Healthy Minds, Healthy Teams: Tackling Psychosocial Hazards
British Safety Council
No one should be injured or made ill through their work.
We’re back with the eighth edition of Pulse by British Safety Council. Each month, we bring you key insights, resources, and updates to help you create safer, healthier workplaces.
This November, we’re focusing on workplace psychosocial risk management. Providing a healthy work environment where people can thrive at work is no longer a nice-to-have – it’s a core part of running a responsible, effective and sustainable organisation.
From Awareness to Action: Protecting Your Team
From the sweeping landscapes of the Lake District to a small creative studio in the south of England, two organisations discovered that wellbeing is not one size fits all.
Through British Safety Council’s Workplace Wellbeing Programme, both businesses turned good intentions into measurable progress, improving communication, strengthening connection, and embedding wellbeing at the heart of workplace culture.
When people feel supported, they stay safer, perform better, and help their organisations thrive.
Excessive workloads, poor communication and lack of clarity are driving record levels of work-related stress, anxiety and depression across the UK. The message is clear: we must focus not on fixing people, but on fixing the environments they work in.
British Safety Council’s Psychosocial Risk Solution helps employers identify and manage these risks, improving culture, trust and long-term wellbeing across their teams.
A strong workplace culture doesn’t happen by chance. It is shaped by leadership, communication and care.
When people feel valued, supported and safe to speak up, performance and wellbeing thrive. When culture is neglected, risks rise, morale drops, and talent walks away.
British Safety Council’s Culture Change Solution helps organisations understand how people experience work, align leadership behaviours and build a culture that truly reflects their values.
📚 Training: Building Resilient Teams
We held a NEBOSH National and International Diploma Taster Session on 7 November. The 1-hour taster session with David Burton, Senior Health & Safety Tutor and Dr. Julie Riggs DProf CFIOSH , Director of Education, covered sentencing guidelines with practical examples to understand their application. Plus, David delivered a sample exam question related to the session topic.
Missed the session? Watch the recording now.
Get 15% off all NEBOSH Diploma training courses, use code DIPLOMA15 at checkout. T&Cs apply: offer valid until 31.12.2025, valid on website purchases only, see website for full details.
International Safety Awards 2026 🏅
Our International Safety Awards recognise an organisation’s commitment to excellent standards of health, safety and wellbeing management at a specific site or business unit. Improving the health, safety, and wellbeing culture within an organisation requires unwavering commitment, hard work, and dedication. The International Safety Awards, recognised worldwide, celebrate these efforts and provide the recognition your organisation truly deserves.
We’re excited to collaborate with Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to offer the Innovation in Health Award, a brand-new award for 2026. This inspiring award, new to the International Safety Awards in 2026, recognises pioneering initiatives that have made a significant and measurable impact on the prevention of work-related health issues in the workplace or across an industry.
📅 Save the Date
When: 26 November 2025
Time: 13:00 – 14:00 GMT
Speaker: Rachael Haynes , Director of Wellbeing Consultancy, British Safety Council
This webinar will cover:
📅 Register your Free Place
When: 17 November 2025
Time: 14:00 – 15:00 GMT
Speaker: Rachael Haynes , Director of Wellbeing Consultancy, British Safety Council.
Workplace stress isn't just a wellbeing issue; it’s a business risk impacting productivity, engagement, absenteeism, and safety. With nearly half of all work-related ill-health caused by stress, anxiety, or depression, tackling stress at its root is essential.
Learn how to embed stress risk management into workplace culture, moving beyond compliance to create a thriving, resilient workforce.
Black Friday Offer Coming Soon
We've got a great offer on selected training products for you this Black Friday 🤩 Make sure to check your emails and follow our socials to be the first to know about our deal 🛒
📣 Calling Current and Future UK Members
UK SMEs with a British Safety Council membership can get access to the Workplace Wellbeing Programme at no additional cost and receive help to build an effective wellbeing strategy. Benefits can be better employee engagement, retention, and morale.
The offer is part of our charitable work supporting SMEs who don’t have access to the same levels of resource as large organisations.
To sign up or find out more email: membership@britsafe.org
🦺 Real-World Impact: Case Study
Jacobus (Johan) Kemp (CertIOSH) , Lead Management of Change Co-Ordinator at Johnson Matthey , recently completed the NEBOSH Diploma for Occupational Health and Safety Management Professionals with British Safety Council.
