Why psychological health and safety (PHS) is the future of workplace safety

The safety landscape is about to undergo a major transformation. Over the next decade, the biggest threats to workplace safety won’t come from machinery malfunctions or ladder falls. Rather, they’ll come from psychosocial hazards: excessive workload, unsupportive leadership, workplace bullying, and lack or autonomy.

These are the hidden risks that erode attention, impair decision-making, and increase the likelihood of serious incidents. They are also the drivers behind a sharp rise in mental health leave, workplace overdose deaths, and high-cost psychological injury claims.

To respond, safety professionals around the world are expanding their scope—and psychological health and safety (PHS) is becoming a core pillar of their safety strategy.

PHS is grounded in ISO 45003, the international standard for managing psychosocial risks within occupational health and safety systems. It recognizes that protecting mental wellbeing is as essential as guarding against physical harm.

As the data shows, this shift is not optional. It’s already underway. Here’s what’s driving it and why every safety strategy in the next decade will need to be built around it.

What is PHS?

Psychological health and safety (PHS) is the structured prevention of work-related psychological harm and the active promotion of mental wellbeing.

It focuses on identifying and controlling psychosocial hazards—aspects of work that can harm mental health. This isn’t about perks or surface-level wellness programs. Like fall protection or lockout/tagout, PHS is a core part of any serious safety management system.

Why safety professionals are pivoting to PHS

Across the U.S. and globally, safety professionals are expanding their focus to include mental health and psychosocial risk—because the numbers are too big to ignore. Traditional safety programs are no longer enough to address today’s leading causes of injury, absence, and death. Here’s what’s driving the pivot:

• Stress levels are at record highs: 52% of employees in the U.S. and Canada said they felt “a lot of stress yesterday”—the highest Gallup has ever recorded.
• Injury costs keep climbing: Work-related injuries are now costing U.S. employers more than $177 billion annually, including lost wages, medical care, and administrative overhead. There is an increased recognition that mental health is contributing to these injuries.
• Injuries are becoming more severe: Job transfer or restriction cases have jumped by nearly 20%, suggesting longer, more complex recoveries often made worse by unresolved stress, burnout, or poor support.
• Substance use is driving workplace deaths: More than 500 overdose deaths occurred on the job, a 600%+ increase since the early 2010s.
• Mental health-related leave is surging: Employers report a 300% increase in mental health-related absences. Mental health conditions now account for more than 12%-40% of new short-term disability claims.
• Workers’ comp exposure is expanding: A majority of U.S. states now accept psychological injury claims without a physical injury. PTSD presumptions in 40+ states mean mental health issues are assumed to be work-related—raising the stakes for employers to prevent harm.
• Public and investor pressure is rising: ISO 45003 is becoming the global standard for managing psychological health and safety. Investors, regulators, and insurers are watching how companies respond. Those that fail to act face reputational risk and higher costs—while early adopters are seen as leaders in modern safety and workforce strategy.

Connecting PHS to your core safety KPIs

For safety professionals, KPIs are the language of performance—and PHS speaks directly to them. Effective PHS programs deliver measurable impact across the metrics you’re already tracking.

• Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR): Managing stress, fatigue, and trauma reduces the likelihood of distraction-related incidents.
• DART (Days Away, Restricted or Transferred): Early intervention through PHS strategies—such as peer support and trauma-informed care—limits the number and length of restricted duty cases.
• Lost-time incident rate: When psychological injuries go unrecognized, they often worsen over time. PHS programs reduce both frequency and duration.
• Severity rate: High psychological safety within teams leads to better communication and faster intervention, which reduces the severity of incidents when they do occur.
• Workers’ comp claims and premiums: Addressing psychosocial risk upstream can prevent complex, high-cost claims that spike your experience modifier.
• Near-miss reporting: When workers feel mentally safe to speak up, reporting rates improve—giving safety teams the insight they need to prevent bigger incidents.
• Engagement and culture scores: Teams supported through PHS initiatives are more engaged, more stable, and more invested in the safety culture.

How to integrate PHS into your safety system

You don’t need to start from scratch. Many safety management systems already have the structure needed. What’s missing is the content around psychological risk. Here’s how to make PHS a core part of your safety plan:

• Train your leaders first: Frontline supervisors are your most critical safety influencers. Train them to spot mental health risks, hold early conversations, and direct people to support.
• Re-scope your hazard assessment: Include psychosocial risks like workload, leadership gaps, and moral distress in your hazard registry and safety audits.
• Embed controls into JSAs and SOPs: Add practical steps to manage mental load, flag trauma exposure, include buddy systems, and build in recovery breaks.
• Track new lead indicators
  Monitor psychological safety scores, peer-support participation, stress levels, and early warning flags—just like you would for physical hazards.

The takeaway

The future of workplace safety will be shaped by how well we respond to psychological risk. As mental health issues drive more injuries, claims, and fatalities, safety professionals can no longer afford to ignore them.

Those who integrate psychological health and safety now won’t just reduce harm—they’ll define the next era of safety leadership. With ISO 45003 setting the global direction, the organizations that lead on PHS will set the standard for what safe, sustainable work looks like in the years ahead.

Free PHS Webinar

Interested in learning more about PHS? Click below to sign up for a free webinar being hosted July 9th, 2025 from 1-2 PM EDT.