What s.27 due diligence actually requires for psychosocial risk

Section 27 of the model WHS Act gives officers, directors and executives, a personal due diligence duty. They must acquire and keep up to date knowledge of WHS matters, and ensure the business has, and uses, appropriate resources and processes to eliminate or minimise risk. That duty cannot be delegated to a People team and forgotten. An officer who has never asked what the organisation's psychosocial hazards are, and what controls are in place, has a gap in their own compliance, not just the company's. A practical test for a board or executive meeting: can each officer name the organisation's top three psychosocial hazards and the current controls for each? If not, the due diligence duty is not being discharged, it is being assumed. The organisations that engage with this early are not just closing a liability gap. Naming hazards and controls forces the underlying work-design conversations, workload, role clarity, environment, that tend to show up later as retention and productivity numbers.