Psychosocial Risk Assessment UK: Practical Employer Guide

Quick answer: What is a psychosocial risk assessment?

A psychosocial risk assessment looks at aspects of work that could contribute to stress or harm employee mental health. It identifies the risks, considers who may be affected, reviews the controls already in place and sets practical actions to reduce those risks.

In the UK, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) requires employers to assess and manage the risk of work-related stress in the same way they manage other workplace health and safety risks.

The important point is that the assessment should lead to action. A staff survey, wellbeing policy or list of concerns is not the end of the process.

Why this matters for UK employers

Work-related stress is not a small workplace issue. HSE estimates for 2024/25 show that around 964,000 workers in Great Britain were experiencing work-related stress, depression or anxiety, with around 22.1 million working days lost.

For employers, the impact can appear in many ways: absence, high staff turnover, missed deadlines, falling engagement, conflict, reduced productivity or managers spending increasing amounts of time dealing with problems that could have been addressed earlier.

The purpose of a workplace stress risk assessment is not to decide whether employees are personally “good at coping”. It is to identify whether something about the work, working conditions or management of work is creating avoidable risk.

Do UK employers have to carry out a stress risk assessment?

Yes. Employers have a legal duty to assess risks to employees from work-related stress and take reasonable steps to control those risks.

If your organisation has five or more workers, the significant findings of the risk assessment must be recorded. Smaller employers do not have to write the assessment down, although keeping a record can still be useful when actions are reviewed.

This does not mean creating a large compliance document. A useful assessment should clearly show:

• what the main risks are;
• who may be affected;
• what controls already exist;
• what further action is needed;
• who is responsible for that action; and
• when the situation will be reviewed.

The six psychosocial risk areas employers should assess

HSE’s Management Standards give employers a practical framework for looking at work-related stress. They focus on six areas of work design: Demands, Control, Support, Relationships, Role and Change.

1. Demands

This includes workload, deadlines, working patterns and the working environment.

Look for: persistent overtime, unrealistic deadlines, excessive caseloads, insufficient staffing or employees regularly saying they cannot complete their work within normal working hours.

Possible action: review priorities, redistribute work, adjust deadlines, increase resources or remove unnecessary tasks.

2. Control

Control is about how much reasonable influence employees have over the way they do their work.

Look for: rigid processes, little flexibility, employees unable to influence their workload or working patterns, or teams feeling they have no say over decisions affecting their work.

Possible action: involve employees in work planning, allow appropriate flexibility and give people reasonable control over how tasks are completed.

3. Support

Employees need appropriate information, resources and support from managers, colleagues and the organisation.

Look for: employees unsure where to get help, managers rarely checking in, poor access to resources or people feeling unsupported when workloads increase.

Possible action: clarify support routes, improve manager capability, provide regular feedback and make existing wellbeing or occupational health support easier to access.

4. Relationships

Poor working relationships, unresolved conflict, bullying or unacceptable behaviour can become significant workplace risks.

Look for: repeated complaints, grievances, team conflict, communication breakdowns or employees saying they do not feel safe raising concerns.

Possible action: address behaviour early, reinforce appropriate workplace standards, improve conflict-management processes and make reporting routes clear.

5. Role

Employees should understand what is expected of them and should not regularly receive conflicting responsibilities.

Look for: unclear priorities, duplicated work, conflicting instructions or employees unsure where their responsibility starts and ends.

Possible action: clarify responsibilities, priorities, reporting lines and decision-making authority.

6. Change

Restructures, new systems, leadership changes, redundancies and changes to working arrangements can all increase pressure when they are poorly communicated.

Look for: uncertainty, rumours, employees feeling excluded from decisions or managers unable to answer basic questions about what happens next.

Possible action: explain why change is happening, communicate timelines, involve employees where appropriate and provide routes for questions and feedback.

How to carry out a psychosocial risk assessment in practice

You do not need to make the process complicated. A useful workplace stress risk assessment can be built around five practical steps.

Step 1: Identify where the risks may be

Start with information you already have rather than immediately creating another survey.

Useful evidence can include:

• sickness absence patterns;
• staff turnover and exit interviews;
• employee wellbeing surveys;
• pulse survey results;
• overtime or workload data;
• grievances and recurring workplace concerns;
• manager feedback;
• occupational health themes; and
• team or employee discussions.

One source rarely gives you the full answer. For example, a survey might show that workload is a problem, while overtime data and team discussions help explain why.

If you are reviewing your employee listening process, see our employee wellbeing survey questions for UK employers.

Step 2: Identify who may be affected

Avoid looking only at the organisation-wide average.

One department may be working well while another is under sustained pressure. Different risks may also affect shift workers, managers, remote teams, new starters or employees going through organisational change.

Look for patterns by team, role or working environment where this can be done appropriately and without identifying individuals unnecessarily.

Step 3: Check what controls are already in place

Before adding more wellbeing initiatives, ask a simple question:

What are we already doing to control this risk, and is it actually working?

Existing controls might include workload reviews, flexible working arrangements, manager training, occupational health, an Employee Assistance Programme, wellbeing support or clear escalation procedures.

Having a service available does not automatically mean the underlying risk is controlled. If excessive workload is the main cause, for example, adding another resilience webinar does not solve the workload problem.

Step 4: Turn each risk into a clear action

This is where many assessments become too vague.

Avoid actions such as “improve employee wellbeing” or “provide more support”.

Instead use:

Risk → Evidence → Action → Owner → Deadline → Measure → Review date

For example:

Step 5: Check whether the situation actually improved

Completing an action is not the same as controlling a risk.

If manager training was delivered, do employees now report better support? If workloads were reviewed, has overtime reduced? If responsibilities were clarified, are fewer conflicts being reported?

