For years, construction has become increasingly disciplined in the way it manages physical safety.
Hazards are identified. Risks are assessed. Controls are put in place. Incidents are reviewed. Evidence is gathered. Lessons are learned.
In this episode of Build and Thrive, host Stuart Mace asks whether the industry now needs to apply the same discipline to psychological health.
He is joined by Kate Field, Global Head of Human and Social Sustainability at BSI, for a conversation about psychosocial risk, work-related stress, ISO 45001, ISO 45003 and what the next phase of health and safety management could mean for construction.
Kate describes work-related stress, also known as psychosocial risk, as her chosen specialist subject. That interest did not begin with a neat career plan. It started during her early career as an HSE inspector, when she became increasingly curious about why organisations often failed to see the real value of their people.
As Kate explains: “What was always missing was really looking after the psychosocial risk of people at work.”
That point sits at the heart of the episode.
This is not a conversation about adding another wellbeing initiative to the calendar. It is about how work is designed, managed, resourced and experienced. It is about how organisations understand risk. It is also about whether construction is ready to treat psychological health as part of health and safety, rather than as something that sits on the edge of it.
Health means health
One of Stuart’s clearest points in the episode is that health and safety law, standards and management systems do not only refer to physical health.
As he puts it: “You show me in any law where it says health and safety, it puts physical health in front of health.”
That matters because, in practice, many organisations have interpreted health and safety through a largely physical lens. Construction has become familiar with conversations about working at height, plant movement, lifting operations, exposure, PPE and site safety controls. Those risks are visible and well established in the industry’s safety culture.
Psychosocial risks can feel less tangible, but they are still risks created or influenced by work. They can sit in workload, job demands, role clarity, change, isolation, poor relationships, bullying, harassment, weak support, organisational culture and the way pressure is passed through teams.
Kate’s view is clear. The direction of travel is towards organisations needing to manage psychosocial risks with the same seriousness as physical risks.
For construction, this is a significant shift. It moves the issue away from awareness campaigns alone and into the core management system.
Why standards matter
Some people hear “standards” and immediately think of paperwork, certification and extra cost.
Kate challenges that view. She explains that standards exist to create consistency, support growth and help organisations manage risk in a scalable way.
She uses BSI’s history to make the point. BSI began 125 years ago, at a time when tram systems were being developed without consistent technical standards. Different organisations were building different systems, which made it harder for innovation to scale. Standards helped create a common approach.
For Kate, that same principle still applies.
“The principle of standards is really about creating the growth and the opportunity for businesses to scale.”
In health and safety, standards help organisations create repeatable processes. They also help businesses understand what good looks like, particularly when risk is changing.
That is important now because the world of work has changed. The pandemic, changing workforce expectations, technology, climate-related risk and greater awareness of work-related stress have all pushed workplace health higher up the agenda.
Kate notes that standards are reviewed regularly because work and business risk are not static. ISO 45001 was first published in 2018 and is now being reviewed. Since then, supporting standards have been developed, including ISO 45003, which provides a deeper guide to psychosocial risk management.
That means ISO 45001 and ISO 45003 are likely to become more closely connected.
Psychosocial risk is becoming more explicit
Kate explains that psychosocial risk was already present in the original version of ISO 45001, but it was not always obvious.
“Psychosocial risk kind of is in there. But it’s a little bit hidden away.”
Because the terminology was less explicit, some organisations were able to gloss over it. The expected revisions to ISO 45001 appear likely to make psychosocial risk much harder to ignore.
Kate says the greater emphasis on psychosocial risk is expected to stay. She also highlights wider changes around wellbeing, occupational health, sickness absence, return to work, diversity, gender, neurodiversity, climate risk and sustainability.
This is where the construction industry needs to pay attention.
Psychosocial risk is not only about individual resilience or people struggling privately. It is affected by programme pressure, resourcing, work design, leadership, communication, commercial decisions and the realities of project delivery.
When pressure is predictable, risk should be predictable too.
If long hours, unrealistic demands, poor planning or lack of support are becoming routine, then organisations need to ask whether those conditions are being treated as operational problems, health risks or both.
Moving beyond reactive wellbeing
A strong theme in the episode is the difference between reactive support and prevention.
Kate is careful to recognise the value of mental health first aid, but she is equally clear that it is not enough by itself.
“Mental health first aid is an important part of the picture, but not the whole solution.”
This is an important message for construction, where many organisations have invested heavily in mental health awareness and mental health first aid training. That work has helped to open up conversations, reduce stigma and give people more confidence to respond when someone is struggling.
But Kate’s point is that organisations cannot stop there.
Psychosocial risk management requires the same kind of process used for other risks. Organisations need to identify hazards, gather evidence, review incidents, look at absence, consult with workers and assess who may be harmed. Then they need to act.
That action should follow the hierarchy of control. In other words, organisations should not jump straight to support after harm has already happened. They should ask what can be eliminated, reduced, redesigned or better controlled.
This is where psychosocial risk becomes more challenging, because the answer may not sit neatly with one team.
It may involve HR, health and safety, operations, procurement, leadership, project teams and line managers. It may involve decisions about workload, staffing, programme, job design, technology, supervision or commercial expectations.
