Preventing and managing bullying – step 2: assess risks

Understanding risk assessments

To determine how bullying poses a risk to health or safety, employers can do a risk assessment.

Risk assessments help employers work out:

• The seriousness of the risk, by considering the:
  • likelihood of harm occurring
  • consequences for affected employees and others. For example, the severity of harm.
• Which employees are at risk. For example, if risks are organisation-wide or apply to:
  • specific employees
  • groups of employees
  • specific work tasks
  • specific work sites.
• How multiple psychosocial hazards may combine and interact to increase the risk of harm.
  For example, several employees in an operational team are experiencing high job demands from an increase in workload associated with recent organisational changes in the workplace.
  A team member raises the issue of workload with their manager. In response, the manager places further unreasonable demands on that employee by rostering them to work extended hours and giving them impossible deadlines. This employee is now exposed to bullying as well as high job demands and poor support.

Current knowledge and understanding about the risk and how to control it may already exist. However, employers should carry out a risk assessment when:

• it is not clear if the psychosocial hazard may result in harm
• it is not clear how hazards may interact to produce new, different or more significant harm
• the existing risk controls are not effective
• there are changes planned that may affect existing risk controls.

Risk assessments must involve consultation with employees and any health and safety representatives (HSRs). Consultation should:

• Use data and information from sources including:
  • information from employee discussions or interviews
  • workplace data and information from focus groups
  • industry knowledge and data
  • de-identified validated surveys.
• Cite the evidence used.

Doing a risk assessment

In a small workplace, a risk assessment may be as simple as regularly talking to affected employees and any HSRs. A more comprehensive process may be needed:

• for larger organisations with multiple worksites
• for workplaces in high-risk industries
• where exposure to additional psychosocial hazards may increase the risk of harm.

People doing the risk assessment should have the following.

• The necessary skills and knowledge.
• Access to required information about the working environment and work processes. Different parts of the organisation will need to share relevant findings and information with the person doing the risk assessment. For example, access to both human resources and operational team information on:
  • bullying incidents or complaints
  • reports of poor workplace behaviour.
• Knowledge and understanding of:
  • potential psychosocial hazards and risks to psychological and physical health
  • how to analyse evidence to consider risks and appropriate controls.

If those doing the risk assessment do not have the appropriate knowledge and understanding, employers may need to provide training or seek assistance from a subject matter expert to help:

• analyse the evidence
• understand the psychosocial hazards and risks.

Assessing risks is not a one-off action. It should be part of a continuous improvement process.

When assessing risks associated with exposure to bullying, consider the following questions.

1. Who is exposed? For example:
   • Which worksites, work groups, teams, individuals or roles?
2. What is the source? For example:
   • Customers, clients or members of the public.
   • Specific tasks, such as handling complaints from customers or where several managers provide conflicting instructions.
   • Specific events.
3. What is the likelihood of exposure to bullying?
   • How often are employees exposed to bullying? For example:
     • daily during high-demand periods
     • when a certain task is done
     • during typical social interactions at the workplace.
   • How long are employees exposed for at any one time? Exposure for a short duration may still be harmful, such as being subjected to multiple undermining comments during a work shift.
   • Could exposure accumulate over time? For example, exclusion from conversations and team activities with colleagues that starts subtly but becomes more overt over time. Employees may also be exposed to multiple incidents over time of varying severity.
4. How severe are the consequences if employees are exposed? For example:
   • What degree of harm could employees experience? Could an employee be permanently physically or psychologically injured and unable to work?
5. Are employees also exposed to other psychosocial hazards in their working environment, such as high job demands or low role clarity?
   • Consider how multiple psychosocial hazards may interact and combine to increase the likelihood of harm.
6. Are some employees exposed to additional risk factors? These are factors that could put certain employees, or groups of employees, at greater risk of harm. Consider employees who are most at risk of bullying. See What is bullying? for further information.
7. What risk controls are already in place to reduce the risk, and how effective are they?

WorkSafe’s prevention plan template can help guide the risk assessment process.

Factors that increase risk

When assessing risk, it is crucial to focus the most effort on those risk factors that could increase the likelihood and severity of harm to employees. These could include:

• Where employees are exposed to bullying frequently, or for extended or prolonged periods.
• Where employees experience one-off severe exposure to bullying. For example, experiencing multiple instances of name-calling, belittling and humiliation in a single work shift.
• Where the risk is less likely to eventuate, but if it did the consequences would be very serious or catastrophic.
• Where there are multiple psychosocial hazards interacting to increase the risks. For example, poor support and poor workplace relationships.
• Where there are certain employees, or groups of employees, who may be at greater risk of harm. See What is bullying? for further information.