Improving work-related psychosocial risk management: A mixed methods evaluation of the factors influencing inspectors’ practice

• Individual and job-related factors influence inspectors’ capacity to engage with stakeholders about psychosocial risks. • Role-clarity, subject matter knowledge, and interpersonal skills support confidence. • Mixed-methods research to inform capability development. In many countries, legal obligations require that organizations manage work-related psychosocial risks. Yet, regulating these risks has proved challenging and existent research highlights a need to improve regulatory capabilities to address these risks. This paper focuses on inspectors’ perspectives on engaging with stakeholders about psychosocial risks, with the aim of informing potential capability development strategies. To meet this aim, we used mixed-methods research to understand the individual and job-related factors that influence inspectors’ capacity to engage with stakeholders about psychosocial risks. Study 1 (qualitative) involved semi-structured interviews with 12 inspectors and regulatory subject matter experts working in New Zealand. Study 2 (quantitative) builds on the qualitative findings and involved a survey of 86 inspectors. Five themes emerged from Study 1, reflecting the factors that influence inspectors’ capacity to engage with stakeholders about psychosocial risks: [1] Training, resources, and knowledge, [2] Interpersonal skills, [3] Need for role-clarity, [4] Attitudes and interest, [5] Job-related barriers. Supporting these findings, the results of Study 2 found positive relationships between task-specific resources (i.e., subject matter knowledge, relevant skills, role-clarity) and task-specific self-efficacy. Results also show that participants’ attitudes were predictive of their frequency of engagement with stakeholders regarding psychosocial risks. The findings advance our understanding of ways to improve psychosocial risk regulation by identifying the factors that are important in determining front-line inspectors’ capacity to undertake this work. We recommend these factors be considered when designing interventions to improve regulatory capability to address psychosocial risks.