Psychosocial working environment

Throughout their workday, workers face different demands and expectations from superiors, colleagues, partners, themselves or others. This includes, for example, who is responsible for what, how to perform the task, which time limits apply, and what to prioritise. 

When demands and expectations are experienced as unclear, undefined or contradictory, which could create stress and pose a risk to health and safety. 

Demands and expectations can be both formal and informal and may come from different sources. Sometimes, demands and expectations from others can be perceived as conflicting with the worker’s own professional or moral values, for example if the worker is expected to perform a task in a way they believe it should not be performed. 

The term role ambiguity is often used to describe unclear demands and expectations, whereas the term role conflict is used to describe contradictory demands and expectations.

Working with people, such as patients, users, next of kin, clients, children, pupils, students, customers or others, can entail emotional demands and strains. 

• Emotional demands may include
• having to learn about or manage other people’s thoughts, emotions or behaviours
• having to manage or hide one’s own thoughts or emotions
• having to adapt one’s communication or behaviours in interactions with others 

Examples of emotionally straining work include situations where workers treat, care for, guide, support, set limits for, perform services for or make important decisions for the people they work with. It can be especially demanding to work with people in vulnerable situations or crises, people who have strong emotions or people who engage in aggressive behaviours. 

Emotional demands can be meaningful, professionally developmental and contribute to a sense of accomplishment. At the same time, high emotional engagement over time can be draining and pose a risk to health and well-being. The risk may increase if the workers do not receive sufficient support or recovery time. 

Workloads and time constraints that entail an imbalance between the work to be done and the time available to do it, could mean situations where workers have many, large or challenging tasks that require them to work very hard or very quickly. Over time, this could lead to stress and pose a risk to health and safety. The risk may increase of the workers also experience other strain or have limited autonomy in or influence on the work. 

High time pressure is a common risk factor. Well-being and health may also be affected if workers do not have enough to do or are not challenged in their work.  

The term job requirements is often used to describe workloads and time constraints.

Support and help in the workplace is about workers receiving the support they need from their superiors, colleagues and others.  

This support can be emotional, such as care, understanding and recognition. It can also be instrumental, such as professional advice, technical assistance or feedback on performance. To ensure that workers receive the support they need, it may be necessary to take a systematic approach, e.g. by implementing regular arenas for professional communication, regular contact with superiors, colleague support systems, or other measures. 

When workers get the support and help they need, it becomes easier to cope with the demands of the job, prevents stress and ensures tasks can be resolved in a good manner. Inadequate support, however, can be straining and may increase the risk of health problems. 

Employers must emphasise workers having opportunities for autonomy, influence and professional accountability in their work situation. 

Autonomy and influence concern the degree to which, for example, workers are able to influence decisions that impact their work situation, or how they perform their jobs. This includes influence through formal co-determination processes, but also providing workers with actual control over their workday. 

Autonomy and influence may contribute to increased well-being and motivation, as well as flexible and good problem-solving, and is essential for workers being able to cope with the work. It is important, however, that co-determination is balanced with a clear framework and good support. Too little autonomy may lead to stress and health-problems. 

The terms job control or independence are also used to describe autonomy over and influence in work situations.

Work must be organised so as to protect the worker’s integrity and dignity. This includes protecting workers from harassment and promoting safety and respect in the workplace. 

Protecting integrity and dignity can sometimes include 

• preventing and managing violence, threats, harassment and other unacceptable behaviour
• taking data protection seriously and protecting the workers’ boundaries and personal life
• making sure everyone is met with respect and equality, regardless of their personal characteristics, identity, background or other factors
• facilitating for workers being able to perform the work in accordance with their professional judgment and ethical standards, as long as it is safe
• promoting fairness, safety and trust in the workplace, e.g. by making sure workers feel safe to speak up and discuss professional and ethical questions 

Employers must, if possible, organise the work to allow for contact and communication with other workers within the enterprise. This is beneficial for worker health and safety in multiple ways. 

