Free template for NSW businesses
Psychosocial hazard register template
A psychosocial hazard register is a table that lists each hazard in your workplace, who it affects, how serious it is, what you will change, who is responsible, and when you will check it. The NSW Code calls a register optional but helpful. In practice, it is the simplest way to show what you found and what you did about it. Below is a free basic layout you can copy, with one worked example row, plus the hazards the Code names and a simple way to rate them.
The NSW Code describes keeping a risk register as optional but helpful, and gives an example register in Appendix B.
Source: SafeWork NSW, Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work (May 2021), section 4.2 and Appendix B.
The NSW Code says an inspector may ask to see your records, and that a business should be able to show, if asked, how hazards and incidents raised by workers and others were managed.
Source: SafeWork NSW, Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work (May 2021), section 4.2.
What a register needs to do
A register is only useful if it changes what happens at work. Whatever layout you use, it should do six things.
- List the hazards you found. One row per hazard, per work group. The same hazard can look very different in the office and on the road.
- Show how serious each one is. So you can see which to deal with first.
- Record what will change. Start with the work itself: rosters, staffing, deadlines, how tasks are handed out. Training and policies come after.
- Name one person and a date. A hazard owned by "management" is owned by nobody.
- Set a review date. So you check whether the change worked.
- Leave people out of it. Describe the work, not individuals. No names, no health information.
A business must identify reasonably foreseeable hazards that could create risks to health and safety, and this applies to psychosocial hazards.
Source: Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW), ss 34 and 55C(a).
The NSW Code says a business may choose to keep only high-level information in a general risk register where confidentiality is a concern.
Source: SafeWork NSW, Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work (May 2021), section 4.2.
The hazards named in the NSW Code
The Code lists the most common psychosocial hazards in its Table 1. Use the list as a prompt when you talk to each team. Your workplace may not have all of them, and may have others.
Table 1 of the NSW Code lists common psychosocial hazards, and the Code says a workplace may have hazards that are not on the list.
Source: SafeWork NSW, Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work (May 2021), section 1.1 and Table 1.
| Hazard | What it can look like |
|---|---|
| Role overload | Too much work for the time or people available, or rosters that leave no time to recover. |
| Role underload | Too little to do for long periods, or highly repetitive work. |
| Exposure to traumatic events | Seeing, dealing with or hearing about serious injuries, deaths or distressing events. |
| Role conflict or lack of role clarity | Priorities that pull against each other, or not knowing what is expected. |
| Low job control | Little say over how or when the work is done. |
| Conflict or poor workplace relationships | Frequent disagreements or ongoing friction between people at work. |
| Poor support from supervisors and managers | Not enough help, information or resources, or feedback given unreasonably. |
| Poor co-worker support | Not enough help from colleagues to get the job done. |
| Workplace violence | Violence or aggression from workers, customers, clients or others. |
| Bullying | Bullying by workers, customers, clients or others. |
| Harassment, including sexual harassment | Harassment by co-workers, customers, clients or others. |
| Inadequate reward and recognition | Effort that goes unnoticed, or no fair chance to develop. |
| Hazardous physical working environments | Physical conditions that cause real worry, such as exposure without the right equipment. |
| Remote or isolated work | Working alone, off site or far from help. |
| Poor procedural justice | Unfair or inconsistent decisions, such as who gets shifts or how performance is managed. |
| Poor organisational change consultation | Changes made without asking the people affected. |
Hazard names are from Table 1 of the NSW Code. The descriptions are our own short summaries, not the Code's wording.
