ISO 45001 Revision: How Psychosocial Risks and Work-Related Well-Being Are Changing OH&S Management
Can an occupational health and safety management system be effective if it controls physical hazards but overlooks the risks created by how work is organized?
An organization may have excellent machine guarding, emergency procedures, PPE controls and incident reporting. Yet employees may face excessive workloads, unclear responsibilities, prolonged working hours, harassment, inadequate support or constant pressure to meet unrealistic deadlines.
These conditions may not appear in a conventional workplace inspection. Nevertheless, they can contribute to work-related ill health, fatigue, errors and wider occupational health and safety risks.
This is an increasingly important consideration as the ISO 45001 revision progresses toward its next edition.
The current Draft International Standard, ISO/DIS 45001, is expected to replace ISO 45001:2018 in 2027, although the final publication date and requirements remain subject to the ISO development process.
Among the areas attracting attention are psychosocial hazards, work-related well-being, changing working arrangements, worker consultation and emerging OH&S risks.
However, psychosocial risk management is not entirely new to ISO 45001. The existing standard already addresses the prevention of work-related injury and ill health, while ISO 45003:2021 provides specific guidance on psychological health and safety at work.
The important question is therefore not simply what organizations will need to add when the revised standard is published.
It is whether their existing OH&S management systems adequately recognize and manage the risks associated with the way people actually work.
What Is the Current Status of the ISO 45001 Revision?
ISO 45001:2018 remains the published international standard for occupational health and safety management systems, together with its applicable 2024 climate-action amendment.
ISO/TC 283, the technical committee responsible for ISO 45001, has been developing the next edition.
The revision progressed to the Draft International Standard stage in June 2026, allowing national standards bodies to review and comment on the proposed text.
ISO’s current development information identifies the draft as under development and indicates that the revised standard is expected to replace ISO 45001:2018 in 2027.
Organizations should not treat draft provisions as final requirements or assume that a certification transition deadline has already been established.
The current status can be checked through the official ISO/DIS 45001 page.
Why Are Psychosocial Risks Receiving Greater Attention?
Traditional occupational safety programmes often concentrate on physical hazards such as moving machinery, hazardous substances, working at height, noise and electrical risks.
These remain essential areas of OH&S management.
However, workplace risks can also arise from organizational and social conditions.
Psychosocial hazards may include:
- Excessive or poorly managed workloads
- Unrealistic deadlines
- Low control over work activities
- Unclear responsibilities or conflicting demands
- Bullying, harassment and workplace violence
- Inadequate supervisory or organizational support
- Poor communication during organizational change
- Isolation associated with certain working arrangements
- Inadequate recovery time or poorly managed working hours
These hazards can affect psychological health, but their consequences may extend beyond mental well-being.
Fatigue, reduced concentration and poor communication can also influence operational safety.
For example, a fatigued maintenance technician may be more likely to make an error during a safety-critical activity.
Therefore, psychosocial risks should not automatically be separated from the wider OH&S risk management process.
Psychosocial Hazards vs Psychosocial Risks: Understanding the Difference
A psychosocial hazard is a work-related condition or factor with the potential to cause harm.
Psychosocial risk concerns the potential consequences arising from exposure to that hazard.
Consider a customer-support team required to handle a continuously increasing volume of difficult calls without sufficient staffing or recovery time.
The excessive workload and inadequate support may constitute psychosocial hazards.
Potential consequences could include work-related stress, fatigue, burnout-related symptoms and reduced concentration.
Appropriate assessment should consider the work conditions, exposure, possible harm and existing controls.
Importantly, the presence of a demanding task does not automatically establish that harm will occur.
Risk assessment should consider the actual working circumstances rather than relying on assumptions about individual employees.
1. Workload: When Productivity Targets Become an OH&S Concern
Workload is not simply a human-resources performance issue.
It may become an occupational health and safety concern when the demands placed on workers exceed what can reasonably be managed through the available time, resources, support and controls.
Consider a manufacturing facility operating under sustained delivery pressure.
Production targets increase, but staffing and maintenance capacity remain unchanged.
Workers begin taking shorter breaks, working longer shifts and performing tasks under greater time pressure.
Management may initially view this as a productivity challenge.
However, the same conditions may increase fatigue, reduce attention and contribute to unsafe decisions.
What Should Organizations Evaluate?
