SafeWork NSW psychosocial operation 2026: what to expect

What SafeWork NSW announced

SafeWork NSW published a media release about a six-week compliance operation focused on psychosocial hazards. It calls the operation its largest yet on the subject. The release says it coincides with World Mental Health Day 2026 and describes the visits as proactive.

Inspectors are visiting businesses across all industries. In the regulator’s words their focus is improving compliance with psychosocial risk management obligations. The table at the end of this guide quotes each of these points from the release itself.

What happened last time

The release points to an earlier statewide program in May and June 2026. Inspectors visited more than 200 workplaces and issued more than 80 improvement notices about psychosocial hazards and risk management.

This operation includes repeat visits to monitor compliance with the notices issued. A notice from the earlier round is followed up, not forgotten. If your business received one, keep the notice and the record of what you did about it together.

Where construction sits

The release says the top four industries seeking psychosocial assistance are construction, education and training, healthcare and social assistance, and retail. That is a list of who asks SafeWork NSW for help. It isn’t a list of who gets inspected, because the release says the visits cover all industries.

What an inspector is likely to ask a builder

The release doesn’t publish a checklist, and we won’t invent one. It does say what inspectors are looking for: evidence that psychosocial risks are being actively managed, including how a business identifies hazards arising from the design and management of work. The SafeWork Commissioner adds that a business should be able to show how it identifies risks, consults with workers and acts to prevent harm before it happens.

Read as questions a site manager might hear, that comes out as something like this. It is a way to prepare, not a SafeWork NSW script.

• How do you find psychosocial hazards on this job, such as workload, rosters, poor support or bullying?
• Who did you talk to about them, and where is that written down?
• What did you change, and when?
• How can a worker raise a concern without going through the person it is about?
• Did you go back and check that the change worked?

Records to have ready

Whatever the exact questions, the answer is a record. These are the papers that make the answers quick to give.

• A risk assessment that names the psychosocial hazards for the job and says how you found them
• Consultation notes: who was asked, when, and what they said
• The ways a worker can raise a concern, including one that doesn’t go through their supervisor
• What you changed, with dates and a named owner for each change
• Follow-up: the check that the change worked, and any further change after it
• Toolbox talk or training sign-ons, if you used them

The Commissioner links safe workplaces to workers feeling safe to speak up about concerns. A channel that exists on paper but that nobody uses won’t show that. Dated reports and what came of them will.

The code of practice behind it

The release says reforms to the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 came into effect on 1 July 2026. They introduced new legislative requirements for businesses to comply with relevant codes of practice, or to manage hazards and risks in a different way that is equivalent or higher than the standard in the code. It names the Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work Code of Practice. Read the code itself on the SafeWork NSW website, and our NSW psychosocial page covers what the regulator publishes.

Where to get guidance

SafeWork NSW says it now operates a Psychosocial Advisory Service, and invites callers to ring 13 10 50 for guidance and advice. If you aren’t sure what applies to your sites, that is the regulator’s own route.

Where Haznote fits

Haznote doesn’t assess your psychosocial risks, and it can’t tell you whether you comply. It covers one part of the evidence: what workers raised, when, and what happened next.

• A worker can mark a report confidential. It goes to the company’s confidential contact, an appointed Representative if there is one and otherwise an Admin, and it stays out of the site manager’s queue
• Every report is kept with its time, its place and the worker’s own words. Reports are marked, never deleted, so the history reads in order
• The AI suggests a category and a person confirms or edits it. The AI’s original and the person’s edit are stored separately
• An Admin can export a confidential PDF, watermarked on every page, and a confidential register PDF
• Where a site allows anonymous reports, a worker can send one. That is best-effort, because voice and photos can still identify a person

A confidential channel controls who sees a report. The company appoints the Representative, so it isn’t independent of the employer. It doesn’t replace a call to SafeWork NSW, and it doesn’t decide whether behaviour is bullying or harassment. People do.