The better question is not:

“Did we complete the action?”

It is:

“Did the risk reduce?”

Organisational and individual stress risk assessments are not the same

An organisational assessment looks for patterns that could affect groups of employees: workload, management practices, working relationships, change or other aspects of work.

An individual risk assessment focuses on one employee’s circumstances. Acas recommends carrying one out where an employee tells their employer they are experiencing work-related stress.

For example, an organisation might identify workload pressure across a department while also completing an individual assessment with an employee who is already experiencing significant work-related stress.

Where an employee’s health, fitness for work, adjustments or return-to-work needs require specialist input, an occupational health assessment may also be appropriate.

A wellbeing survey is useful, but it is not the whole risk assessment

Employee surveys can be very useful for identifying patterns in workload, support, relationships, role clarity and organisational change.

But running a survey does not complete the risk-management process.

A useful sequence is:

Listen → Identify the risk → Understand the cause → Act → Review

If employees repeatedly report unreasonable workload, the next step is not simply to repeat the same question three months later. The employer needs to understand what is driving that workload and decide what can reasonably be changed.

Six common mistakes employers make

1. Treating the employee survey as the finished assessment

The survey gives you evidence. You still need to understand the cause, agree controls and review whether they work.

2. Measuring stress without looking at what is causing it

A low wellbeing score tells you there may be a problem. It does not tell you whether the cause is workload, poor management, conflict, lack of control or something else.

3. Trying to make employees more resilient instead of fixing preventable problems

Individual wellbeing support can be valuable, but it should not be used as a substitute for addressing unreasonable demands or poor working practices.

4. Asking for feedback and then saying nothing

Tell employees what you learned, what will change and what cannot currently change. Closing the feedback loop matters.

5. Waiting until absence becomes serious

Risk management works better when recurring warning signs are noticed before they become long-term absence or repeated employee relations problems.

6. Creating an action plan that nobody owns

Every important action should have an owner, deadline and review point.

What should HR monitor between formal risk assessments?

Workplace conditions can change faster than an annual review cycle. HR and leadership teams therefore need a sensible way to notice emerging patterns.

Useful indicators may include:

• absence trends;
• employee turnover;
• workload and overtime;
• employee sentiment;
• survey trends;
• recurring manager concerns;
• occupational health themes;
• engagement with available wellbeing support; and
• feedback after organisational change.

The goal should be to identify organisational trends, not to monitor individual employees unnecessarily.

For practical guidance on building a wider support route, see our employee mental health resources for UK employers.

Moving from an annual assessment to earlier action

A formal workplace stress risk assessment is important, but an organisation can change significantly between reviews.

A restructure begins. A department loses experienced staff. Workload increases. A new manager joins. Employee sentiment changes.

The earlier employers can see useful organisational trends, the earlier they can ask the right questions and decide whether action is needed.

Spark Your Health gives employees access to practical mental, physical, social and financial wellbeing support while providing employers with anonymised workforce-level wellbeing insight.

This can support ongoing employee listening and help HR teams identify themes between formal reviews.

Spark does not replace a suitable workplace risk assessment. It can support the wider process by helping organisations listen, identify trends, provide support and review wellbeing activity over time.

See how Spark supports employee wellbeing →

Psychosocial risk assessment: a simple employer checklist

Before closing your assessment, check that you can answer these questions:

• Have we looked at all six HSE Management Standards areas?
• Have we used more than one source of evidence?
• Have employees had an appropriate opportunity to contribute?
• Do we understand the likely causes rather than only the symptoms?
• Have we identified the teams or groups most affected?
• Have we reviewed whether existing controls are working?
• Does each important risk have a practical action?
• Does each action have an owner and deadline?
• Have we told employees what will happen next?
• Have we set a date to review whether the risk has reduced?

If several answers are “no”, the assessment probably still needs work.

Frequently asked questions

What is a psychosocial risk assessment?

It is a structured process for identifying aspects of work that could contribute to stress or harm employee mental health, assessing who may be affected and deciding what controls or changes are needed.

Is a stress risk assessment a legal requirement in the UK?

Employers have a legal duty to assess and manage risks from work-related stress. Organisations with five or more workers must record the significant findings of the risk assessment.

What are the six HSE Management Standards?

They are Demands, Control, Support, Relationships, Role and Change. These six areas of work design can contribute to work-related stress when they are not managed properly.

Is an employee wellbeing survey a stress risk assessment?

No. A survey can provide useful evidence, but it does not complete the risk-assessment process. Employers still need to understand the risks, decide what action is required, implement appropriate controls and review whether they work.

When should an individual stress risk assessment be completed?

An individual assessment should be considered when an employee reports that they are experiencing work-related stress. It can help the employee and employer understand the causes, identify appropriate action and agree how the situation will be reviewed.

How often should a workplace stress risk assessment be reviewed?

There is no single review interval that suits every organisation. Review the assessment regularly and sooner when working conditions change, existing controls may no longer be effective, employees identify new concerns or the organisation goes through a significant change.

What information can employers use in a psychosocial risk assessment?

Useful evidence can include employee surveys, sickness absence, turnover, workload information, overtime, manager feedback, employee discussions, grievances and relevant occupational health themes. Use several sources where possible rather than relying on one score.

Sources and further guidance

• Health and Safety Executive – Work-related stress and stress risk assessments
• Health and Safety Executive – Management Standards for work-related stress
• Health and Safety Executive – Work-related stress statistics 2024/25
• Acas – Managing work-related stress and risk assessments

Employer information: This article provides general workplace wellbeing and risk management information. It is not legal, medical or health and safety consultancy advice. Employers should consider their own workforce, working conditions and responsibilities when carrying out a risk assessment.

Last factual review: November 2026

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