Understanding Psychosocial Safety: A Resource for Agency Leaders

There's an important distinction worth understanding: psychological safety is about feeling safe to speak up in a team without fear of being shot down. Psychosocial safety goes broader, it's about the systems, policies and practices that protect mental health across your entire work environment.

The Media Federation of Australia has put together a comprehensive People First Hub specifically for agency leaders, people managers and HR professionals. It includes two key resources:

The Psychosocial Safety Playbook for Leaders covers the fundamentals: understanding the approach, the legal framework and what's expected of leaders, how to design and implement a compliance plan, and best practice methods for managing the risk of harm. It also includes practical tools like checklists, templates and processes.

The Psychosocial Safety Code of Conduct helps agencies work together across the media and marketing industry to meet their WHS duties—both to their own people and to others they work with. It's about creating common industry practices that make our sector safer for everyone.

Psychosocial safety is essential for reducing absenteeism, improving productivity, and creating workplaces where people can actually do their best work. It means addressing the things that cause harm: unmanageable workloads, bullying, harassment, and the kind of chronic stress that leads to burnout.

If you're a leader in this industry, this is worth your time, and of course you're legally required to assess the risks that can affect the psychological safety of your teams!

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