He described the course as “intellectually challenging but deeply rewarding,” crediting it with giving him a more strategic outlook and the confidence to lead and mentor others in creating safer workplaces.
❓ Are you Trying to Reach Other Health, Safety, and Wellbeing Professionals?
British Safety Council has a number of opportunities available to put you in front of the decision makers you’re looking for.
Our advertising team can talk you through the options, from highly engaged solus e-alerts to full-page ads in our Membership magazine, Safety Management.
🏆 Celebrating Success!
Did you know that British Safety Council is actually a charity? Every penny of our revenue is reinvested to ensure we can work towards our goal of improving health, safety, and wellbeing in the workplace. This month, we want to celebrate some of the charitable impacts we’ve been involved with!
Our award-winning sister charity, Mates in Mind , runs a free 24/7 mental health text support service called BEAMATE in partnership with Shout UK . BEAMATE is a lifeline for those who might not feel ready to speak out loud but still need someone to listen. Since its launch in 2023, the BEAMATE text service has seen a 897% increase in usage, allowing Mates in Mind and Shout to support 1,146 people in need.
At the beginning of this year, we worked with Dr. Tim Marsh to publish a book titled “Wisdom and Wit from a Safety Psychologist” with all proceeds being donated to our sister charity, Mates in Mind and Welsh mental health charity, Brawd Mental Health . So far, we’ve raised over £5,000, and both charities have received initial payments of £2,500. Brawd will use their share of the proceeds to purchase a minibus that they and the local Mental Health Authority can make use of.
We are pleased to support these initiatives through our charitable activities, and we thank all our clients for working with us and making this possible.
💡 Free Resources and Insights
▶ Past Webinar Recordings: Missed a session? Access our free webinar recordings on health and safety in the workplace, wellbeing, and mental health, and much more.
🎙 Podcast:
The latest episode of Health and Safety Uncut, “Driving employee welfare and safety” features our host, Dr Shaun Davis and Sally Gilson , Policy Lead (Drivers and Skills), at the Road Haulage Association. Touching upon personal safety, vehicle preparedness, freight crime and the isolation of the long-distance truck driver, Sally highlights some of the issues faced by RHA members on the roads.
Episode 4, “Wellbeing at work: why it matters and how to improve it”, features Rachael Haynes , Director of Wellbeing Consultancy at British Safety Council. Stephen spotlights worker wellbeing and explores why it is critical to organisational success and resilience.
📝 Safety Management Magazine:
Work-related stress and burnout are on the rise, yet many organisations still treat them as problems to fix rather than risks to prevent. Effective psychosocial risk management is about designing work environments where people can thrive, not just survive.
British Safety Council explores how organisations can move beyond reactive measures to build cultures that reduce stress at its source, empower leaders to spot early signs, and turn wellbeing into a driver of performance and resilience.
👉 Read the full article to learn how proactive psychosocial risk management can transform your workplace.
Creating a truly safe workplace means more than protecting people from physical harm. It’s about ensuring employees also feel safe to speak up, share concerns and admit mistakes without fear.
New research shows that while 96% of employees feel physically safe at work, 65% believe a lack of psychological safety is contributing to safety risks. When workers don’t feel heard, hazards can go unnoticed and stress levels rise.
Building a psychologically safe culture starts with leadership, openness, humility and empathy from the top. It also requires clear communication, shared responsibility between HR and health and safety teams, and spaces where people feel empowered to contribute ideas and concerns.
Sustainability isn’t just about the environment; it’s also about looking after your people. Companies that prioritise employee health, safety, and engagement build stronger, more resilient, and innovative workplaces. When employees thrive, so does the business.
Frameworks like ESG, the UN SDGs, and GRI reporting show how wellbeing fits into sustainability. Tools like ISO standards and materiality assessments make it easier to measure, manage, and report on both people and environmental impact.
Investing in wellbeing isn’t a cost; it’s a win for employees, the planet, and your organisation. Companies that do this see better engagement, stronger reputations, and workplaces where everyone can thrive.
Thanks for joining us for the eighth edition of Pulse. Invest in wellbeing, tackle psychosocial risks, and watch your teams thrive.
Got a topic you want to hear about? Let us know in the comments.
See you next month!