SafeWork NSW has started its largest psychosocial compliance operation, and inspectors will be looking for evidence

SafeWork NSW announced on 9 October 2026 that, coinciding with World Mental Health Day, it has commenced a further program of proactive visits focused on psychosocial hazards. The six-week operation is the regulator's largest yet targeting psychosocial harms. Inspectors will be visiting businesses across all industries, with a focus on improving compliance with psychosocial risk management obligations. This is not a first visit. The operation follows a statewide program in May and June, during which inspectors visited more than 200 workplaces and issued more than 80 improvement notices relating to psychosocial hazards and risk management. SafeWork NSW says this latest operation will include repeat visits to monitor compliance with those notices. A business that was visited earlier this year should expect that the regulator will come back to see what changed. Commissioner Janet Schorer set out the test: "Inspectors will be looking for evidence psychosocial risks are being actively managed, including how organisations identify hazards arising from the design and management of work." She added that organisations should be able to demonstrate how they identify risks, consult with workers and take action to prevent psychological harms before they occur. That is three things to show: how you found the hazard, how you involved workers, and what you did about it. The demand behind the operation is visible in the regulator's own numbers. 20.5 per cent of all requests for service received by SafeWork NSW now raise psychosocial harm. The top four industries seeking assistance are construction, education and training, healthcare and social assistance, and retail. The regulator has added 20 psychosocial-focused inspectors this year, and callers on 13 10 50 can reach its Psychosocial Advisory Service for guidance. The legal footing also changed this year. Reforms to the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 that took effect on 1 July 2026 require businesses to comply with relevant codes of practice, or to manage hazards and risks in a way that is equivalent or higher than the standard in the code. For psychosocial hazards, that code is Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work. The release does not publish an inspection checklist, so what follows is our reading of what "evidence" is likely to mean in practice. Pick any hazard in your register and ask whether you could show: the hazard named specifically rather than as general "stress" or "workload"; a control that is specific to that hazard; a named person who owns it; a review date that was set and met; and a record of what workers raised and what changed as a result. If you can show those for each hazard, you have an answer to the question the regulator has said it will ask. If you can't, there are still several weeks left to build the record, and it is far easier to do that now than after an inspector has asked. SafeWork NSW is also hosting a Psychological Health and Safety for Small Business seminar on 18 November, inside the operation window, for businesses that want guidance before a visit.