Working alone can contribute to social isolation, loneliness and unhappiness, which in turn can lead to health problems. Contact and communication with colleagues and superiors, on the other hand, is essential for support and help in the workplace. Working with someone else is also important for safety, among other things because it will be possible to call for help in critical situations. 

Workers must not be subjected to harassment, including sexual harassment, or other unacceptable behaviours. 

Harassment includes actions, omissions or statements whose purpose or effect is to offend, intimidate, antagonise, demean or humiliate. 

Sexual harassment is any form of unwanted sexual attention whose purpose or effect is to offend, intimidate, antagonise, demean, humiliate or harass. 

The legislation does not define what constitutes other unacceptable behaviours. This could be behaviours that do not fall under the definitions of violence, threats, harassment or sexual harassment, but that are nevertheless offensive and entail a clear deviation from what is acceptable behaviour in the workplace. 

Read more about how to prevent and manage harassment (in Norwegian)

Read more about how to prevent and manage sexual harassment (in Norwegian)

Workers must be protected from violence, threats and detrimental effects as a result of contact with others, if possible. 

Violence and threats are incidents where workers are attacked in a manner that posed a clear or implied risk to their safety, health or well-being. Threats can be physical, verbal or digital. The statutory requirement concerns incidents related to the work or the worker’s role, even if the incident takes place outside of the workplace or working hours. 

Violence are acts intended to harm a person physically or psychologically. This does not extend to incidents that were purely accidental, but may include incidents where the person causing the harm is not aware of or does not properly assess the consequences of their actions – e.g. due to intoxication, illness or mental status. 

Read more about prevention and management of violence and threats (in Norwegian)

The employer must map any psychosocial working environment factors that may affect worker health, safety or well-being. This mapping should include a description of activities and serve as a starting point for an assessment of factors that may be straining or harmful. Different groups or parts of the enterprise may have different tasks and therefore different working environment challenges. 

In order to get a good overview of the psychosocial working environment, the enterprise should use multiple sources in its mapping, such as working environment surveys, safety inspections, deviance reports, employee interviews and informal chats. 

The mapping should include psychosocial working environment factors that may 

• lead to acute harm
• lead to harmful strain over time
• protect against harmful strain 

Employers should use the information from their mapping to assess the risk of harmful influences. These include risks of harmful strain over time and risks of acute injury. 

Risk assessment includes assessing 

• the probability of an unwanted incident or working environment condition occurring
• potential consequences for worker health, safety or welfare 

The assessment may focus on a single psychosocial working environment factor or a combination of different factors and how they interact. An unwanted incident, for example, could be the result of individual factors, such as violence or harassment, whereas an unwanted working environment condition may be the result of workers dealing with high-pressure time constraints, high emotional demands and insufficient support and recovery over time. Employers should also assess the overall risk associated with the psychosocial working environment. 

There are different methods and tools available that employers can use in their risk assessment. Regardless of how the enterprise approaches its risk assessment, it can be useful to ask questions like the following: 

• Which work tasks or processes can lead to strain?
• When or how can a dangerous situation occur?
• How can the strain or danger be described?
• How frequent or how long are workers exposed to this strain?
• Who is affected, and are there certain groups within the enterprise that have a higher risk?
• How likely is it for an unwanted incident to occur or for the strain to become unacceptable?
• What are the potential causes of the unwanted incident?
• How does the organisation and planning of the work affect the strain?
• What are the consequences of the potential incident or strain, and how severe are they – both in the short term and the long term?
• How successful are the measures already implemented, if relevant?
• How do the different working environment factors affect each other?
• What is the overall risk associated with the psychosocial working environment? 

Based on the risk assessment, employers must plan and implement measures to reduce or eliminate risk. 

It will not always be possible to completely eliminate the risk, especially when it is associated with factors that are a natural or inherent part of the nature of the work. Preventive measures will therefore often focus on reducing the risk as much as possible. Measures can aim to both 

• reduce the probability of an unwanted incident or working environment condition occurring, and
• mitigate the negative consequences if the unwanted incident or condition does occur 

Information from the mapping and risk assessment should serve as a foundation on which to prioritise and select measures that meet the need. In order to identify good solutions, it is important to understand what the potential causes of problems can be. It may be prudent to implement measures aimed at how work is organised, management, certain groups or individual workers. Collective measures should always be prioritised above individual measures. 

