Turn psychosocial hazards into a register you can act on.
Australian duty holders are required to identify, assess, and control psychosocial hazards in the workplace, and to keep genuine evidence that they did. Most organisations are trying to do that with disconnected tools, static reports, and spreadsheets that don't hold up when an inspector arrives.
- DUTY
- WHS Regs 55A–55D
- FRAMEWORK
- SWA Model Code of Practice
- STANDARD
- AS/NZS ISO 45003:2021
- OUTPUT
- Audit-ready hazard register
THE PROBLEM
Psychosocial hazards are now a regulated risk. Spreadsheets aren't keeping up.
The duty to manage psychosocial hazards has been in force nationally since 2022. In most states and territories, an approved code of practice sets the standard a regulator or court will measure you against. In NSW, compliance with an approved code became effectively mandatory from 1 July 2026. In Victoria, the OHS (Psychological Health) Regulations commenced 1 December 2025. The regulation is not new. Enforcement is catching up.
The problem is not the law. The problem is how organisations are responding to it.
THE CONSULTANT MODEL
Expensive. Not scalable.
Organisations spend significant budgets on psychosocial risk consultants. They receive a report. They still don't know what to do next, and they are no more capable of managing the risk themselves than before the engagement started. The next incident, the next inspection, and the next board question all require another engagement.
THE SAFETY PLATFORM MODEL
Records without direction.
Legacy safety platforms capture data. They do not translate it into a prioritised psychosocial hazard register. They do not track control effectiveness. They do not produce the consultation records, review logs, or officer due diligence summaries that regulators and courts are now asking for.
Most organisations are caught between a consultant they cannot afford to keep and a platform that does not drive action. There is a third option, and it was built with someone who has spent 34 years watching both models fail.
FREE, NO OBLIGATION
Want help building this for your organisation?
Book a short walkthrough with our team. We'll help you map out the assessment, the register, and the first control review for your business.
CO-DESIGNED WITH AN EXPERT
Co-designed with a psychosocial safety consultant and former SafeWork NSW inspector.
Deanne Boules
Founder & Chief Enabling Officer, We Are Human Co
Deanne began her career as a NSW Police Officer before moving into workplace health and safety as a WorkCover NSW / SafeWork NSW inspector. Over 34 years she has held senior and executive roles across complex national and international organisations, and has spent the last 13 years running her own specialist consultancy.
Her work spans psychosocial risk management, workplace psychology, WHS strategy, Human-Centred Safety®, safeguarding, and organisational change. She has worked with organisations including the Sydney Opera House, CSIRO, Microsoft Australia, Blackmores, Coates Hire, NSW Office of Sport, Pfizer, Fujitsu ANZ, and Novartis.
“After 34 years in psychosocial risk consulting, I kept seeing the same pattern. Organisations spending significant budgets. Getting a report. And still not knowing what to actually do next. The regulation has changed. The response hasn't. That's why I changed how I work, and why I now use SoterAI in my practice.”
We Are Human Co
A specialist People, Safety, Safeguarding and Culture consultancy helping organisations create safer, smarter, and more human workplaces. Human-centred. Evidence-informed. Practical.
WHAT WE BUILT
Five workflows. One connected psychosocial risk management system.
Together, Deanne and SoterAI designed a library of purpose-built psychosocial hazard workflows, aligned to the model WHS Regulations, the Safe Work Australia Model Code of Practice, and AS/NZS ISO 45003:2021. Each workflow does a specific job. Together, they give organisations the capability to manage psychosocial risk themselves, with genuine evidence at every step.
- WORKFLOW 0122 categories · 5 domains
Psychosocial Risk Gap Analysis
Start with where you stand.
Tell SoterAI your industry, workforce size, jurisdiction and focus areas — upload HR data, survey results, incident logs or policies if you have them — and it assesses your psychosocial risk profile against the Safe Work Australia Model Code of Practice and ISO 45003. Twenty-two risk categories across five domains, each rated Red, Amber, Green or Grey, with an industry-specific baseline so a mining operation isn't measured like a call centre.
YOU PROVIDE
Industry, workforce, jurisdiction, existing data
WHAT IT PRODUCES
A full gap analysis report: organisation snapshot, domain dashboard, category-level findings, priority gaps with cost-of-inaction estimates, quick wins, recommended control measures, and a list of the data you're missing. A 2–4 week consulting exercise, done in under 30 minutes.