- Actual working hours and overtime patterns
- Staffing adequacy for critical activities
- Work pace and production demands
- Availability of rest and recovery periods
- Conflicting priorities between productivity and safety
- Worker feedback about workload
- Relevant incident and near-miss trends
The objective is not to eliminate every demanding task.
It is to identify and manage work-related conditions that create unacceptable risks.
2. Remote and Hybrid Work: New Locations, Different Hazards
Remote work has changed where and how many employees perform their duties.
However, working away from a conventional workplace does not automatically eliminate occupational health and safety risks.
Potential concerns may include:
- Prolonged working hours and difficulty disconnecting
- Social or professional isolation
- Unclear expectations about availability
- Inadequate communication with supervisors
- Workstation ergonomics
- Digital fatigue and excessive meetings
- Reduced access to workplace support
Organizations should consider which risks are relevant to their remote or hybrid activities and what controls are reasonably within their influence.
For example, a remote customer-service team may benefit from clearer working-hour expectations, regular workload reviews and accessible reporting arrangements.
A remote engineering team may need suitable workstation guidance, defined communication channels and procedures for escalating safety-related concerns.
The appropriate approach depends on the work being performed, organizational arrangements and applicable legal obligations.
3. Worker Consultation: Are Employees Involved in Identifying the Risks?
Worker consultation and participation are already important elements of ISO 45001:2018.
The revision discussion reinforces the importance of applying these principles to changing OH&S challenges.
Psychosocial hazards can be particularly difficult to identify through management observation alone.
A supervisor may know that a department has achieved its production targets without understanding the level of fatigue, conflicting instructions or pressure experienced by workers.
Meaningful worker consultation can help reveal those conditions.
Practical Consultation Methods
- Structured discussions with workers and their representatives
- Confidential feedback channels where appropriate
- Workload and task-design reviews
- Consultation during organizational changes
- Participation in hazard identification and risk assessment
- Follow-up communication about actions taken
However, consultation should not become a symbolic exercise.
Collecting feedback without evaluating it or communicating relevant outcomes can undermine trust.
Organizations should also take care to protect sensitive personal information and avoid creating situations where employees feel pressured to disclose private medical details.
4. Work-Related Well-Being: Beyond Wellness Programmes
Many organizations associate employee well-being with wellness campaigns, counselling services, fitness initiatives or awareness events.
Such activities may be useful.
However, they should not be treated as substitutes for addressing harmful work conditions.
Consider a department experiencing persistent excessive workload.
Management introduces a stress-management workshop but does not review staffing, deadlines or task allocation.
The workshop may help some individuals manage stress.
But the underlying organizational hazard remains.
Effective psychosocial risk management should examine the conditions creating exposure, not rely exclusively on helping individuals tolerate those conditions.
This is an important principle reflected in the approach of ISO 45003:2021.
5. Leadership Accountability: Who Controls the Causes of Work-Related Stress?
Many psychosocial hazards arise from organizational decisions.
Examples include:
- Staffing levels
- Work allocation
- Performance targets
- Shift patterns
- Supervisory practices
- Organizational restructuring
- Communication arrangements
These decisions may be outside the direct control of the OH&S manager.
Therefore, psychosocial risk management often requires meaningful involvement from top management, operational leaders and human resources.
Consider a team experiencing sustained excessive overtime.
The safety department may identify fatigue as a concern.
But reducing the underlying risk may require management decisions about staffing, scheduling, workload or delivery commitments.
If leadership expects the OH&S team to solve the problem without addressing these factors, the organization may struggle to achieve effective control.
6. Emerging OH&S Risks: Why Hazard Identification Must Evolve
Organizations are experiencing changes in technology, climate conditions, workforce arrangements and operating models.
These changes can create new hazards or alter existing exposures.
Examples may include:
- Increased use of automation and digitally monitored work
- Changing human-machine interactions
- Remote supervision of operational activities
- Extreme heat and climate-related working conditions
- New shift and employment arrangements
- Workforce restructuring
- Increased reliance on contractors and outsourced activities
Not every emerging issue will apply to every organization.
However, hazard identification should be reviewed when meaningful changes occur.
An OH&S risk register that remains unchanged despite significant operational transformation may not reflect current working conditions.
7. ISO 45003:2021 and the ISO 45001 Revision: How Are They Connected?
ISO 45003:2021 is titled Occupational health and safety management — Psychological health and safety at work — Guidelines for managing psychosocial risks.
