When an employee raises a psychosocial hazard complaint, your response in those first critical hours and days will shape whether the situation gets resolved constructively or spirals into something far more damaging. This guide walks you through the entire process, from the moment you receive a complaint through to resolution and follow-up.

What Are Psychosocial Hazards?

Safe Work Australia defines psychosocial hazards as anything that could cause psychological harm, including harm to someone's mental health. These hazards stem from the way work gets designed, organised, and managed, as well as from workplace relationships and social interactions.

The Commonwealth Code of Practice identifies 17 common psychosocial hazards that organisations need to manage. The most common include:

• Workplace bullying and harassment: Repeated unreasonable behaviour that creates a health and safety risk. Note that reasonable management action carried out in a reasonable manner is not bullying.

• Excessive workload and job demands: Unrealistic deadlines, sustained high-intensity work, or insufficient resources.

• Lack of role clarity: Uncertainty about responsibilities, reporting lines, or performance expectations.

• Poor organisational change management: Restructures or process changes without proper consultation or support.

• Remote or isolated work: Physical or psychological isolation limiting access to supervision and support.

• Violence and aggression: Threats, intimidation, or physical violence from colleagues, clients, or the public.

• Inadequate support: Insufficient training, feedback, recognition, or supervisory guidance.

The 2024 Commonwealth Code also added job insecurity, fatigue, and intrusive surveillance.

Your Legal Obligations

Work health and safety legislation now explicitly recognises psychological health as equal in importance to physical safety. Under the model WHS laws, a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) must eliminate or minimise psychosocial risks so far as is reasonably practicable. This duty is non-delegable, meaning you cannot contract it out or shift responsibility to others.

Key obligations include identifying psychosocial hazards in your workplace, assessing the risks they pose, implementing appropriate control measures, and regularly reviewing their effectiveness. Under the WHS Regulation 2025, you must also apply the hierarchy of controls when elimination is not reasonably practicable. This means starting with higher-order controls like redesigning how work gets done before relying on lower-order controls like training.

The Fair Work Act 2009 also provides protections against workplace bullying through the Fair Work Commission, which can issue stop-bullying orders. If an employee is dismissed and believes the dismissal was related to their complaint, they have 21 days to lodge an unfair dismissal application with the Fair Work Commission. Employers who terminate employees who have raised complaints face significant legal risk, including claims under the general protections provisions for adverse action.

When you receive a complaint, you must respond in a timely manner that addresses the identified risk and protects the health and safety of everyone involved. Failure to do so can result in regulatory action, prosecution, workers' compensation claims, and civil litigation. Beyond the legal consequences, mishandling complaints will erode trust and damage your workplace culture.

The 10 Principles for Responding to Complaints

The Commonwealth Code of Practice 2024 sets out 10 principles that should guide your response to reports, complaints, or incidents involving psychosocial hazards:

1. Act promptly when you receive a report or complaint

2. Ensure immediate safety of everyone involved

3. Treat all matters seriously regardless of how they are raised

4. Use a trauma-informed approach that recognises workplace responses can escalate or de-escalate distress

5. Maintain confidentiality to the greatest extent possible

6. Be neutral and avoid pre-judging the situation

7. Support all parties throughout the process

8. Do not victimise anyone for raising concerns

9. Communicate process and outcomes clearly to those involved

10. Keep records of all steps taken

Receiving the Complaint

Your Initial Response

When an employee comes forward, your immediate response sets the tone for everything that follows. Listen without interrupting. Thank them for raising the matter. Avoid making promises you might not be able to keep. Reassure them that you take the complaint seriously and explain what happens next.

Acknowledge the complaint in writing within 24 to 48 hours, even if the full investigation will take longer to start. Your acknowledgment should confirm receipt, outline the general process, and provide contact details for ongoing communication.

Confidentiality: What You Can and Cannot Promise

Maintain strict confidentiality throughout the process. Share information only with people who genuinely need to know in order to conduct the investigation or implement control measures.

Be honest with the complainant from the start: complete confidentiality cannot always be guaranteed. You may need to disclose allegations to respondents, and certain legal obligations might require reporting.

Document who has been told what, when, and why. This record demonstrates due care and protects you if questions arise later about how you handled information.

Supporting All Parties

Both the complainant and the respondent deserve support throughout this process. You have a duty of care that extends to all workers, and workplace investigations create stress for everyone involved.

For the complainant: Provide access to your Employee Assistance Program (EAP), assign a contact person for regular updates, and consider interim adjustments to work arrangements if needed.

For the respondent: Inform them of the allegations in enough detail that they can respond meaningfully, remind them of available support services and their right to a support person during interviews, and emphasise that allegations are not findings.

Informal Versus Formal Processes

Not every complaint requires a formal investigation. Consider the nature and severity of the allegations, what the complainant wants, and whether an informal approach could effectively resolve the matter.

Informal resolution might include facilitated conversations, coaching, mediation, or changes to work arrangements. This approach works best when the conduct is less serious, both parties are willing to engage, and the working relationship needs to continue.

Formal investigation becomes appropriate when allegations are serious, when informal approaches have failed, when the complainant requests it, or when you need to establish facts definitively. Formal processes follow structured procedures with documented evidence gathering and clear findings.

Never pressure a complainant to accept informal resolution. Never use informal processes to avoid dealing properly with serious allegations. When in doubt, choose the more robust approach.

Conducting the Investigation

Procedural Fairness

Procedural fairness, also known as natural justice, forms the cornerstone of lawful and effective workplace investigations. According to WISE Workplace, procedurally fair investigations reflect three core principles: a fair hearing, independent and unbiased decision makers, and decisions based on evidence.