- WORKFLOW 02~15 risk categories
Psychosocial Survey Builder
The consultation step regulators look for first.
With the People at Work survey closing in October 2026, many teams need a replacement. This workflow designs a psychosocial hazard survey tailored to your industry, size and workforce, rather than handing you a generic template. Questions are generated across roughly 15 psychosocial risk categories, with trauma-informed framing and confidentiality protections applied automatically, and you choose the survey length from options with estimated completion times.
YOU PROVIDE
Industry, size, workforce, desired survey length
WHAT IT PRODUCES
A Word document with the complete survey, response formats, deployment guidance and confidentiality framing — ready to run on your own survey platform. Responses feed straight back into the Gap Analysis.
- WORKFLOW 03Tested against Model Code + ISO 45003
Psychosocial Evidence Capture
A policy on the shelf is not a control in practice.
Upload the records you already hold — incident reports, WHS committee minutes, risk assessments, rosters, training records, survey results, change management documents — and SoterAI classifies each one, extracts what it actually shows, and tests it against the Model Code of Practice and ISO 45003. It's deliberately sceptical: assertions aren't accepted at face value, and weak evidence is flagged.
YOU PROVIDE
Incident reports, minutes, assessments, rosters, records
WHAT IT PRODUCES
A structured validation assessment for every document, rating how strongly it supports compliance, with gaps and recommendations for strengthening your evidence base. A living record for internal assurance, board reporting, tenders and due diligence.
- WORKFLOW 045 report types
Psychosocial Safety Report Generator
The same data, shaped for five different readers.
Choose the report type — quarterly progress for management, code compliance for a regulator, ISO 45003 alignment, a tender or government submission, or officers' due diligence for the board — and the workflow compiles it from the real project data in your SoterAI workspace rather than from self-assessment. It works with you on audience, period, emphasis and structure before drafting.
YOU PROVIDE
Report type, audience, period, workspace data
WHAT IT PRODUCES
A formatted, audience-appropriate report as a downloadable document, built from records rather than recollection, revised with you until it's right.
- WORKFLOW 05Saves 4–8 hrs per case
Psychosocial Risk ROI / Business Case Builder
Knowing the control you need is one thing. Getting it funded is another.
This workflow walks you through a multi-round conversation to quantify the cost of inaction (turnover, absenteeism, claims, lost productivity — supplemented with researched benchmarks), itemise the investment, project a realistic return and confirm the regulatory driver. It pulls context from your workspace first, so you're not starting from a blank page.
YOU PROVIDE
Workspace data, proposed control, regulatory driver
WHAT IT PRODUCES
An executive-ready Word document with an executive summary, quantified problem, proposed solution, ROI calculation, non-financial benefits, risk of inaction, and a clear recommendation — in finance language, not safety language. Saves 4–8 hours per business case.
SEE IT ON YOUR DATA
Want this suite running in your own SoterAI workspace?
We'll walk through the gap analysis, survey builder, and evidence capture with your own documents, not a demo dataset.
WHAT GOES IN, WHAT COMES BACK
Start with one team and one psychosocial risk assessment.
You do not need a complete program to begin. Most organisations start with a single team, a single hazard, or a single piece of existing data.
- STEP 01
Start with what you have
Upload your existing policies, incident reports, previous survey results, or PAW exports. SoterAI reads them. You do not start from zero, and you do not lose data you have already collected.
- STEP 02
Run the workflow
Each workflow has a specific job: risk assessment, hazard register, consultation records, control review, officer summary. You choose where to start. The output of each workflow feeds the next, so your register grows as your program does.
- STEP 03
Keep the result in SoterAI
Every output — assessment, register entry, consultation record, review log — lives in SoterAI. Searchable. Linked. Audit-ready. Not in a consultant's folder or a spreadsheet that only one person can find.
WORKED EXAMPLE · ILLUSTRATIVE
A WHS manager at a 300-person logistics company uploads their last engagement survey and three incident reports flagging workload complaints. SoterAI identifies job demands and low job control as the highest-priority hazards, maps them to the relevant sections of the Model Code, and creates two register entries with recommended controls and a 90-day review date. The manager shares the view with their PCBU officer. Deanne reviews the same record and adds a note on consultation approach. The whole exchange is logged.
