A Web-based Tool to Identify Workplace Bullying Risk

Worldwide, many employees experienced serious workplace bullying; this has significant negative mental health impacts for workers.

There is a gap between research and practice for workplace bullying prevention. Research studies highlighted aspects of the work environment as key contributing factors, but common anti-bullying strategies placed responsibility on individual employees to behave well and report bullying when anti-bullying procedures fail.

Rather than focussing on bullying behaviour which is the tip of the iceberg, effective bullying prevention must target the underlying organisational risk factors. Practical tools are required to help organisations provide safe working conditions free of bullying, as required by work health and safety law.

We have developed a risk audit tool that enables an organisation-centric approach towards prevention of bullying activities at work, as well as promotion of workplace mental health. Such an approach addresses the risks for staff bullying and mental health problems within the organisational system itself. Mitigating risks arising from organisational structures, policies, procedures, and processes.

Specifically, the risk audit tool:

• Enables organisations to identify and reduce the organisational risk factors for workplace bullying and strain, thereby supporting sustainable and effective bullying and stress prevention.
• Enhances compliance with work health and safety legislation to provide a safe working environment by managing psychosocial hazards.

The web tool can be used for:

• prevention of bullying,
• compliance with Work Health and Safety (WHS) legislation,
• risk management of psychosocial hazards,
• benchmarking bullying risk against the sector, and
• informing responses to bullying complaints.

This tool will be beneficial for large commercial businesses, government departments, national and state WHS regulators, unions, and other employee associations.

We are seeking direct customers of the workplace bullying tool and research partners to develop new tools.

• Facilitates evidence-based practice for creating a mentally healthy workplace
• Supports sustainable and effective bullying and stress prevention
• Enhances compliance with legislation to provide a safe working environment and systems of work