General information only — not legal advice
This page provides general information about psychosocial risk obligations and should not be relied upon as legal advice. Legislation, regulations, and regulatory guidance vary by jurisdiction and change over time. For advice specific to your organisation and location, consult your state or territory WHS regulator, WorkSafe NZ, or a qualified legal or health and safety professional.
Authoritative sources: Safe Work Australia · WorkSafe NZ · Australian legislation · NZ legislation
Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA), New Zealand employers have always had a duty to protect the health of their workers. Health includes mental health. That’s not new. What is new is the formalisation of expectations around psychosocial risk. WorkSafe NZ has made it increasingly clear that psychosocial hazards must be managed with the same proactive rigour as physical hazards.
This guide explains what the HSWA requires in practice, what WorkSafe NZ’s guidance says, and what a defensible psychosocial risk management system looks like for a New Zealand employer.
The legal foundation: HSWA and WorkSafe NZ’s guidance
Under Section 36 of the HSWA, PCBUs (persons conducting a business or undertaking) must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers. “Health” in the HSWA is explicitly defined to include mental health.
In 2024, WorkSafe NZ published formal guidance: Managing Psychosocial Risks at Work. This document is essential reading for any NZ employer. Key points from the guidance:
- Psychosocial hazards must be identified and managed like any other workplace hazard, not treated as a separate wellbeing issue
- Employers must consult with workers when assessing risks and deciding on control measures
- Workers’ assessment of their own risk exposure, through surveys, feedback, and observations, is explicitly identified as a primary source of hazard identification data
- The four-stage risk management process applies: identify, assess, control, review
- In cases of serious harm or work-related suicide, there may be notification obligations under the HSWA
What WorkSafe NZ identifies as psychosocial hazards
WorkSafe NZ’s guidance references a broad range of psychosocial hazards. They fall into three categories:
Work design factors
Social and relational factors
Organisational factors
The guidance is explicit that these hazards can be present in any industry and any size organisation. The risk management obligations do not only apply to large workforces or high-risk sectors.
The NZ regulatory context in 2025–2026
New Zealand’s HSWA is currently undergoing a reform process. In March 2025, the Government announced proposed changes aimed at simplifying compliance for small, low-risk businesses and clarifying the distinction between officer-level governance and operational responsibilities.
The reforms do not reduce the core psychosocial risk management obligation for organisations with more than minimal risk profiles. Industry groups and safety advocates have noted concern that the reforms could weaken protections in sectors where psychosocial risk is high but often underrecognised.
For most H&S and HR managers in medium-to-large organisations, the practical obligations remain: proactive identification, structured assessment, documented controls, and ongoing review.
Practical compliance in New Zealand
WorkSafe NZ’s guidance sets out practical steps. For H&S managers, the key elements of a defensible psychosocial risk management system are:
Identification
Use multiple information sources: surveys, staff consultation, incident/near-miss data, observation of work practices, and review of absence and turnover patterns. No single method is sufficient on its own.
Assessment
Consider the frequency, intensity, and duration of workers’ exposure to each hazard. Consider whether hazards are interacting. High demands combined with poor support is a significantly higher risk than either factor alone.
Control
Prioritise changes to work design and management practice. EAP access and awareness training are valuable, but they are supports for individuals affected, not controls for the hazard itself. Regulators are increasingly making this distinction.
Review
Monitor whether controls are working through ongoing consultation with workers, exit data, absence patterns, and regular structured check-ins that give you comparable data across time periods.
What “consult with workers” means in practice: Under the HSWA, consultation isn’t a one-time survey. It means involving workers, and health and safety representatives where they exist, in identifying hazards, discussing control options, and reviewing whether controls are effective. A monthly check-in that workers complete themselves, and that gives them a personal reflection in return, directly supports this obligation.
How Clearhead’s Pulse Tool supports NZ compliance
Clearhead is a New Zealand company. The Psychosocial Risk Pulse Tool was built with the HSWA context in mind, and it has been designed to support the specific consultation and identification obligations that NZ employers carry.
The monthly check-in gives workers a structured, low-friction way to report on 18 psychosocial factors, covering all three hazard categories in WorkSafe NZ’s framework. The employee-facing output (a personalised reflection visible only to them) encourages honest completion. The employer-facing report provides documented evidence of ongoing, systematic hazard identification.
For organisations looking to demonstrate that they take the HSWA consultation obligation seriously, with a continuous, structured process rather than a one-off exercise, the Pulse Tool is designed to fit that need directly.