It provides guidance for managing psychosocial risks within an OH&S management system based on ISO 45001.
Its scope includes preventing work-related injury and ill health and promoting well-being at work.
ISO 45003 is a guidance standard, not a separate universal certification requirement under ISO 45001.
Organizations can nevertheless use it to strengthen their existing approaches to psychosocial hazard identification, risk assessment, controls, worker consultation and performance evaluation.
The official ISO 45003:2021 page provides further information about its scope.
8. What Could Change in ISO 45001:2027?
The developing revision has prompted discussion of several areas that may receive greater emphasis.
| Area | Current Management Consideration | Potential Revision Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Psychosocial hazards | Identify and manage relevant work-related risks | Greater explicit attention to psychosocial risk management |
| Worker well-being | Prevent injury and ill health through effective OH&S controls | Stronger emphasis on work-related well-being |
| Remote and hybrid work | Evaluate hazards associated with relevant working arrangements | Greater attention to changing forms of work |
| Worker consultation | Consult and involve workers in OH&S processes | Continued emphasis on meaningful participation |
| Emerging risks | Review hazards when processes and conditions change | Broader consideration of evolving workplace challenges |
| Leadership | Provide resources, accountability and commitment | Potentially stronger focus on organizational conditions and preventive culture |
These are areas of anticipated emphasis, not a definitive clause-by-clause comparison with a published final edition.
A Practical Scenario: A Workplace With No Major Accidents but Rising Fatigue
Consider a hypothetical logistics organization with a strong record of controlling physical hazards.
Vehicle inspections are completed. Equipment maintenance is documented. Employees receive safety training.
However, customer demand increases significantly.
Drivers and dispatch personnel begin working longer hours. Breaks become inconsistent. Supervisors face pressure to maintain delivery performance.
The organization reports no major accidents during the period.
Does that automatically mean its OH&S risks are adequately controlled?
Not necessarily.
The absence of a major incident does not establish the absence of significant risk.
A meaningful assessment might examine working hours, fatigue indicators, scheduling arrangements, near misses and worker feedback.
Management may then need to consider changes to staffing, delivery planning, work allocation or recovery arrangements.
The key lesson is that safety performance cannot be evaluated solely through historical accident statistics.
How Can Internal Auditors Evaluate Psychosocial Risk Management?
Internal auditors should evaluate whether relevant psychosocial hazards are identified and managed through the organization’s established OH&S processes.
They should avoid treating the subject as a clinical assessment of individual employees.
An internal auditor is not automatically qualified or authorized to diagnose psychological conditions.
The audit should focus on management system arrangements, implementation and effectiveness.
Potential Audit Questions
- Has the organization considered psychosocial hazards relevant to its activities?
- Are workload, working hours and organizational changes evaluated where relevant?
- Are remote and hybrid work arrangements included where applicable?
- How are workers consulted about relevant hazards?
- Are significant concerns escalated appropriately?
- What controls address identified organizational hazards?
- Are supervisors aware of their OH&S responsibilities?
- Does management evaluate the effectiveness of controls?
- Are relevant trends considered during management review?
- Does the organization update its assessments when working conditions change?
These questions are a practical review aid and not an ISO-prescribed audit checklist.
What Evidence Could Demonstrate Effective Psychosocial Risk Management?
| Area | Potential Evidence |
|---|---|
| Hazard identification | Work-related psychosocial hazard assessments |
| Worker consultation | Consultation records and appropriate follow-up actions |
| Workload management | Working-hour reviews, staffing evaluations, scheduling changes |
| Remote work | Relevant risk assessments and communication arrangements |
| Leadership | Resource decisions and management actions |
| Control effectiveness | Relevant trend analysis and follow-up assessments |
| Organizational change | Change-related hazard identification and controls |
| Management review | Review of significant OH&S concerns and improvement actions |
Evidence should be proportionate to the organization’s context and risks.
Organizations should also protect worker confidentiality and avoid unnecessarily collecting or disclosing individual health information.
How to Prepare for the ISO 45001 Revision Before Publication
Organizations do not need to wait for the final edition before improving known weaknesses in their OH&S management systems.
Step 1: Review the Current ISO 45001 System
Evaluate whether existing hazard identification and risk assessment processes adequately cover the organization’s current working arrangements.
