoid using individual coping interventions as a substitute for addressing organisational-level causes.
04Monitoring, Reporting and Governance
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Building and Maintaining the Risk Register
- Build a psychosocial risk register that records hazards, evidence, controls and residual risk.
- Assign ownership for each control action with realistic timescales and review dates.
- Review the register after organisational changes that could introduce new psychosocial hazards.
- Link the psychosocial risk register to the wider health and safety management system.
Session 2Reporting Performance and Sustaining Governance
- Report psychosocial risk trends and control progress to senior management on a regular cycle.
- Present the business case for psychosocial risk investment using absence and turnover cost data.
- Benchmark psychosocial risk performance against sector data and prior assessment cycles.
- Review and update the assessment method as ISO 45003 guidance and organisational context evolve.
What the participant receives
4 course modules
A structured syllabus
8 training sessions
across 5 days
32 detailed points
Applied, detailed content
Accredited attendance certificate
On completing the programme
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