Launch a psychological health and safety program in 10 easy steps

A Psychological Health and Safety (PHS) program is not a wellness calendar, a mental health campaign, or a handful of training sessions. It is a structured, system-based approach designed to help employers meet your Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) duty of care, strengthen the Internal Responsibility System (IRS), and create working conditions that promote mental health while reducing the risk of psychological harm, injuries, and illness.

A PHS program uses the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle to build predictability and continuous improvement into how organizations understand, prevent, and respond to psychosocial risks. Like any credible OHS program, a PHS program must be intentional, defendable, and measurable.

Below is a clear, practical explanation of what a PHS program is and what it is not, along with a simple example of what a basic PHS launch pad program can look like in practice.

A PHS Program is Essential to Workplace Health and Safety

There are many benefits to having a PHS program. On top of promoting mental health and reducing the risk of psychological harm, it will help your organization.

• Meet OHS duty-of-care requirements

• Strengthen the Internal Responsibility System (IRS) by clarifying shared roles

• Reduce mental harm, psychological injuries, and illnesses

• Promote mental health and resiliency

• Improve employee experience, trust, and safety climate

• Reduce absenteeism, turnover, conflict, and risk exposure

• Support leaders with clear processes and expectations

Critical components of a PHS program

A comprehensive PHS program should be woven into every facet of your business. Every employee should understand that you take their psychological health and safety seriously from their first interaction with your organization throughout their employment with you. 

Your program should include:

• Defined tasks, roles, and responsibilities

• A risk-prevention approach focused on psychosocial factors

• Controls designed to reduce exposure to mental harm

• Processes and policies that reinforce safe behaviour

• Training, communication, and capacity building for employees and specialized training for leaders

• Measurement, reporting, and continuous improvement

• A repeatable method leaders can use to prevent and respond to risk

Define the Why, What and How of your PHS Program

WHY: Articulate why a PHS program matters to your organization

First, determine why it is important to your organization to have a PHS program in place. Take the time to consider the reasons that are most meaningful to you and always keep the “why” top of mind in your planning and discussions. Are you putting a program in place to meet your duty of care? Do you want to improve the culture and safety climate in your workplace? Do you want to reinforce the Internal Responsibility System? A PHS program without a clear “why” will lack direction and accountability.

WHAT: Define the program elements

Ask yourself and the other leaders in your organization what specific features do you want to build into your program? You can’t build a sustainable program on vague intentions. 

To get started, begin with a basic PHS plan that provides a realistic, structured starting point to help you focus on the essential building blocks of psychological health and safety before attempting a full PHS Management System.

HOW: Detail the implementation Plan

Detail how your PHS program will be built and maintained by defining clear roles and developing a plan with specific, measurable objectives that includes coordinated actions, communication, measurement, and continuous improvement.

PHS program example: A simple, defendable structure

Below is an example of a 10-Step PHS Launch Pad Plan. It illustrates steps you can take to launch a realistic PHS program, including key coaching considerations to maximize engagement, clarity, and impact.

1. Assign & train a PHS Champion

Designate one person to coordinate the program, complete foundational training (psychosocial hazards, controls, PDCA), and guide the working group.
Coaching focus: Ensure the Champion has clear authority, expectations, and visible support.

2. Establish a PHS working group

Recruit a cross-functional team with representation across all levels of the organization; set expectations for roles, time, and participation.
Coaching focus: Build alignment early, set norms, clarify purpose, and reinforce shared accountability.

3. Define safe & respectful workplace expectations

Review policies to ensure that the program is aligned with OHS/HR requirements. Provide mandatory civility, respect, anti-harassment, and inclusion training.
Coaching focus: Reinforce behavioural expectations consistently and model respectful interactions.

4. Build crisis readiness capacity

Train Crisis Ready Interventionists, define escalation pathways, and integrate psychological injury response processes into HR/OHS systems.
Coaching focus: Normalize early intervention, help-seeking, and “upstander” behaviours.

5. Implement resiliency & mental fitness supports

Offer training to help employees and leaders develop practical micro-skills, mental fitness habits, and resiliency and ensure these behaviours are reinforced by leaders in daily routines.
Coaching focus: Model healthy behaviours, recognize participation, and encourage consistency.

6. Conduct a psychosocial hazard & risk assessment

Use a validated tool to identify workplace “charges” (positive factors) and “drains” (hazards), including workload, civility, role clarity, and leadership behaviours.
Coaching focus: Gather feedback with empathy, communicate “what we heard,” and build trust through openness.

7. Start with one to two priority controls

Select the most important hazards to address and apply targeted controls, such as redesigning work, revising SOPs, providing training, communicating regularly, and implementing environment changes, etc.Coaching focus: Keep scope manageable, celebrate early wins, and ensure controls are specific and measurable.

8. Create a communication & engagement plan

Share the PHS “why–what–how,” provide regular updates, and maintain two-way communication. Provide anonymous feedback channels as an option for those who feel more comfortable sharing this way.
Coaching focus: Communicate early, often, and simply. Clarity drives engagement and trust.

9. Evaluate implementation & impact

Track the completion of identified actions (implementation) and measure whether they had the desired impact, using KPIs, psychosocial scores, and employee feedback.
Coaching focus: Treat evaluation as learning, not judgment stay curious, not defensive.

10. Apply PDCA for continuous improvement

Use the plan-do-check approach to refine controls, strengthen processes, and mature the program over time.
Coaching focus: Reinforce that PHS is a journey, and emphasize progress over perfection when measuring success.

A PHS program should be comprehensive, but it doesn’t need to be complex. And it should clear, coordinated, and consistently reinforced. 

When leaders communicate openly, stay curious, use PDCA, and measure what matters, a PHS program becomes defendable, impactful, and aligned with duty of care and IRS responsibilities. Most importantly it builds trust and reduces risk by defining the behaviours, processes, and controls that show employees that you care about protecting their mental health and safety.

Get to know the authors – Dr. Bill Howatt