Culture Plus Executive Papers · No. 01
An executive operating model for psychosocial hazard management and psychosocial risk management in Australia. Written for boards, CEOs, officers and executive teams accountable under WHS legislation.
Free executive white paper · PDF · July 2026 edition · General information, not legal advice
Why it matters
Serious psychological injury claims in Australia have risen 161 per cent in a decade — the largest increase of any injury category. The mental health cost to the national economy is estimated at up to $39 billion a year.
Regulators have moved. Model WHS Regulations, ISO 45003, the SafeWork NSW Code and Comcare's compliance program all now expect psychosocial hazards to be managed at the source — with officers personally on the hook.
Most organisations have not moved with them. Accountability sits at the executive level; the response sits with wellbeing and training. The Blueprint closes that gap.
Increase in serious psychological injury claims over the decade to 2023–24
Annual national cost of mental ill-health in lost participation and productivity
Executive operating model spanning Governance to Employee Experience
Maturity assessment, implementation pathway, decision lens, diagnostic questions, board challenge set and worked examples
What's inside
Three parts. Nineteen chapters. Six executive practical tools. Written as a governance-grade operating model that can be defended to a board, a regulator and the workforce — not a checklist and not a wellbeing programme.
Part I
Reframes psychosocial safety from a wellbeing programme to a director-level governance obligation — and shows why the current corporate response is legally and financially exposed.
Part II
The operating model itself — six pillars, six executive practical tools and a spotlight chapter on the next frontier of psychosocial risk.
Part III
How to operationalise the Blueprint inside real executive rhythms — board papers, committee cadences, decision gates and the questions that force the system to work.
Executive practical tools included
Every executive practical tool in the Blueprint is included in full. Each is designed to be lifted straight into board packs, committee agendas and executive decision-making.
A structured board-ready self-assessment across the Six Pillars. Produces a maturity heatmap, a gap register and a prioritised set of executive actions — the artefact your Audit or Risk Committee can table at the next meeting.
Use it to answer: where would we fail a regulator today?
A staged roadmap moving the organisation from foundation to embedded practice — foundations in 90 days, core operating model within 12 months, full embed scaled to organisational size and risk profile. Each stage names owners, artefacts, decision gates and the evidence required. Designed to plug into existing strategy and risk cycles rather than create a parallel programme.
Use it to answer: what do we do first, who owns it, and how do we know it worked?
A one-page practical tool for pressure-testing material decisions — restructures, resourcing calls, technology deployments, performance framework changes — for psychosocial risk before they are approved. Creates an auditable record of officer due diligence.
Use it to answer: would this decision survive scrutiny after an incident?
A meeting-ready challenge set designed to be tabled at an executive leadership meeting. Pressure-tests whether current controls, accountabilities and evidence would hold under regulator or media scrutiny.
Use it to answer: do our current controls pass the common-sense test?
A director-level diagnostic written for Audit, Risk and People Committees. Helps boards test whether they are receiving the right information, at the right level, with the right evidence of officer due diligence.
Use it to answer: what should the board be asking at the next committee?
Anonymised case constructions showing the Blueprint applied to a restructure, a technology rollout and a serious incident response. Each example includes the decision, the risk analysis, the controls applied and the evidence trail.
Use it to answer: what does this actually look like in our context?
The Six Pillars™
Board and executive accountability, risk appetite, register placement and reporting.
Role clarity, spans of control and restructures assessed for psychosocial impact before approval.
Workload, resourcing, performance frameworks and technology deployment governed at the source.
Officer due diligence, leader capability and manager conduct benchmarked to WHS duties.
Independent verification, psychosocial risk data and audit that executives actually see.
Reporting pathways, response quality, restoration and lived experience of safety.
What you walk away with
Reform-grade Respect at Work, delivered at the heart of government.
NSW Parliament
Culture Plus Consulting was engaged by NSW Parliament to design and deliver Respect at Work and Trauma Informed Response training across its workforce — a flagship reform initiative responding to the Broderick Review of bullying, sexual harassment and sexual misconduct in NSW parliamentary workplaces. This engagement represents a proud achievement in delivering reform-grade Respect at Work training in high-scrutiny environments.
NSW Premier's Department
In an ongoing engagement, Culture Plus Consulting delivers Respect at Work training to the Premier, Ministers and Ministerial staff — a key recommendation of the Goward Review aimed at building respectful, safe and accountable workplaces at the heart of government.
Written for
Free executive white paper
Enter your details to receive the full paper — including the Six Pillars™, the Executive Maturity Assessment™, the Implementation Pathway™, the Executive Decision Lens™, the executive and board challenge sets, and worked examples.
General information only — not legal advice. See full disclaimer.
Related services
Independent advisory to identify, assess and control psychosocial hazards at the source under WHS legislation and ISO 45003.
Advisory & risk assessment →Officer and manager capability to meet due diligence duties and lead safely under model WHS Regulations.
Leadership training →Team-level conditions that prevent psychological harm and enable respectful, high-performing work.
Team training →Governance-level capability for officers on Positive Duty, psychosocial risk and personal accountability.
Executive & board →End-to-end readiness for the AHRC Positive Duty and its intersection with psychosocial safety duties.
Positive Duty →Culture, psychosocial risk and officer due diligence briefings for boards and committees.
Board leadership →Case studies
See how executive teams have used the same operating principles to govern psychosocial risk under WHS legislation and the Positive Duty.
Trusted partners
Felicity has been a trusted partner to our business over a number of years. What really sets her apart is the effort she puts into understanding our culture and how we operate. This understanding comes through clearly in her sessions, making them highly relevant and practical for our team. Her training is consistently engaging, thoughtful and well-delivered, and we continue to receive excellent feedback from participants. The impact is evident in both the quality of the discussions during sessions and how the content is applied afterwards. We look forward to continuing our partnership.
Frequently asked
Psychosocial safety is the state in which the systems that determine work — how it is designed, resourced, led and governed — do not create foreseeable risk of psychological harm. Under Australian WHS legislation, PCBUs must eliminate or minimise psychosocial hazards so far as is reasonably practicable, at the source.
Psychosocial hazard management is the systematic identification, assessment, control and review of workplace hazards that can cause psychological harm — including chronic workload, role conflict, poor change management, unfair performance systems, bullying, harassment and traumatic content exposure.
Psychosocial risk management is the executive governance of the decisions that create psychosocial risk — resourcing, restructures, technology deployment, role design and performance frameworks — assessed and controlled before harm occurs. It sits with officers, not with wellbeing programs.
The Blueprint gives officers a defensible operating model: named accountability, decision-lens assessments before material decisions, psychosocial risk on the enterprise register, and reporting that shows whether the systems generating risk are changing.
Further reading
Disclaimer
The Psychosocial Safety Blueprint™ and this webpage are published by Culture Plus Consulting for general educational and governance purposes only. They do not constitute legal, medical, financial or other professional advice, do not create a consultant–client or lawyer–client relationship, and should not be relied on as a substitute for advice from qualified professionals in your jurisdiction. Regulatory obligations under Australian WHS legislation, ISO standards and related frameworks vary by state, industry and circumstance. Obtain your own advice before acting. Case examples referenced are illustrative constructions, not statements about identifiable organisations or individuals.