A properly conducted investigation is thorough, impartial, timely, and procedurally fair. Plan your approach before you begin. Identify what you need to establish, what evidence exists, and who should be interviewed.

Maintain impartiality. The investigator should have no personal interest in the outcome and no pre-existing relationship with the parties that could create bias.

Gather evidence systematically. Interview relevant witnesses, collect documents, emails, and other records. Consider physical evidence where relevant.

Apply procedural fairness. The respondent must be given a genuine opportunity to understand and respond to allegations before you make any findings. If new evidence comes to light, give them another chance to respond.

Document meticulously. Your documentation should include a timeline of events, dated interview notes, written statements, copies of relevant communications, records of who was told what and when, notes on non-cooperative witnesses, your analysis and reasoning, and all actions taken. Store investigation files separately from personnel files and keep them for at least the relevant limitation period for potential claims.

Interim Risk Control Measures

While the investigation proceeds, you must manage immediate risks. This might involve temporary changes to reporting lines, physical workspace arrangements, rosters, or project assignments.

Frame these measures as precautionary and non-punitive. They exist to manage risk, not to prejudge outcomes.

Resolution and Outcomes

Once the investigation concludes, communicate findings to both parties. The complainant has a right to know whether their complaint was substantiated. However, you may not be able to share details of any disciplinary action taken against the respondent due to privacy obligations.

Communicating with Stakeholders

With the complainant: Provide regular updates on progress and let them know when the investigation concludes and whether their complaint was substantiated.

With the respondent: Inform them of the outcome and any findings against them. Give them a chance to respond before finalising any disciplinary action.

With witnesses: Thank them for their participation and remind them of confidentiality obligations.

With the broader team: Consider whether general messaging about the organisation's commitment to a safe workplace is appropriate, without disclosing details of specific matters.

Potential outcomes range from no action (if allegations are not substantiated) through to coaching, formal warnings, training requirements, role changes, or termination. Whatever action you take should be proportionate to the findings and focused on preventing recurrence.

Even when specific allegations are not substantiated, the complaint may reveal systemic issues that warrant broader attention. A complaint about one manager's behaviour might highlight gaps in leadership training across the entire organisation.

Preventing Retaliation

The Fair Work Act protects workers from adverse action for exercising workplace rights, including making complaints. Make clear to everyone involved that retaliation will not be tolerated and will itself be treated as serious misconduct.

Monitor the complainant's situation in the weeks and months following resolution. Create safe channels for them to report any concerns about adverse treatment.

Retaliation can be subtle. Watch for changes in workload, exclusion from opportunities, social isolation, or other conduct that disadvantages the complainant. Act swiftly if concerns emerge.

When to Seek External Expertise

Consider engaging external specialists when allegations are particularly serious or complex, the respondent is a senior leader, internal resources lack expertise or capacity, impartiality concerns exist, or legal exposure is significant. External investigators bring independence, employment lawyers can advise on legal obligations and risk, and organisational psychologists can assist with assessing harm and designing prevention strategies.

Monitoring and Continuous Improvement

Resolution is not the end. Schedule follow-up conversations with the complainant at regular intervals to ensure the situation has genuinely improved and no adverse consequences have emerged. Review whether the control measures you implemented have been effective.

Use each complaint as a learning opportunity. Ask what systemic factors may have contributed. Consider whether policies need updating. Evaluate whether training is adequate. Reflect on whether your complaints process itself worked well.

This reflective practice strengthens your organisation's capacity to prevent and respond to psychosocial hazards over time.

Final Thoughts

Handling psychosocial hazard complaints well requires more than procedural compliance. It demands genuine commitment to psychological safety as a core organisational value.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

• Delaying the response. Moving slowly signals you do not take the matter seriously.

• Promising complete confidentiality you cannot deliver.

• Letting the investigator also be the decision-maker.

• Failing to give the respondent a genuine opportunity to respond.

• Not following up after resolution to check for retaliation.

• Treating the complaint as an isolated incident rather than looking for systemic factors.

• Poor documentation. If you did not write it down, you cannot prove it happened.

When employees see that complaints get handled fairly, promptly, and with care for everyone involved, they develop trust that speaking up is worthwhile. That trust is the foundation of a healthy workplace culture.

Every complaint, however uncomfortable, is an opportunity to learn, improve, and demonstrate that your organisation takes employee wellbeing seriously. Approach these situations not as problems to manage away, but as chances to build a stronger, safer, more respectful workplace for everyone.

Key References

• Safe Work Australia: Psychosocial Hazards

• Work Health and Safety (Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work) Code of Practice 2024

• Model Code of Practice: Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work

• Fair Work Commission: Bullying

• Fair Work Ombudsman: Bullying in the Workplace

• Comcare: WHS Laws Changes

• Comcare: Psychosocial Hazards

• Clayton Utz: Procedural Fairness in Workplace Investigations

• Clayton Utz: Providing an Opportunity to Respond

• SafeWork NSW: Managing Psychosocial Hazards Code of Practice

• Global Workplace Insider: Commonwealth Code of Practice 2024

• Workplace Mental Health: Employee Assistance Programs

This article provides general information about workplace health and safety requirements and should not be relied upon as legal advice. Requirements vary by jurisdiction and may have changed since publication. Consult relevant codes of practice, regulatory guidance, and qualified advisors for specific circumstances.

ReFresh helps organisations detect, assess, control, and govern psychosocial risk with defensible evidence and systematic WHS compliance. To understand how ReFresh can support your Psychosocial Hazard Compliant obligations, visit refresh.tech.