WHERE THE DUTY COMES FROM
Model WHS Regulations, codes of practice, and state rules.
The duty to manage psychosocial hazards sits across three layers. SoterAI's workflows are built against all three.
Model WHS Regulations
regs 55A–55D, amended June 2022
The legal duty. PCBUs must identify psychosocial hazards, assess the risks, implement controls so far as is reasonably practicable, and review those controls. Adopted in all harmonised jurisdictions.
SWA Model Code of Practice
Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work
The practical benchmark. The Code identifies the psychosocial hazard categories regulators and courts use to assess whether a PCBU has met its duty. Category counts vary by regulator; SoterAI maps to the SWA Model Code as the national baseline.
AS/NZS ISO 45003:2021
adopted by Standards Australia, 4 July 2023
The international standard for psychological health and safety at work. It is guidance, not law, and is not certifiable. SoterAI's workflows are aligned to ISO 45003; we do not claim certification.
STATE AND TERRITORY RULES — WHAT HAS CHANGED RECENTLY
| JURISDICTION | KEY RULE | STATUS |
|---|---|---|
| NSW | Managing psychosocial hazards at work Code of Practice (SafeWork NSW) | Compliance with an approved code is effectively mandatory from 1 July 2026 under s 26A WHS Act 2011 (NSW). 20 additional psychosocial inspectors deployed (April 2026). |
| VIC | OHS (Psychological Health) Regulations 2025 + Psychological Health Compliance Code | Commenced 1 December 2025. Operates under the OHS Act 2004; terminology is employer/employee, not PCBU/worker. Written prevention plans encouraged, not mandatory. |
| QLD | Managing the risk of psychosocial hazards at work Code of Practice 2022 | Codes mandatory-or-equivalent under s 26A WHS Act 2011 (Qld) since 2018. Sexual harassment prevention plans required from 1 March 2025 where risk is identified. |
| WA | Psychosocial hazards in the workplace: Code of Practice (2022) | In force under WHS Act 2020 (WA) and WHS (General) Regulations 2022 from 31 March 2022. |
| SA | Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work + Sexual and Gender-Based Harassment Codes | Both commenced 19 February 2026. |
| TAS | Model Code adopted as Tasmanian code | Issued 19 September 2024. |
| ACT | Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work Code of Practice | Commenced 27 November 2023. |
| NT | Managing psychosocial hazards at work Code of Practice | Approved 1 July 2023. |
| Comcare | WHS (Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work) Code of Practice 2024 | Approved 13 November 2024. |
ADJACENT OBLIGATIONS (NOT WHS DUTIES, BUT FREQUENTLY CONFUSED WITH THEM)
- Positive duty under s 47C of the Sex Discrimination Act, in force since 13 December 2022; AHRC enforcement powers from 12 December 2023. A separate obligation from WHS, but often triggered by the same hazards.
- Right to disconnect, Fair Work Act, in force for small businesses from 26 August 2025.
WHAT THIS IS — AND WHAT IT ISN'T
Best for hazards you can document, not diagnose.
SoterAI supports the process and the records. It does not replace the duty holder's obligation to consult workers, apply higher-order controls, or exercise professional judgement about individual circumstances.
| SOTERAI CAN HELP WITH | SOTERAI DOES NOT REPLACE |
|---|---|
| Structuring and storing your psychosocial risk assessment | The PCBU's duty to consult workers directly |
| Building and maintaining a psychosocial hazard register | A qualified practitioner's clinical or investigative judgement |
| Capturing consultation records and linking them to hazards | Trauma-informed support for affected workers |
| Tracking control review dates and logging outcomes | Legal advice on your specific obligations |
| Generating officer due diligence summaries | The four-step risk management cycle itself |
IN HER WORDS
“Australia's psychosocial regulatory environment is complex. Many organisations genuinely want to get this right, but they are trying to do so with disconnected tools, static reports, and processes that are costly, time-consuming, and difficult to translate into practical controls. That's why I decided to build something different on SoterAI.”
Questions we would ask too
Start with one team and one hazard register.
Show us where you are. We will show you what a psychosocial risk assessment workflow looks like for your organisation, before anyone builds anything.
Built with Deanne Boules · We Are Human Co · Aligned to the SWA Model Code of Practice, NSW WHS Regulation 2025, and AS/NZS ISO 45003:2021