Abstract
PurposeWork-related psychosocial risks are an increasingly important issue in occupational safety and health (OSH) policy. In Germany, as in many other European countries, employers are legally required to carry out workplace risk assessments (WRAs) and to account for psychosocial factors when doing this. The aim of this study was to expand the still scarce and sketchy empirical evidence on the extent to which employers comply with these obligations, as well as on possible determinants of compliance behaviour.MethodsSurvey data from 6500 German companies were used to calculate the prevalence of workplace risk assessments that include psychosocial factors. Furthermore, multinomial logistic regressions were performed to explore which company characteristics influence the chance of psychosocial risk assessment occurrence.ResultsThe prevalence of psychosocial risk assessments was 21%. Next to company size (OR = 5.7, 95% CI 3.0–11.0), availability of safety specialist assistance (OR = 3.5, 95% CI 2.6–4.6), availability of occupational health specialist assistance (OR = 3.4; 95% CI 2.6–4.4) and inspection by OSH authority (OR = 3.4, 95% CI 2.4–4.7) were the strongest predictors of psychosocial risk assessment occurrence. Smaller (but still significant) effect sizes were found for the level of knowledge about legal OSH requirements, training of managers in OSH, economic situation of the company, presence of a works council, positive view on the benefit of OSH, affiliation with the production sector and magnitude of psychosocial risks within the company.ConclusionsThe study results indicate large deficiencies in the implementation of psychosocial risk assessments, especially for small companies. Findings suggest that enhancing companies’ utilisation of professional OSH experts and strengthening the advisory and control capacities of the OSH inspection authorities in the area of psychosocial risks would be beneficial for improving the current situation.
Highlights
Stress at work is an important public health issue, as it contributes to the development of several widespread forms of physical and mental illness, such as coronary heart disease (Kivimäki et al 2012) and depression (Madsen et al 2017), burdening companies and society with high costs (European Agency for Safety and Health at Work 2014a)
The second question referred to the kind of hazards that were considered in the company’s workplace risk assessments (WRAs): “(A) Hazards related to physical inactivity at the job”; “(B) Hazards related to the physical work environment, e.g., noise, heat, cold, dust”; “(C) Hazards related to hard physical work, e.g., carrying heavy loads, unfavourable postures”; “(D) Hazardous working equipment or machinery”; “(E) Hazards related to handling chemical or biological substances”; “(F) Hazards related to psychosocial workload”
One out of six companies has an employee representative body, and specialist assistance in safety and in occupational health is available in 48% and 36% of the responding organisations, respectively. 12% of the respondents confirmed that during the two and a half years prior to the survey, there had been an inspection that involved the topic of psychosocial risk assessment
Summary
Stress at work is an important public health issue, as it contributes to the development of several widespread forms of physical and mental illness, such as coronary heart disease (Kivimäki et al 2012) and depression (Madsen et al 2017), burdening companies and society with high costs (European Agency for Safety and Health at Work 2014a). Work stress arises from an unfavourable psychosocial work environment, which includes aspects related to task layout, performance standards, work organisation, working time arrangements. Profound economic, societal and political changes have led to a considerable (and still ongoing) transformation of the psychosocial work environment, making it increasingly relevant to the health of employees. The proliferation of interconnected information and communication technology entails a tendency towards accelerating business and work processes as well as making jobs more mentally demanding. Driven by the ever-tightening global competition, many companies resort to frequent restructurings, ‘lean’ organisational practices, goal-oriented performance management methods or various forms of contingent work. Many employees have to deal with an increase in flexibility and mobility requirements, job-related uncertainty and work intensity (Kompier 2006; Korunka and Kubicek 2017)
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