{"id":6143,"date":"2024-05-01T20:48:07","date_gmt":"2024-05-01T20:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/recharjme.com\/providing-a-psychologically-safe-workplace-a-goal-on-managers-agendas\/"},"modified":"2025-03-12T15:29:16","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T15:29:16","slug":"providing-a-psychologically-safe-workplace-a-goal-on-managers-agendas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/recharjme.com\/en\/providing-a-psychologically-safe-workplace-a-goal-on-managers-agendas\/","title":{"rendered":"Providing a psychologically safe workplace: a goal on managers’ agendas."},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Providing a psychologically safe workplace: a goal on managers’ agendas.<\/h1><\/div>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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By: Marc Bien, psychosociologist<\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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As the saying goes, “every cloud has a silver lining”, the pandemic has helped raise the profile of mental health issues, and this collective awareness has not escaped managers. To avoid the serious consequences of psychological distress, both for company productivity and for workers’ well-being and quality of life, companies are realizing the importance of offering a psychologically safe workplace.<\/p>

Fortunately, there are a number of practical ways of facilitating the creation of such environments, including focusing on the psychosocial risks present in the work environment.<\/p>

The aim of this post is to raise awareness of psychosocial risks in organizations, and to suggest a few courses of action to help prevent the emergence of mental health problems.<\/p>

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What are work-related psychosocial risks?<\/strong><\/h5>
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Work-related psychosocial risks – often referred to by the acronym RPS<\/em> – refer to the risks generated by employment conditions likely to interact with physical and psychological health.<\/p>

Although the Commission des normes, de l’\u00e9quit\u00e9, de la sant\u00e9 et de la s\u00e9curit\u00e9 du travail<\/em> (CNESST) (1) identifies four of them 1. psychological or sexual harassment in the workplace, 2. violence in the workplace, 3. marital, family or sexual violence, and 4. exposure to a potentially traumatic event. Others include excessive workload, high emotional demands and lack of professional autonomy or decision-making latitude.<\/p>

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Impact of psychosocial risks on the company<\/strong><\/h5>
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The presence of psychosocial risks in an organization can have serious consequences for the mental health of its employees, as they are associated with increased stress and anxiety, the onset of depressive symptoms, burnout and even, in the most serious cases, suicidal ideation.<\/p>

In turn, these mental health problems can lead to reduced motivation, poorer working relationships, increased absenteeism and higher staff turnover.<\/p>

As you will have gathered, beyond the human impact, RPS also generates significant costs for companies: costs linked to absenteeism, lower productivity, workplace accidents, prolonged sick leave, and so on. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and<\/em> Development (OECD) makes it clear:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\"Mental health disorders place a heavy burden on our societies and economies: even before the pandemic, their economic costs were estimated at over 4% of GDP per year in OECD countries, more than the cost of overweight and obesity.\" (2)\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Faced with these challenges, it’s in every company’s interest to take the issue of psychosocial risks seriously and implement a genuine prevention strategy, with a view to social responsibility and sustainable performance.<\/p>


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Courses of action to prevent psychosocial risks<\/strong><\/h5>

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Long relegated to the personal sphere, mental health problems passed under the radar of managers, and their resolution was considered an individual responsibility. Now that they are aware of these phenomena, companies are also acting holistically and systemically, tackling organizational causes rather than focusing solely on individual symptoms, in order to effectively prevent psychosocial risks.<\/p>\n

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Here are a few possible courses of action:<\/p>


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