ISO 45003 explained for Australian employers
ISO 45003 is the international guideline for managing psychological health and safety at work. It is useful, widely referenced and often misunderstood. This guide explains what it is, what it is not, and how it fits alongside Australian work health and safety law.
What ISO 45003 is
ISO 45003:2021, Occupational health and safety management: Psychological health and safety at work: Guidelines for managing psychosocial risks, was published by the International Organization for Standardization in June 2021. It gives guidance on managing psychosocial risk as part of an occupational health and safety management system based on ISO 45001, and it is intended for organisations of all sizes and in all sectors.
What it is not
- It is a guideline, not a set of requirements. ISO 45003 explains how to manage psychosocial risk within a management system. Organisations that want certification certify their occupational health and safety management system to ISO 45001.
- It is not Australian law. Regulators enforce the WHS or OHS Acts, regulations and codes of practice in each jurisdiction. ISO 45003 can help structure how you meet those duties, but aligning to it does not by itself show compliance with them.
How it relates to ISO 45001
ISO 45001 sets out requirements for an occupational health and safety management system: leadership and worker participation, planning, support, operation, performance evaluation and improvement. ISO 45003 applies that structure to psychological health and safety. An organisation already running an ISO 45001 system can use ISO 45003 to make sure psychosocial hazards are handled with the same rigour as physical ones, rather than in a separate wellbeing silo.
How it fits with Australian codes of practice
Australian psychosocial codes and ISO 45003 point in the same direction: identify hazards arising from how work is organised, the social environment and the working environment; control the risks, favouring changes to work design over individual coping; involve workers; and check whether controls work. The codes tell you what your regulator expects. ISO 45003 offers a management-system frame for doing it consistently across sites and over time. Where they differ, the law in your jurisdiction prevails; see the codes of practice by state guide.
Putting it into practice
- Leadership commitment. Make psychosocial risk a standing item for the people accountable for health and safety, with resources and named owners.
- Worker participation. Consult workers and their representatives on hazards and controls. They know where the pressure points are.
- Hazard identification. Use more than one source: consultation, incident and leave data, and a structured anonymous survey with small groups suppressed so nobody can be identified.
- Control. Prioritise changes to how work is designed, resourced and managed. Treat training and individual support as complements to those changes, not substitutes.
- Performance evaluation. Measure the hazard profile before and after controls, and track whether actions were completed. Without measurement there is no evidence that a control worked.
- Improvement. Feed what you learn back into planning on a regular cycle.
Measurement: hazard surveys and individual screening are different jobs
Workforce-level hazard measurement asks how the work is affecting people in aggregate, and it must be anonymous to get honest answers. Individual-level screening, using validated instruments such as the K10, PHQ-9 or WHO-5, checks on individual wellbeing and routes people to support. Screening tools are not diagnostic and should run under clinical governance, with results kept inside a confidential support relationship. Keeping the two strictly separate protects trust in both.
Where CaseNote fits
CaseNote's psychosocial hazard survey is an anonymous 24-item instrument across eight hazard categories, aligned to ISO 45003, with results suppressed for groups smaller than five and benchmarked against your own baseline and targets. Alignment is our own design claim; CaseNote is not certified to, or endorsed by, ISO.
Related guides
- Psychosocial hazards at work
- Psychosocial codes of practice by state
- Tracking potentially traumatic events
Sources
- International Organization for Standardization, ISO 45003:2021 Occupational health and safety management: Psychological health and safety at work: Guidelines for managing psychosocial risks (Edition 1, June 2021).
- Safe Work Australia, Model Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work (July 2022).
- WorkSafe Victoria, Compliance code: Psychological health, and the Occupational Health and Safety (Psychological Health) Regulations 2025 (Vic).
This guide is general information, not legal, clinical or professional advice. Check current legislation and guidance with the relevant regulator, and seek professional advice for your circumstances. CaseNote is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, any organisation named in this guide.