People at Work Survey

Safe Work Australia's free psychosocial risk assessment survey was the primary instrument used by Australian organisations for several years. It was officially retired in 2024, leaving a significant gap in the Australian assessment landscape.

Overview

Developer

Safe Work Australia in partnership with Curtin University

Format

47-item online survey with automated risk scoring and reporting

Status

Retired in 2024. No longer available for new assessments.

What It Covered

People at Work assessed risk across a number of psychosocial domains, though its coverage of the full 17 Comcare hazards was incomplete:

Job demands

Job control / autonomy

Manager & peer support

Role clarity

Recognition & reward

Workplace relationships

Change management

Organisational justice

Bullying & harassment

Traumatic events

Remote / isolated work

Work-life interference

Fatigue

Job insecurity

Intrusive surveillance

Harmful work environment

Conflict / poor interactions

Strengths

Free and government-backed — removed cost barriers for SMEs

Validated by Curtin University with Australian normative data

Automated scoring and benchmarking against industry averages

Specifically designed for Australian regulatory context

Simple to administer with minimal specialist knowledge required

Limitations & Why It Was Retired

Anonymous only — managers could not identify who needed support

Episodic — snapshot surveys conducted annually or biannually at best

Incomplete hazard coverage — missed fatigue, job insecurity, and intrusive surveillance entirely

No action pathway — generated reports but did not connect insights to manager intervention

Static — could not adapt to emerging risks between survey cycles

No continuous compliance evidence — a single survey does not satisfy ongoing regulatory duties

The Gap It Left Behind

With People at Work's retirement, Australian organisations — particularly SMEs that relied on its free access — now have no government-provided assessment tool. This comes at exactly the worst time: regulators are increasing enforcement and the Comcare 2024 Code now lists 17 hazards (up from the 14 that People at Work was designed around). Organisations need a replacement that covers all 17 hazards, operates continuously, and enables individual-level action.