Step 2: Identify Relevant Psychosocial Hazards
Consider workload, working hours, organizational relationships, management practices and other relevant conditions.
Step 3: Consult Workers
Use appropriate consultation methods to understand how work is performed and where concerns may exist.
Step 4: Assess Existing Controls
Determine whether identified risks are being managed through effective organizational and operational measures.
Step 5: Review Leadership Responsibilities
Ensure significant risks are addressed by people with authority over the relevant working conditions and resources.
Step 6: Use ISO 45003 as Supporting Guidance
Consider the guidance of ISO 45003:2021 where relevant to psychosocial risk management.
Step 7: Monitor the Revision Process
Review the final published ISO 45001 edition when available and assess confirmed changes before establishing a formal transition plan.
What Organizations Should Avoid During Revision Preparation
- Presenting draft ISO 45001 provisions as final certification requirements
- Assuming psychosocial risks can be addressed solely through wellness campaigns
- Treating worker consultation as a one-time survey
- Collecting sensitive health information unnecessarily
- Assigning all responsibility to the safety department
- Ignoring workload and management practices when evaluating risks
- Assuming remote work is outside the OH&S management system
- Creating unnecessary documentation without improving actual controls
How Shark Certification Can Support OH&S Management Improvement
The developing ISO 45001 revision provides organizations with an opportunity to evaluate whether their OH&S systems reflect current and emerging workplace conditions.
Shark Certification supports organizations through management system audits, professional training and management system consultancy.
Organizations preparing for the next ISO 45001 edition can begin by reviewing existing hazard identification, worker consultation, leadership practices and risk management arrangements.
Where relevant, this can include examining psychosocial risks, changing work patterns and the effectiveness of existing preventive controls.
Contact Shark Certification to discuss ISO 45001 readiness, OH&S management system improvement and internal audit support.
Frequently Asked Questions
When will the revised ISO 45001 standard be published?
The next edition is expected in 2027. However, the exact publication date remains subject to the ISO development and approval process.
Is ISO 45001:2027 already published?
No. As of October 2026, ISO 45001:2018 remains the published edition, while the revised standard is under development.
What are psychosocial hazards in occupational health and safety?
Psychosocial hazards are work-related conditions associated with work organization, social factors and the working environment that have the potential to cause psychological or other health-related harm.
Does ISO 45001:2018 already cover psychological health?
Yes. The existing OH&S management system framework addresses the prevention of work-related injury and ill health, including relevant psychological health risks.
What is the relationship between ISO 45001 and ISO 45003?
ISO 45001 specifies OH&S management system requirements. ISO 45003:2021 provides additional guidance for managing psychosocial risks within an ISO 45001-based system.
Does ISO 45001 require a mental health survey?
There is no universal requirement for every organization to use one specific mental health survey. Organizations should select suitable methods for identifying and assessing relevant hazards while protecting privacy.
Are remote workers included in OH&S risk management?
Relevant hazards associated with remote working arrangements should be considered within the organization’s OH&S responsibilities, taking account of the work, organizational control and applicable legal requirements.
Can excessive workload be an OH&S hazard?
Yes. Excessive workload and inadequate recovery arrangements can contribute to psychosocial risks and, in some circumstances, wider operational safety concerns.
Why is worker consultation important for psychosocial risk management?
Workers often have direct knowledge of workload, working conditions, communication problems and other hazards that may not be visible through management observation alone.
Should organizations begin preparing before the revised standard is published?
Yes. Organizations can review and improve existing OH&S risk management practices now, while waiting for the final edition before treating proposed revisions as confirmed new requirements.
Conclusion: The Next Stage of OH&S Management Is Broader Than Physical Safety
Physical hazards remain central to occupational health and safety management.
But an effective OH&S system must also consider how work is organized, how employees are supported and how management decisions influence risk.
The ISO 45001 revision reflects growing attention to these issues, particularly psychosocial hazards, work-related well-being and changing forms of work.
Organizations should not wait for a future certification deadline to examine known risks.
They can begin by reviewing workload, consultation arrangements, leadership practices and emerging hazards within their existing management systems.
The absence of a physical accident does not automatically mean the absence of work-related harm.
A mature OH&S management system protects people not only from hazardous equipment and environments, but also from harmful conditions created by the way work is designed and managed.