Kate says this is one of the areas organisations will need to get to grips with.
Many organisations are closer than they think
One of the more reassuring parts of the conversation is Kate’s view that organisations may already be doing more than they realise.
She describes this as a reframing exercise. Good work may already be happening across different functions, but it may not be joined up or mapped against psychosocial risk.
For example, HR may already be leading work on diversity and inclusion. That could connect directly with psychosocial risks such as bullying, harassment or exclusion. Health and safety may already be managing violence risks, which may also have a psychosocial dimension. Occupational health may already be involved in absence and return to work.
Kate suggests that organisations should start by mapping what is already happening and then identifying the gaps.
“I think organisations are doing a lot more than they think.”
She also refers to mapping work she has done around ISO 45001 and ISO 45003, suggesting that organisations already working with ISO 45001 may have a significant amount of what they need in place, particularly when legislative requirements such as the Equality Act are also considered.
That does not mean the work is easy. Kate is clear that some gaps will be substantial. Work design, workload, organisational culture, isolation and line management support may all require more serious attention.
But the starting point is not necessarily a blank sheet of paper.
For construction businesses already working on mental health awareness, wellbeing, occupational health, inclusion, safety leadership or social value, the question is how these activities connect.
The role of smaller businesses
Another useful point in the episode is Kate’s observation that smaller businesses may have an advantage in some areas of psychosocial risk management.
Large businesses may have more resources, formal systems and dedicated teams. But smaller organisations can often bring people together more easily. They may be able to talk directly with workers, understand concerns quickly and respond without layers of process.
Kate’s advice is simple: “Talk to people.”
That simplicity matters.
Psychosocial risk management does not always need to start with a complex programme. It can begin with better conversations about what people are worried about, what support would help, what is making work harder and where pressure is being created.
For smaller construction firms, this could be a practical entry point. For larger organisations, it is a reminder that systems only work when they connect back to real experience.
Why this needs to be cross-functional
Kate’s final message is that there are no magic bullets.
Businesses need to think more holistically and work across functions. Health and safety cannot do this alone. HR cannot do it alone. Operations, procurement, leadership, IT and project teams all have a role.
This is particularly relevant as workplaces deal with technology and AI. Stuart raises the issue of organisations giving people access to AI tools, or knowing that people are using them, without necessarily training them properly. That can create new pressure rather than reducing it.
For Kate, technology is fundamentally a change management issue, and change management is already part of ISO 45001. If a business introduces new tools, new systems or new expectations, it needs to think about the human impact.
That same joined-up thinking applies to wider legislative and workplace changes.
Kate mentions menopause action plans, inclusive PPE and workplace suicide prevention as areas that connect with health and safety, psychosocial risk and good work. These are not separate conversations. They are part of a wider shift towards understanding people as human beings at work.
What construction should take from the episode
The construction industry has made real progress in talking about mental health. But this episode makes clear that the next stage needs to go further.
The key takeaways are practical.
First, psychosocial risk needs to be treated as part of health and safety management, not as an optional wellbeing extra.
Second, ISO 45003 is becoming increasingly important for organisations that want to understand what good psychosocial risk management looks like.
Third, reactive support has a place, but prevention needs more attention.
Fourth, many organisations should begin by mapping what they already do, identifying gaps and joining up work across functions.
Finally, this is not only a compliance issue. It is about the quality of work, the sustainability of people and the performance of the business.
As Kate says: “This is about creating the best environment for your people.”
That sentence sums up much of the conversation.
Good work supports people. Better supported people are more likely to stay, contribute and perform well. Poorly designed work creates avoidable pressure, and that pressure eventually shows up somewhere.
For construction, the challenge is to move this conversation out of the abstract and into the way projects are planned, managed and delivered.
Key takeaways
- Psychosocial risk is becoming a more explicit part of health and safety management, particularly as ISO 45001 is reviewed and expected to move closer to ISO 45003.
- Work-related stress is not new. Kate references the HSE stress management standards and makes clear that the evidence and legal expectations around work-related stress have existed for many years.
- ISO 45003 gives organisations a practical way to understand what good psychosocial risk management looks like.
- Mental health first aid has value, but it is not a complete solution. Organisations also need to identify hazards, assess risk, apply controls and prevent harm where possible.
- Mapping existing activity against psychosocial risk can help organisations see what is already in place, where the gaps are and what needs to be joined up.
- AI and technology should be treated as change management issues. Giving people new tools without training, support and clear expectations can create new psychosocial risks.
Listen or watch the full episode of Build & Thrive to hear the complete conversation with Kate Field and host Stuart Mace.
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Thank you to GKR Scaffolding for sponsoring the Build & Thrive podcast and supporting our mission to improve health and wellbeing across the construction industry.
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Learn more about the people and organisations mentioned in this episode:
Stuart Mace: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuartmace/
Construction Health & Wellbeing: https://constructionhealth.co.uk/
GKR Scaffolding (sponsor): https://gkrscaffolding.co.uk/
Kate Field:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katefieldbt/
BSI:
- Website: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bsi/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BritishStandardsInstitution
- X: https://twitter.com/intent/follow?source=followbutton&variant=1.0&screen_name=bsi_uk
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bsi
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BritishStandardsInstitution
