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Background on Risk Assessment of Psychosocial Hazards

The risk assessment of psychosocial hazards is legally required. The goal is not to document problems – but to take concrete measures to improve working conditions.

According to § 5 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, employers must assess psychosocial hazards in the workplace and take appropriate measures. Implementation is monitored by supervisory authorities. The Initiative New Quality of Work describes the requirements for this process at www.gda-psyche.de.

Your Role in the Measures Process​

When stress indicators become visible in the portal – i.e., anomalies in your team's data – you as a manager are obligated to derive measures from this.

This means specifically:

  1. Recognize stress – carefully analyze your team's data.
  2. Understand what's behind it – e.g., through follow-up questions to the team or individual conversations.
  3. Develop ideas – think solution-oriented together with the team.
  4. Decide and implement measures – share responsibility in the team.
  5. Document measures – enter as task in the suggestion module and assign to the team.

Only when it is visible for each organizational unit (department, team) what was done when by whom is the risk assessment considered completely documented.

Inspections by Supervisory Authorities​

Compliance with the risk assessment of psychosocial hazards is monitored by the responsible occupational safety authorities or occupational accident insurance associations – not constantly, but repeatedly. There are three typical triggers for an inspection:

  1. Routine control: Every few years, an authority may randomly inspect your company as part of their regular audits.
  2. After overload report or whistleblowing: If an employee officially reports an overload – or contacts a supervisory authority anonymously – a targeted inspection is conducted to see if and how the risk assessment was implemented.
  3. In the case of a claim with the occupational accident insurance association: If a psychological illness case is recognized as work-related (e.g., through an expert opinion or as part of a rehabilitation process), the BG checks whether an appropriate risk assessment was in place.
  4. In a labor court proceeding: For example, in the case of illness-related dismissal, risk assessments are regularly reviewed by the labor court. If this is considered incomplete, the employer routinely loses.

Especially in cases 2, 3, and 4, there are very detailed follow-up questions at the department or team level. The inspectors then ask specific questions such as:

  • "According to the evaluation, there is an overload in the area of workload here – what have you done?"
  • "Where was this documented?"
  • "Who was responsible, until when, and what was implemented?"

Without reliable, traceable documentation – such as in the suggestion module – the manager quickly gets into trouble explaining. And the company also comes under pressure. Incomplete documentation can have serious legal and insurance consequences in such cases.

Different Responsibility Levels​

Not every measure can (or should) be implemented by you as a manager. Generally:

  • Strategic-systemic measures (e.g., too high performance pressure due to target specifications) or
  • Expert measures (e.g., changes in personnel planning, adaptation of IT systems)

are initiated and responsible by the steering committee. But:

💡 Suggestions from the team or from you on such topics are very welcome!

Please also enter them in the suggestion module – as suggestion, not as task. The implementation is then not your responsibility, but you should follow up on what became of it.

Sometimes Frustration Arises – and How We Break Through It​

Some managers report that they feel they have "reported certain problems a thousand times" – and nothing happens. This exists. It's also true: In some organizations, topics are filtered, weakened, or simply lost on their way through hierarchies.

But the portal creates new visibility:

  • Your entries in the suggestion module remain preserved.
  • They are visible to the steering committee and responsible parties.
  • They can no longer disappear, even if superiors don't pass them on.
The Appropriateness of Measures is Reviewed

Even if it's tedious – write it down. Now is the right moment to pass on things that have been said before. And if you want: Address it openly, that's exactly what the dialogue with the steering committee is for.

The steering committee cannot enforce measures. The decision-making powers are as they are. But the employer cannot do nothing either, because in an inspection, the appropriateness of the measures taken is always also evaluated by the supervisory authorities.

📌 Further information and legal foundations can be found at: 👉 www.gda-psyche.de