What is psychosocial work environment and how can you lighten the mood of your employees?

What is psychosocial work environment? In short, it means how we feel in the workplace (socially and psychologically). The term is highly relevant today, when working from home has become part of our everyday lives, and you as a manager are responsible for facilitating a good digital work environment.

For most of us, the workplace is an important arena for personal development, social community and belonging. Even when you work from home. This means that the consequences are obviously great when the working day is characterized by negative interaction, unpredictability and aggression. The Working Environment Act shows that we as a society have understood the importance of the workplace for our quality of life and personal development. One of the main purposes of the Act is to provide employees with full protection against physical and psychological harm.

What is psychosocial work environment?

Psychosocial work environment is about how we feel at work overall. Whether you are physically present in the workplace or working from home in your living room. The term is used as an umbrella term for conditions related to the work situation and working conditions. However, the Working Environment Act distinguishes between psychosocial working environment and organizational working environment.

Psychosocial working conditions are mainly concerned with interpersonal factors at work. The psychosocial work environment is determined by the interaction between work environment factors, other employees and the individual. Cooperation and interaction (or lack of it) are the consequences of how the interaction works. For example, it may be that a lot of conflict makes people not want to work for the company, or that problems with social life cause the employee to struggle with insomnia or muscle pain. The latter has actually become a real problem since many of us swapped the office for the living room earlier this spring. Psychosocial working conditions are often a consequence of how work is organized, managed and facilitated.

The term "organizational working conditions" refers to the general requirements for the working environment that all companies must adhere to. This approach to the psychosocial working environment emphasizes external influences. It is more concerned with specific characteristics of the working conditions, such as the workplace's organizational chart, pay systems, work organization, work schedules, etc. Conditions in the organizational working environment can, among other things, lead to stress symptoms. The Working Environment Act stipulates that these and other conditions must be fully justifiable based on an individual and overall assessment of factors in the working environment that can affect physical and mental health and welfare.

Psychosocial work environment in a home office

Working on a good psychosocial work environment via digital platforms is just as important when your employees work from home. This has become a more "normal" habit afterthe coronavirus, and working from home makes many employees feel close to stress and other psychological difficulties, where some employees have had trouble adapting to their new everyday life. As a manager, you should therefore be aware of certain factors that may affect your employees.

Here are 3 tips on how you as an employer can lighten the mood of your employees

Distinction between work and leisure

You get up, put on your sweatpants and take out your laptop to work. Often, you end up sitting in front of the screen in the kitchen all day. Do you recognize yourself in this? One of the emerging issues with working from home is that many employees (and managers) aren't able to separate work and leisure well enough. This can be physically draining, making you feel like you're "living at work".

To avoid this stigma, managers can use a few tips, such as reserving a part of the home for home office use only, and getting employees to ditch their sweatpants and put on a shirt or blouse. In this way, employees will get a sense of following a certain rhythm, and thus better distinguish between office and leisure time.

Furthermore, you can encourage employees to take breaks and go for a walk or jog that is good for both mind and body. It seems trite, but a little exercise during working hours can actually improve mood.

Have a close dialog with your employees

Working via digital tools such as Teams or Zoom places new demands on accessibility. We need to plan our meetings better and make sure that all the technical stuff works optimally. Yet these meetings can often be the only form of interaction between managers and employees. Employees can quickly feel somewhat forgotten in a home office, where it's easy to wonder if the work they do is important or relevant to the business.

That's why it's important that you, as a manager, have a close dialog with your employees, preferably in positive terms. Ensure closer follow-up of your employees. Ask how the employee is doing at home and if there is anything he or she needs to do to perform better. Hold appraisals more often, so that both you and the employee are clear about tasks and other daily chores. Feel free to set up a performance review template to make the dialog and planning easier for you and your employees.

The new everyday life with the Corona virus and working from home means that many employees feel close to stress and other psychological difficulties.

Encourage informal video meetings

Despite a few obstacles here and there when it comes to working from home, most of us have mastered the new arrangement of working from home. We do our daily tasks in a good way, and many of us are actually more efficient working from the living room than physically in the office. Of course, this varies from person to person.

However, one of the biggest problems with working from home has been the lack of colleagues and social interaction in the workplace. For many, social interaction is the most important aspect of their workplace, and switching to a home office has been a heavy burden for many.

Of course, digital meetings will never replace physical meetings at the office water cooler. But encouraging informal video meetings in the form of "joint lunch" or "Friday coffee on Teams" actually increases well-being at work, as well as reducing stress.

