Flexibility, and work-from-home in particular, should be viewed as a change to the work context that may introduce new workplace health and safety (WHS) hazards, as well as impacting the presence of existing hazards either positively or negatively. Psychosocial hazards have been identified as a particular concern for employees working from home. Psychosocial hazards should be assessed and controlled as necessary with the most effective controls possible. For organisations to create a psychologically safe working environment for flexible workers, primary preventative action must be taken. There are seven elements that combine to build a psychologically safe and productive work environment for flexible workers and support primary preventative action.

This guide provides practical advice to enhance flexible worker wellbeing through the continual advancement of the organisation’s capability to promote psychological safety. This guidance should be used in association with the capability maturity assessment appended to this guide (Appendix 1 and Appendix 2). Case studies are also provided which show the elements applied to real-world scenarios (Appendix 3).

Each element of a psychologically safe and productive work environment for flexible workers is explained, including descriptors for both proactive – best practice and generative – next level maturity advancement for the element. Following the descriptors, the guide sets out how to achieve maturity advancement for each element, and links to relevant resources to support best practice.