Most conversations about psychosocial risks start with the employee, and rightly so. Stress, burnout, harassment, a strained relationship with a manager, or a team where nobody feels able to speak up can do real damage to someone’s health.
But organisations pay too, and the bill usually arrives under a different name.
It shows up as sick days. As a strong performer who gradually stops performing. As a resignation that takes years of know-how out the door and starts a recruitment process. As a manager who spends half the week dealing with a conflict, and colleagues quietly covering for someone who is struggling. Errors and accidents become more likely, and engagement and trust wear down. Presenteeism is the hardest to spot: people are at their desks, but not working at their usual level.
Because these costs rarely get traced back to psychosocial risks, they are easy to miss.
The numbers are hard to ignore. The 2022 Job Stress Index estimates that work-related stress costs Swiss companies CHF 6.5 billion a year, through absence, lost productivity, turnover and presenteeism. About 30% of working people in Switzerland say they feel emotionally drained at work, and 28% say they feel stressed. Stressed workers are estimated to be twice as likely to be absent. They also lose around 6 hours 20 minutes a week to health-related productivity loss, compared with about 2 hours 30 minutes for colleagues who aren’t stressed. That is nearly four extra hours, per person, every week.
Not every absence or resignation comes down to psychosocial risks, of course. But even allowing for that, the cost is clearly not only a human one. It is organisational and financial too.
So what can organisations do?
Start by treating psychosocial risks as an organisational issue rather than a personal failing. That means looking honestly at how work is designed and managed:
- Are workloads realistic?
- Are roles and expectations clear?
- Do people have enough say in how they work?
- What are working relationships really like?
- How are change and recognition handled?
- Would someone feel safe raising a concern?
Then make sure problems surface early. A conflict dealt with early often never becomes a formal dispute. An employee with somewhere safe to go can get support before reaching crisis point. A manager who notices the warning signs may be able to step in before a situation turns into a long absence.
This is where a Personne de Confiance en Entreprise (PCE) comes in. A PCE doesn’t replace HR, management or occupational health. What a PCE offers is an independent, confidential point of contact outside the reporting lines, where employees can talk when something isn’t right. Concerns are more likely to be recognised and addressed sooner as a result.
Addressing psychosocial risks is about more than employee wellbeing. It protects productivity, keeps talent and knowledge in the organisation, and reduces disruption that could have been avoided.
HR teams often ask whether they can afford to invest in prevention. The better question may be what it costs to wait until the problem gets bigger.