However, it's no secret that many people are reluctant to have video conversations online. Especially informal meetings. Therefore, try to motivate employees to have frequent meetings. One idea could be to have more frequent one-to-one meetings, or split up the joint meetings and make some of the meetings into smaller groups. This can quickly seem less stressful for some, rather than 100 employees talking into each other's mouths at the same time. It's important that you emphasize that these meetings are optional, which can help take away that feeling of "having to participate".

A checklist for thriving in a home office

We've written down 4 points that you as a manager need to keep in mind when it comes to working from home.

•  Have a close dialog with your employees
•  Encourage informal video meetings
•  Give positive feedback to your employees
•  Find alternative solutions that suit managers and employees

Consequences of adverse psychosocial impacts

The risk of becoming ill from various psychological stresses is related to how often and for how long the employee is exposed to the stress. If an employee experiences unfortunate psychosocial conditions in the workplace, the worst-case scenario is that he or she may experience a number of health-related ailments, which can lead to long-term sick leave. However, it is difficult to know whether 's health problems are due to conditions in the workplace or whether there are other factors at play. That's why it's important to find out, because it's often possible to improve unfortunate conditions in the workplace.

Sick leave is a complex parameter in relation to working life. There are many factors that help to determine sick leave in the workplace. It may be due to real illness, it may be due to exhaustion after hard and heavy work, or it may be truancy. It is therefore warned against using sick leave only as a way of assessing the psychosocial conditions in the workplace.

The effects of psychological stress can appear relatively quickly, but it usually takes a long time before the stress develops into health problems or illness. Illness caused by psychological stress will usually last for a long time, and it may therefore take time before the sick employee returns to work.

Benefits of a good working environment

- Increased productivity
- Increased well-being and job satisfaction
- Improved collaboration between employees
- Reduced sick leave and other types of absence

Measures to encourage a good working environment

Working environment survey

A working environment survey is a management tool designed to map the physical and psychosocial working environment in the workplace. It is common to use such a tool once a year or every other year, preferably in addition to individual appraisal interviews. A working environment survey can potentially reveal issues that management is not aware of, but which nevertheless play a role in employee well-being and productivity. The advantage of working environment surveys is that they often show clearly what employees are satisfied with and what they are not satisfied with.

Focusing on human aspects can potentially reduce sick leave and increase engagement, motivation and well-being. For a work environment survey to lead to good results, it is important that management sees the value this tool can have, rather than conducting it because it is required.

Mapping of the working environment

When mapping the working environment and wanting a total understanding, it may be a good idea to use other methods in addition to the working environment survey. Examples include checklists, safety rounds and interviews. These methods will produce different results and will ensure that the psychosocial, organizational and physical working environment is mapped.

 

A good action plan

Regular working environment surveys can help to improve the work situation for employees, but only if management follows up afterwards. It is often recommended to carry out a survey every other year to give management time to assess and implement measures to improve any issues that may have emerged. In subsequent surveys, it should be investigated whether the changes from the previous time have led to an improvement among employees.

In the aftermath of the survey, it is recommended that you first send the employees the results of the survey so that they also know what needs to be worked on. The management and possibly the HR department should then sit down and discuss the results and draw up an action plan with any measures that can be implemented. If there are specific working environment problems that have been brought to management's attention, this should be dealt with specifically through discussions with the person or persons concerned.

Requirements for a fully responsible working environment

The Working Environment Act's provision on the psychosocial working environment is intended to prevent employees from being exposed to various negative conditions of a psychosocial nature, and that the sum of various stresses must not be too great. Like all other conditions, the law requires the psychosocial working environment to be fully acceptable.

The topics that the law regulates when it comes to psychosocial conditions are:

Integrity and dignity

General requirements regarding respect for the dignity of workers.

Contact and communication

should ensure that the employee has social contact and support, but should also safeguard the safety aspects of the job.

Harassment and other improper conduct

The work must be arranged and managed so that no one is subjected to harassment or other improper conduct.

Violence, threats and adverse effects as a result of contact with others

Employees shall, as far as possible, be protected against violence, threats and adverse effects resulting from contact with others.

Work-related stress

A broad concept, and it is not directly regulated in the law, but the law requires the employer to map, risk assess and take measures to ensure a fully responsible working environment.

Conflict

Work must be organized so that employees are not exposed to adverse physical or mental strain. A conflict can lead to someone being exposed to psychological strain if the conflict is not handled in a good way.