Psychosocial hazards in Victoria: what employers must do, and where to start.
Victorian employers must identify psychosocial hazards and control the risks. Most start with the first step, identifying them. Proactive EAP does that step with a confidential check-in for every person, by voice AI or a trained Mental Health First Responder depending on plan.
What do Victorian employers have to do about psychosocial hazards?
Under the Occupational Health and Safety (Psychological Health) Regulations 2025, in force since 1 December 2025, Victorian employers must, so far as is reasonably practicable, identify psychosocial hazards, assess the risks where needed, eliminate or reduce them, and review the controls. Employees must be consulted on the matters that affect them.
WorkSafe Victoria's Compliance Code: Psychological health sets out how to meet those duties in four steps: identify, assess, control and review. It is the same risk management approach the other states ask for. In Victoria the instruments are the OHS Act, the Regulations and a Compliance Code, rather than a Code of Practice.
Where do most employers start?
With the first step: identifying hazards. WorkSafe Victoria's guidance points employers to the information they already hold, such as absence, engagement and incident reports, and warns against assuming hazards are absent because few are reported. Low reporting can mean people are reluctant to speak up.
That is the gap a report-based approach leaves. The hazards that matter most are often the ones nobody has raised yet.
How does Proactive EAP help you identify psychosocial hazards?
Proactive EAP reaches every person instead of waiting for a report. Each cycle, everyone is offered a confidential check-in call, by voice AI or a trained Mental Health First Responder depending on plan, on a cadence you choose.
What people raise is de-identified, mapped to ShareTree's ISO 45003-based taxonomy of 20 psychosocial factors across three domains, and shown only for groups of five or more. You see which hazards are present, how widespread and serious they are and which teams they sit in: the input your assessment and controls need. The sample report below shows what that looks like.
Sources: WorkSafe Victoria, Psychological health regulations: frequently asked questions; WorkSafe Victoria, Compliance code: Psychological health, Step 1: Identify hazards; WorkSafe Victoria, New regulations make psychological health a priority (1 December 2025).
Identify: every person is asked
A check-in with every person reaches the people who would never put in a report, so identification no longer depends on who speaks up.
Assess: spread and severity
Each theme shows how many people raised it, how serious it is and which teams it sits in, mapped to the 20 psychosocial factors.
Review: comparable cycles
Each cycle is comparable with the last, so you can show whether exposure fell after you acted, not only whether actions were completed.
Identify, assess, control, review: controls that reach everyone.
Under Australian WHS law, you are expected to eliminate or reduce risk as far as is reasonably practicable.
Support that waits to be asked is an administrative control: it responds after the harm has occurred.
Reaching in gives you higher-order controls, and the evidence that they are running.
hazards
risks
risks
revise
Sample report
What you see after a check-in cycle
Click a factor, switch teams, or step through identify, assess, control and review. This is a sample for a fictional organisation with invented numbers.
Sample cycle, quarterly check-ins
Riverbend Freight Co.
Employees spoken to
81%
194 of 240
Unsuccessful contacts
11
to follow up
MHFR sessions booked
9
Avg. call duration
7:40
Work organisation
- Job security & precarious workNo signal this cycle
Social factors
- Organisational & workgroup cultureNo signal this cycle
- ⚠HarassmentNo signal this cycle
- ⚠Violence at workNo signal this cycle
Work environment
Work organisation · across all teams
Workload & work pace
- Mentions
- 28
- People who raised it
- 19
- Peak severity
- Chronic
- Trend vs prior
- ↑ 18%
By team
- Warehouse12
- Transport10
- Customer service4
- Finance and admin2
What people said, de-identified
- Shifts have been short-staffed most weeks since peak season started.
- Pick targets went up without a change to breaks or rosters.
- People are skipping breaks to keep up with the dock schedule.
Plain-language summaries, never anyone's own words.
All 20 factors are listed, including those where nothing surfaced. No signal means nothing was raised this cycle; it is not an assessment that the factor is safe or controlled.
- Team hiddenFewer than five people, rolled up into the totals
92 people · this cycle
Warehouse
Top factors raised
- 1Workload & work pace
- 2Job demands
- 3Support & supervision
Themes appear only for groups of five or more. Smaller teams fold into the totals so no one can be singled out.
Every person was offered a check-in this cycle, so hazards surface from the whole workforce, not only the people who speak up.
In this sample, Workload & work pace and Job demands surfaced most, concentrated in Warehouse and Transport. One escalation factor was raised and followed up.
Each theme carries a severity mix, the number of people who raised it and the trend against the last cycle.
Workload was raised by 19 people, mostly at strain and distress, up 18% on the prior cycle. That is the assessment input: how widespread, how serious, which way it is moving.
Your leaders and responders decide the controls, in consultation with the people affected. The report shows where to act first.
Example controls a business might record: rebalance peak rosters in Warehouse, add a mid-shift break, give Transport earlier notice of roster changes.
The next cycle is comparable with this one, so you can see whether exposure fell after you acted, not only whether actions were done.
Working hours & schedule is down 6% after last cycle's change to roster notice. Leadership is down 10%.
Hear a sample check-in call
A short sample of the check-in your people would receive. Take it on your mobile, or listen in your browser.
Sample Check-in Call
A short, confidential check-in, just like the ones we run for your team.
Uses your microphone · about five to ten minutes
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Published pricing
Proactive EAP, by cadence
We call every person, on a schedule you choose. Pricing is per person per month, set by how often we call and who makes the call.
| Cadence | AI assisted | 100% human |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $12 | $48 |
| Every second month | $6 | $24 |
| Quarterly | $4 | $16 |
| Twice a year | $2 | $8 |
Every plan includes:
- A call with every person, up to three attempts to reach them
- De-identified themes and a strategy read each period, mapped to recognised psychosocial factors
- Referral to a Mental Health First Responder or psychologist when someone wants it
All prices AUD, excluding GST, per person per month.
Full pricing, including support cover and the appFrequently asked questions
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