Psychosocial working environment measures may include 

• clear descriptions of roles and responsibilities that are repeated regularly to ensure shared understanding, safety and effective problems-solving
• regular contact between superiors and workers to support prioritisation, task planning, clarification of expectations, etc.
• colleague support arrangements to ensure that workers who have emotionally demanding tasks have the option to receive support and professional knowledge exchange
• facilitating for good collaborative routines and arenas where collaboration challenges are addressed early, in order to prevent later conflict
• establishing routines for reporting and managing harassment
• training and practice in the use of safety equipment and how to handle situations involving threats or violence 

These are examples to illustrate what can be involved. It is important that the chosen measures are customised to the needs and risks in the individual enterprise. 

An action plan should describe what the goal is, what needs to be done, who is affected, who is responsible and a time frame for the measure. In order to determine whether or not the measures have the intended effect, they must be evaluated. If the measures are not working as intended, they need to be adjusted and, if necessary, replaced or supplemented by other measures. 

Employers must ensure that workers, safety representatives and employee representatives receive information about risk factors in the psychosocial working environment, as well as about any implemented measures and routines. This information must be clear, up to date and easy to understand, to ensure that workers understand what the risks entail and how their employer is handling it. 

Good information has some benefits, such as 

• better opportunities for workers to contribute to the working environment work
• better opportunities to discover problems early
• safety representatives and employees’ representatives being in a better position to perform their responsibilities
• increased trust and transparency within the organisation 

The information can be provided through various channels, such as 

• regular meeting focused on the working environment, risk and prevention
• written updates in the HSE system
• intranet pages or informational letters or e-mails
• dialogue with safety representatives and employee representatives on findings and measures 

The most important factor is that the information is relevant, clear and reaches everyone involved.  

Employers must ensure that workers receive the training, practice and instruction necessary for the psychosocial working environment to be thoroughly sound. This entails that employers must ensure that workers have the knowledge and skills they need to be able to handle challenges, both in their daily work and when unwanted incidents occur. This is not a one-time issue; it requires regular follow-up, especially when risk is high. The need will depend on the risks present in the specific enterprise, as well as on the workers’ knowledge, skills and experience. 

If there is a risk of violence or other serious incidents, exercises may be necessary. Such exercises should include how to prevent and manage any unwanted incidents. If there is a risk of injury and death, employers must prepare written instructions on how to perform the work.

Employers must ensure that their systematic HSE work, including work focused on the psychosocial working environment, is carried out in collaboration with the workers and their representatives. This means that the employer cannot do this work alone. They must involve the workers and the safety representative actively in the mapping, risk assessment and planning and follow-up of measures. Workers have a duty to contribute. The safety representative plays an important role and must be included if the enterprise has one. Other worker representatives include employee representatives from trade unions. 

The benefits of involving the workers include 

• building trust through good dialogue between the employer and the workers
• gaining insight into the psychosocial working environment from those who know it best
• building the foundation for good prioritisation and effective measures
• increasing motivation and ownership among the workers, making measures easier to implement 

When workers find that speaking up, asking questions and contributing ideas are both useful and safe, this increases the likelihood of a successful collaboration. 

Read more about how to promote a good climate for speaking up (in Norwegian)

Read more about co-determination (in Norwegian)

If the nature of the risks within the enterprise demands it, or if the enterprise is part of an industry where it is a requirement, the employer must establish an agreement with a certified occupational health service. If the employer has one, the occupational health service can help with the mapping, risk assessment and planning and execution of measures. 

All employers have a duty to bring in expert assistance when necessary as part of the systematic preventative working environment work, for example if the enterprise does not have the expertise needed in-house. 

Which industries are required to have an occupational health service agreement?

Read more about occupational health services