What do the Swedish Work Environment Agency's new rules for psychological work environment and employee surveys mean?
As of January 1, 2025, the Swedish Work Environment Agency's new rule structure comes into force. The former 67 regulations have been merged into 15 more comprehensive rules to make the work environment legislation clearer and more easily accessible. This is a big step forward in helping employers and managers navigate the regulatory framework, but there are some areas that require extra focus. One of these is the psychological work environment.
This is how the new rules affect the psychological work environment
The psychological work environment is still covered by the requirements of the previous organizational and social work environment regulations (AFS 2015:4), but these have now been integrated into the new structure. What does that mean concretely? Here are the key points:
- Prevent stress and workload: Employers must continue to identify and manage risks linked to high workloads, unclear roles and stress. The requirements to prevent abusive discrimination remain.
- Clearer distribution of responsibilities: It is now even clearer that the responsibility for creating a healthy working environment lies with employers and management. This includes ensuring that mental illness is identified and addressed.
- Systematic work environment work (SAM): Psychological work environment is part of systematic work environment work. Risk assessments and action plans must include factors such as time pressure, conflicts and workload.
The new role of employee surveys
Employee surveys have long been an important tool for mapping the organizational and social work environment. The new rules now raise their importance to a new level:
- Mapping and follow-up: It is no longer enough to carry out an examination for the sake of sight. Employers are expected to analyze the results and take concrete steps to address identified problems.
- Continuity and integration: Employee surveys should not be a one-off event. They must be integrated into the ongoing work environment work and used to create a sustainable and developing work environment.
- Employee participation: To create relevant and effective solutions, employees must be involved in identifying problems and developing measures. This increases the likelihood that measures will have an actual effect.
- Protection of privacy: When investigations concern mental illness or conflicts, it is crucial to ensure the anonymity and integrity of employees.
The construction sector: Special rules to be aware of
The construction sector is affected by several new regulations, especially in the early stages of the construction process. This means clearer demands on building owners, designers and construction environment coordinators. Have you updated your routines and processes to match the new requirements?
Support and tools to get you started
The Swedish Work Environment Authority offers presentation materials and guides to facilitate the transition to the new regulations. They have also produced a section key to help employers navigate between old and new rules.
Take the first step towards improvement
With the new rules in place, employers have a golden opportunity to take their work with psychological work environment to the next level. Employee surveys are a central part of this work – but it takes the right tools and a clear strategy to create real change.
Do you want to know more about how we at Yesbox can help you turn employee surveys into an engine for improvement? Contact us today and let's talk about how we can help you reach new heights!
#Work environment #Employee surveys #Mental health #Leadership