Free basic register layout
Copy these columns into a spreadsheet or a table in a document. Add one row for each hazard in each work group. The first row is a worked example for a small distribution business.
| Hazard | Who it affects, and where | What you have noticed | How serious | What will change | Who is responsible | By when | Review date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Example Role overload | Dispatch team (6 people), Mondays and the day after public holidays | Regular overtime on Mondays. Two people raised it at the team meeting. More picking errors on Mondays. | High. The harm could be serious, and it happens every week. | Roster a casual on Monday mornings. Move non-urgent orders to Tuesday dispatch. | Operations manager | End of next month | Three months after the change, with the team |
This layout is deliberately basic. A fuller register, like the example in Appendix B of the Code, also records where the information came from, what controls are already in place, how well they work, and who will monitor the hazard. The basic version is enough to get started. You can add columns as you go.
Based on the NSW Code, Appendix B.
How to rate each hazard
Rating does not need to be precise. It needs to be honest, and consistent from one row to the next. Ask two questions about each hazard, for the group it affects.
- How bad could the harm be? Minor, serious or severe.
- How likely is it? Unlikely, possible or likely. What has already happened is your best guide: complaints, overtime, turnover, sick leave or a near miss.
The NSW Code suggests assessing a psychosocial risk by considering how serious the harm could be, including how long people are exposed, and how likely it is, then combining the two to help prioritise action.
Source: SafeWork NSW, Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work (May 2021), section 3.3.
Then combine the two answers.
| Likelihood | Minor harm | Serious harm | Severe harm |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unlikely | Low | Low | Medium |
| Possible | Low | Medium | High |
| Likely | Medium | High | High |
This grid is our own simple version. The Code does not set a particular grid.
Watch for hazards that are rare but could be very serious, such as violence from a customer or a traumatic event. A simple grid can make these look smaller than they are, so look at them on their own.
The NSW Code suggests rating unlikely risks with very serious consequences separately from likely risks with less serious consequences, so the very serious ones are not given too little weight.
Source: SafeWork NSW, Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work (May 2021), section 3.3.
If you are unsure between two ratings, choose the higher one and act. You can lower it at the review if the evidence supports it.
How to assign each one
Every row needs one name and one date. Pick the person who can actually change the work, such as the manager who sets the roster, not the person who will run a training session.
The NSW Code says clear accountabilities for monitoring, reviewing and maintaining controls should be allocated.
Source: SafeWork NSW, Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work (May 2021), section 3.5.
Write the change as something you could check. "Roster a casual on Monday mornings" can be checked. "Improve workload management" cannot. If the first fix is training or a policy, ask what about the work itself could change first.
A business must eliminate psychosocial risks so far as is reasonably practicable, and where that is not reasonably practicable, minimise them so far as is reasonably practicable.
Source: Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW), s 55D(1).
In NSW, the Regulation applies the hierarchy of control to psychosocial risks: where it is reasonably practicable, change the work itself before relying on training or procedures.
Source: Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW), ss 55C(a) and 36.
Who to ask
A register written by one manager at a desk will miss things. The people doing the work know where the pressure is. Ask each team, write down what they say without names, and tell them what you decided.
You must consult workers, so far as is reasonably practicable, when identifying hazards and deciding how to control them.
Source: Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW), ss 47 and 49.
Our guide to doing a psychosocial risk assessment in NSW explains how to run those conversations and turn them into rows on the register.
Keeping it current
A register is a working document, not a one-off. Look at it again on each review date, and also when something changes: a new site, a restructure, a complaint or an incident.
Controls must be reviewed when they are not working, before a change at work that is likely to create a new or different risk they may not control, when a new hazard is found, when consultation shows a review is needed, or when a health and safety representative asks for a review on the grounds the Regulation allows.
Source: Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW), ss 38 and 55C(a).
The register is also your record of how you approach the NSW Code. If you want to understand what the Code means for your business from 1 July 2026, read what the NSW psychosocial code of practice means for your business.
Related guides
- What the NSW psychosocial code of practice means for your business
- How to do a psychosocial risk assessment in NSW
Not sure what to put in your register first?
The free check takes about four minutes. It names your three biggest gaps against what the NSW Code expects, and gives you one thing to do this week for each.
For a full register with the hazards already listed and a rating method, the Psychosocial Risk Pack for NSW is $349.