Standards › ISO 45003

Guidance standard — not certifiable

ISO 45003 — Psychological Health & Safety

Guidance on managing psychosocial risk within an ISO 45001 OH&S system. It is guidance: organisations are not certified against ISO 45003.

What it covers

Identifying psychosocial hazards (workload, control, support, conduct, change), assessing and controlling the risks, and building this into the OH&S management system rather than a separate wellbeing initiative.

Who it is for

Employers who already run (or are building) an ISO 45001 system and want the mental-health dimension handled with the same rigour as physical risk — highly relevant to construction’s hours, pressure and suicide statistics.

Key requirement themes

• Psychosocial hazard identification alongside physical hazards
• Risk assessment and controls at the organisation level, not just individual resilience
• Worker consultation with genuine confidentiality
• Competence for managers whose behaviour is itself a control
• Monitoring indicators and reviewing effectiveness

Theme-level description in our own words — the standard itself defines the requirements, and no standard text is reproduced here.

Construction-sector relevance

Long hours, itinerant work, programme pressure and payment chains are psychosocial hazards in the standard’s terms. Treating them as manageable risks — with controls like realistic rostering and escalation routes — is more defensible than posters and a helpline alone.

Benefits

• Mental health handled inside the safety system with evidence
• Meets growing client and framework expectations
• Earlier signals before absence and turnover

Common gaps we find

• Wellbeing initiatives with no risk assessment behind them
• No management competence element
• Indicators (absence, turnover, survey results) collected but never reviewed

Typical documents

• Psychosocial risk assessment
• Controls and escalation routes
• Consultation records
• Review records

Typical evidence

• Assessments and controls in the OH&S system
• Manager training records
• Reviewed indicators

Related standards

Questions we are actually asked

Can we be certified to ISO 45003?

No — it is guidance supporting ISO 45001. A certification body may examine how your ISO 45001 system addresses psychosocial risk, but there is no accredited ISO 45003 certificate.

Where do we start?

Treat it like any risk assessment: identify the hazards honestly (workload, hours, behaviour, job insecurity), involve the workforce confidentially, and pick controls the organisation — not the individual — owns.

Is this an HR topic or a safety topic?

Under this guidance it is a safety topic managed in the OH&S system, with HR as a key contributor.

Professional disclaimer: this page is orientation, not advice on your specific circumstances, and not a reproduction of any standard. Implementation support, templates and platform tools do not confer certification or legal compliance; certification decisions rest solely with independent certification bodies, and legal duties apply regardless of certification.