WorkSafe New Zealand has developed infographics on psychosocial risks for the construction, agriculture, manufacturing and forestry sectors, as well as for all New Zealand workers.

The infographics collate existing WorkSafe data into an easily digestible format. The infographics will support a range of industries to easily find data on the psychosocial risks and protective factors relevant for them.

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Agriculture psychosocial risks – infographic (PDF 201 KB)

Read the infographics for other sectors

Psychological harm1

The percentage of agriculture workers that report experiencing the following in the last 12 months:

  • 20% – any work-related mental health or wellbeing issue
  • 14% – high work-related stress
  • 13% – work-related anxiety
  • 13% – work-related depression
  • 5% – new mental health or wellbeing issues

Self-rated health2

Self-rated health is a key indicator for monitoring quality of life and population health.

Agriculture workers were slightly more likely to rate their health as good or above compared to all workers.

[image] Agriculture – Self-rated health – graph

Image shows a stacked bar graph comparing the self-rated health of agriculture workers and all workers. Workers could rate their health as excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor.

Self-rated health of agriculture workers:

  • excellent – 24% compared with 15% for all workers 
  • very good – 33% compared with 32% for all workers
  • good – 31% compared with 34% for all workers
  • fair – 7% compared with 15% for all workers
  • poor – 5% compared with 4% for all workers

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Work-related suicide3

Work-related suicide research reviewed 1,678 coronial findings (from applicable cases) between 2017–2021.

  • 18% – an estimated 18% of workers who die by work-related suicide each year are in agriculture, forestry and fishing
  • 12 – estimated number of agriculture, forestry and fishing workers who die by work-related suicide each year
  • 83% (30 out of 36) had the job title farmer or farm worker
  • 69% – work-related depression

All agricultural, forestry and fishing workers who died by work-related suicide experienced significant work-related stressors. The following work-related stressors appeared in work-related suicides by people who worked in agriculture, forestry and fishing:

How work is designed

  • Job demands
  • Workload and work pace
  • Working hours and schedule
  • Job security and precarious work
  • Job control and autonomy

Social factors at work

  • Bullying and victimisation
  • Interpersonal relationships
  • Work–life balance
  • Leadership
  • Violence at work

Work environment

  • Work-related injury

Work context

  • Performance management process
  • Making a mistake at work

Offensive behaviours2

Offensive behaviours can cause harm to the person they are directed at as well as people witnessing the behaviour. Repetitive or severe exposure can cause both physical and psychological harm.

Percentage of agriculture workers who were exposed at least once in the last 12 months:

  • 22% – bullying
  • 13% – threats of violence
  • 17% – cyberbullying
  • 10% – sexual harassment
  • 11% – physical violence

Policies around bullying, harassment and violence1

  • 47% of agriculture employers report they do not have a policy to support the management of incidences of bullying and harassment, including sexual harassment.
  • 52% of agriculture employers report they do not have a policy to guide their response to violent incidents, including threats of violence.

Psychosocial risks2

Agriculture workers are more likely to be exposed to:

  • higher work pace
  • lower control over working time
  • higher work life conflict.

Protective factors2

Protective factors can mitigate the impact of risk factors and may enhance mental wellbeing.

Agriculture workers are more likely than all New Zealand workers to report:

  • lower quantitative demands
  • organisational justice
  • recognition
  • lower illegitimate tasks
  • vertical trust
  • horizontal trust
  • lower emotional demands
  • lower demands for hiding emotions
  • role clarity.

Mentally healthy work concerns4

This data involves mentally healthy work concerns WorkSafe received from 26 April 2022 to 1 May 2023.

  • 6% of mentally healthy work concerns that WorkSafe received in that period were from workers in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors (18 out of 283 concens).

Percentage of concerns by issue

[image] Agriculture – Percentage of concerns by issue – graph

Image shows a column graph. Each column shows the percentage of an issue as a proportion of all mentally healthy work concerns for agriculture, forestry and fishing workers:

  • 11% work-related stress
  • 5% fatigue at work
  • 72% bullying and harassment
  • 16% violence at work
  • 16% sexual harassment
  • 22% other

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Percentage of concerns by levels of harm

[image] Agriculture – Percentage of concerns by level of harm – graph

Image shows a column graph. Each column shows the percentage of a level of harm concern as a proportion of all mentally healthy work concerns for agriculture, forestry and fishing workers:

  • 33% minor
  • 25% significant
  • 42% severe

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Employer health and safety maturity in agriculture1

[image] Agriculture – Employer health and safety maturity – graph

Image shows a pie graph with percentages of employer maturity in healthy and safety for four types:

  • 10% – Care for others
  • 31% – Protect me and mine
  • 40% – All talk, little walk
  • 19% – It's just common sense

End of text alternative.

Employers’ health and safety perceptions1

Percentage of agriculture employers that agree with the following statements:

  • 67% – we make the time and effort to ensure we’re up to date with changes in health and safety legislation
  • 70% – disagree that it’s better to ‘keep the peace’ with staff than worry about when they haven’t followed a safety rule or guideline
  • 65% – if you put the effort in health and safety is easy
  • 51% – we have rules about working safely, but it’s up to workers how much they always follow them
  • 71% – I am confident our workers always tell a co-worker if they aren’t working safely

Employers’ health and safety practices1

Percentage of agriculture employers that:

  • 29% say they conduct an assessment on workers’ level of exposure to a health risk
  • 14% say they provide workers with health checks/monitoring for health problems that could be related to their work
  • 66% say they make changes to the work environment or equipment to reduce the risk to people’s health and safety
  • 42% say they develop or update a formal management plan or policy to address key health and safety risks.

Footnotes

1. WorkSafe Workforce Segmentation and Insight surveys 2020 and 2021

2. WorkSafe (2022). New Zealand Psychosocial Survey 2021

3. WorkSafe (2024). Work-related suicide: Examining the role of work factors in suicide

4. WorkSafe (2023). Mentally healthy work online form analysis: Review of concerns received from 26 April 2022 – 1 May 2023.

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