New Report Highlights the Impact of Psychosocial Risks on Worker Health
Image credit: Paramount Pictures
A new report from the International Labour Organization (ILO), titled "The Psychosocial Work Environment: Evolutions and Global Action Paths", sounds the alarm on the effects of working conditions on employee health worldwide. According to the report, over 840,000 deaths per year are linked to psychosocial risks at work. These risks include long working hours, job insecurity, high pressure, and workplace harassment. The figure was calculated by combining several factors: the main stress factors at work (high pressure, long hours, job insecurity, imbalance between effort and reward, harassment) and medical studies showing their impact on health, including cardiovascular diseases, mental disorders, and suicide. These data were then cross-referenced with global health statistics provided by the World Health Organization and the Global Burden of Disease study.
Key Findings
- Psychosocial risks at work result in the loss of approximately 45 million years of healthy life worldwide.
- The report highlights that these factors can lead to serious illnesses, particularly cardiovascular diseases and mental health problems, which can even lead to suicide.
- Beyond the human impact, the study also highlights significant economic costs. These risks represent around 1.37% of the global gross domestic product each year, due to productivity losses and healthcare expenses.
Understanding the Psychosocial Work Environment
The psychosocial work environment refers to everything that influences how we work and experience our job on a daily basis. This includes task organization, company management, relationships between colleagues, and rules established in the professional setting. It is based on three main levels:
- The nature of work: This refers to the tasks, workload, responsibilities, and whether the work matches the employee's skills.
- Work organization: This concerns how work is structured, including schedules, workload, pace, autonomy, clarity of missions, and support received.
- Company rules and policies: This includes more general systems, such as employment conditions, compensation, change management, stress prevention, harassment prevention, and workplace safety.
The Evolving Nature of Psychosocial Risks
The report notes that psychosocial risks have existed for a long time but are taking on a new dimension with the evolution of the work world, such as digitalization, artificial intelligence, remote work, and new forms of employment. These changes can exacerbate certain risks or create new ones if not properly managed, while also offering opportunities to improve work organization and flexibility.
Conclusion
For the International Labour Organization, these issues are becoming central to worker health and safety. Better consideration of the psychosocial environment is essential for protecting employee well-being and improving organizational performance.
