PHSMS Audit
It’s Time To Assess Your Organization’s Current Psychological Health And Safety Management System (PHSMS) Offerings
AMHSA is proud to announce that a new opportunity exists for organizations like yours to review the impact, strengths and weaknesses of your current psychological health and safety management programs and resources.
Employers Can Utilize The AMHSA PHSMS Audit Tool For Free
AMHSA’s Psychological Health and Safety Management System (PHSMS) Audit is an innovative and scalable solution for employers looking to implement or develop a psychological health and safety management system. Assess the effectiveness of your current program against recognized standards, integrate psychological health into your existing health and safety management system, or measure your readiness to adopt the CSA National Standard for PHS.
- Approved by the Government of Alberta Partnerships in Injury Reduction (PIR) program
- Part of Certificate of Recognition (COR) that can provide eligible employers with Workers’ Compensation Board-Alberta (WCB) refunds of up to 20%
- Aligned to the National Standard and ISO 45003:2021 Occupational Health and Safety Management — PHS at work Guidelines for Managing Psychosocial Risks
- Designed in response to feedback that The National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace (the Standard) and Implementation Guide, while admirable, is difficult to adopt due to intensity of resources required and complexity of the Standard
Welcome to the PHSMS Audit Element, an innovative solution for employers that can be used in one of two ways:
1. As part of an Alberta COR audit
Holders can use this new optional element as a replacement for one of the standard elements in a maintenance audit year (requires pre-approval from AMHSA).
2. As a stand-alone audit
Whether you’re a COR holder or not, any employer can use it for internal evaluation and to increase their readiness to adopt the CSA National Standard for PHS.
If you’ve been looking to evaluate psychological health and safety in your workplace, then look no further. This tool is easy to access, and there’s no cost to use it. It’s the quick, approachable entry point you’ve been waiting for!
Register to receive more information
Why Prioritize Workplace Psychological Health And Safety? Because The Numbers Don’t Lie.
[Source: Data from WCB-Alberta, averages across all municipal types, 2022]
days
Average length of psychological injury claims across Alberta municipalities in 2022
million
Average cost of psychological injury claims across Alberta municipalities in 2022
disability days
Average disability days for psychological injury claims across Alberta municipalities in 2022
disability days
Average disability days per psychological injury claim across Alberta municipalities in 2022
Scalable (PHS Audit Level 1-3)
Learn More About AMHSA’s Free PHSMS Audit Element
The PHSMS Audit Element is fully scalable. It has three levels to meet employers where they are in available resources, organizational culture and HSMS development. Employers can select the audit level that best describes the current state of their PHS implementation.
Demonstrate your commitment to psychologically safe workplaces by using this resource.
Find out if what you're currently doing is effective.
Benchmark yourself against a standard.
PHSMS Audit Level 1
The starting point
- Integration of PHS into health and safety policy
- Ensuring PHS resources available
- Employee knowledge of PHS hazards related to their work
- Training for management, supervisors, Health and Safety Committee (HSC) co-chairs, and Health and Safety Representatives (HSRs)
PHSMS Audit Level 2
A deeper impact
- Includes Level 1 measurements
- PHS responsibilities written for all levels
- Leadership understands their PHS responsibilities
- Inclusiveness, diversity, equity, and acceptance policy
- Training expanded to include inspection and investigation leads
PHSMS Audit Level 3
The full audit
- Includes Level 1 and 2 measurements
- Annual employee PHS survey
- Additional PHS policies, procedures, and hazard identification
- EFAP includes mental health assistance
- Training expanded to include all employees
Can you give me an overview of the audit?
AMHSA’s PHSMS Audit Element will walk you through the process of reviewing documentation and conducting interviews. It has you talk to employees, management, and leadership to gain more insight into the current state of your organization’s overall psychological health and safety program. It has you look at the policies and procedures in place and the training that you have or haven’t done. And then based on those sorts of things, it gives you a starting place as to where to go next with your PHSMS program. Is your current program effective? Or does more need to be done? And if so, what gaps need to be filled. This is the PHS benchmark tool that you’ve been missing.
Is the PHSMS audit hard to use?
No. There are three levels to the PHSMS audit, depending on your organization’s level of implementation. The excel audit workbook allows the auditor to select the level, which determines which series of questions to ask and what documentation to review. Think of it as a detailed questionnaire that you’re filling out.
What types of questions are there?
Questions vary depending on the level of the audit. Questions asked may include interview questions, training questions, program questions and policy questions.
What happens after I answer the audit questions?
You will have a better understanding of what areas of your PHS program need improvement and where you can celebrate your successes. The audit results act as a starting point to build an action plan for continuous improvement of your PHS program. For AMHSA COR-holders and members, submit your audit to AMHSA for review by a Quality Assurance Analyst.
Do I need to take any training before using the audit tool?
AMHSA recommends attending Health and Safety Management Systems and Health and Safety Auditing prior to using the tool. If using the tool as part of a COR audit, you must have attended both courses and successfully qualified as an auditor. AMHSA also allows the use of approved consultant auditors.
Is The PHS Audit Element Approved?
Yes, the AMHSA PHSMS Audit is the only PHS Audit Element approved for use by the Government of Alberta’s, Partnerships in Injury Reduction (PIR) program.
What is PIR?
Partnerships in Injury Reduction (PIR) is a joint program administered by Alberta Jobs, Economy and Trade, Workers’ Compensation Board-Alberta (WCB), and various certifying partners. AMHSA is the certifying partner for the municipal industry.
Organizations in Alberta are able to join the PIR program and obtain a Certificate of Recognition (COR) after successfully auditing their HSMS. Alberta municipal COR holders can use the PHS audit as a replacement for one of the standard elements in a maintenance audit year (with pre-approval from AMHSA).
What if my organization doesn’t have an Alberta COR?
Any employer in Alberta and throughout Canada can use the PHSMS audit as a stand-alone audit for internal evaluation and to increase their readiness to adopt the CSA National Standard for PHS.
Auditors
Are you looking to enhance your auditor competencies and learn how to utilize the PHSMS audit? Click here to register in AMHSA’s Health and Safety Auditing course, now updated with new information on psychological health and safety standards and the PHS audit.
Got Questions? Contact us – [email protected] or 587-952-2268 / 1-800-267-9764
What PHSMS Training Do You Recommend?
The training content criteria required by the AMHSA PHSMS Audit is the same for Level 1, 2 and 3. The factor that differs among each level is the work site parties that are required to have formal documented training.
Required content criteria that must be covered in PHSMS training should include but is not limited to:
- understanding workplace psychosocial factors (overall work environment and job specific)
- identifying and controlling PHS hazards related to psychosocial factors in the workplace
- developing recommendations for protecting psychological health and safety
- promoting psychologically safe work
- identifying potential signs of workers experiencing psychological hazards
- reporting concerns
- employee support
- PHS in relation to hazard assessment, inspections, investigations, incidents and HSC’s/HSR role