Is the psychological health of your people high on the agenda? Are you committed to achieving meaningful levels of trust between your organization and your people? Does your organization need to work on its culture to build a vision that inspires and motivates?

Our working lives can have a significant impact on our psychological wellbeing. Every business needs to be identifying and managing psychosocial risks.

It’s now essential to reinforce the psychological contract - the unwritten bond between worker and employer that unlocks motivation and potential - and supports both engagement and performance.

Standard BS ISO 45003 for psychological health and safety at work

Recognizing that employers have a responsibility to protect both the physical and psychosocial health of their staff, the world’s first international standard helps organizations to work to psychological best practices.

BS ISO 45003 Occupational health and safety management – Psychological health and safety at work – Guidelines for managing psychosocial risks, gives guidance on managing psychological health and safety risks within an occupational health and safety management system. It addresses the many areas that can impact a worker’s psychological health, including ineffective communication, excessive pressure, poor leadership, and organizational culture.

BS ISO 45003 covers aspects such as how to identify the conditions, circumstances, and workplace demands that have the potential to impair the psychological health and well-being of workers; how to identify primary risk factors and assess them to determine what changes are required to improve the working environment; and how to identify and control work-related hazards and manage psychosocial risk within an occupational health and safety management system.

Read about implementing BS ISO 45003 in the education sector here.

What are the benefits of implementing BS ISO 45003?

BS ISO 45003 is a tool that anyone can use to prioritize the people in their organization. It helps identify where psychosocial risks arise and how they can be mitigated or eliminated and can help you to develop expertise, increase people’s trust and manage risk better.

Organizations can prevent work-related ill-health and benefit from:

• Improved worker engagement

• Enhanced productivity and higher levels of discretionary effort

• Increased innovation

• Greater organizational resilience and legal compliance

BS ISO 45003 demonstrates an organization's commitment to ensuring decent work conditions, health, and well-being. For organizations seeking to enhance their ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) profile, implementation of BS ISO 45003 and its alignment to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals sends a powerful message to shareholders and stakeholders including employees, that they truly care for their people. Conversely, the costs of not prioritizing people and their psychosocial health can be:

• Poor health, including cardiovascular disease and musculoskeletal disorders.

• Poor health behaviours, including substance abuse and unhealthy eating.

• Reduced job satisfaction, commitment, and performance.

• Increased absence from workplace stress, burnout, anxiety, and depression.

• Higher costs for the organization due to negative impacts on turnover, productivity, quality, training, and recruitment.

• Higher costs from workplace investigations, litigation, and reputational damage.

Norma McCormick, Project Leader of the ISO technical committee that developed the standard, said stressors such as uncertainty, fear, isolation, and changing workloads have been exacerbated for many workers during this period, but the standard is not just about COVID-19.

“Every organization has occupational health and safety responsibilities, and the current pandemic has brought into sharp focus the important role that psychological health in the workplace plays,” she said.

“While many have felt powerless about the impact of recent events, there are many things that can be done to build the resilience of staff and promote a strong organizational culture. This standard brings together international best practice in this area and is relevant to companies of all types and sizes.”

BS ISO 45003 will also help users meet the requirements of BS EN ISO 45001, the world’s first international standard for an occupational health and safety management system, which is the foundation of a resilient organization with a strong, healthy, and happy workforce.

What are the other key health and safety standards?

We have a range of other health and safety standards that businesses can implement to protect and prioritize their workforce.

BS EN ISO 45001 Occupational health and safety management systems. Requirements with guidance for use specifies requirements for an Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) management system and includes guidance for use.

The benefits of BS EN ISO 45001 include:

• BS EN ISO 45001 tackles a global need to improve the occupational health and safety of people working in organizations.

• It enables organizations to provide safe and healthy working conditions that prevent work-related injury and ill health, and proactively improve the organization’s health and safety performance.

• It includes how to develop and implement a health and safety policy and objectives which consider applicable legal requirements and other requirements to which the organization subscribes.

• It considers factors such as the context in which the organization operates and the needs and expectations of its workers and other interested parties.

• It is designed to align with other key management systems standards such as BS EN ISO 9001 Quality management systems and BS EN ISO 14001 Environmental management for ease of integration.

Whilst PD ISO/PAS 45005 Occupational health and safety management. General guidelines for safe working during the COVID-19 pandemic gives guidelines for organizations on how to manage the risks arising from COVID-19 to protect work-related health, safety, and well-being.

PD ISO/PAS 45005 is applicable to organizations of all sizes and sectors, including those that:

• Have been operating throughout the pandemic;

• Are resuming or planning to resume operations following full or partial closure;

• Are re-occupying workplaces that have been fully or partially closed; and

• Are new and planning to operate for the first time.

Ensure your organization is prioritizing its people by working to psychological health and safety best practices by adding BS ISO 45003 to your collection today.

Discover BSI Knowledge

Get everyone in your business involved in embedding a culture of psychological safety. A BSI Knowledge subscription gives you instant access to the resources you need to improve your well-being processes and the performance of your people. The flexibility and visibility it provides of the best practices guidance enables you to get the most from your standards. Request to learn more.