Poor role clarity:

• means workers aren’t clear on their job or responsibilities or what is expected of them
• happens when workers are told a task is a priority by one manager but another manager disagrees, when workers are given multiple priority tasks from different managers, or when workers are given conflicting information about work standards and expectations
• happens when workers aren’t given the information they need to do their job, when deadlines change, or they get contradictory instructions or work priorities.

Identify and assess the risks

To learn if there is poor role clarity in your workplace (or the potential for it) look at everything from the work environment to work tasks, how they’re carried out, and the way work is designed and managed.

• Consult your workers. They may tell you they feel stressed, confused, frustrated or ‘kept in the dark’. They may raise concerns about their role or responsibilities or be unsure what is expected of them. Talk with your health and safety reps and committee too.
• Use surveys and tools. If you have more than 20 workers may find the People at Work psychosocial risk assessment tool useful. Head4Work is suitable if you have 20 or less workers (see Psychosocial hazards resources).
• Observe work and behaviours. tasks taking longer than expected, frequent mistakes, double handling, or arguments about who is responsible for what can be caused by a lack of role clarity.
• Review information such as overtime records, time off, injuries, incidents and near misses, and workers compensation claims.
• Have a way for workers to report their concerns, and treat these seriously and respectfully. That will encourage reporting and help you fix the problem.
• Identify other hazards present and consider them together. Hazards can interact and combine to create new, changed or higher risks. For example, lack of role clarity may create a higher risk in workplaces with poor organisational justice because workers are afraid to ask questions or raise concerns.
• Consider how long, how often and how severely workers are exposed to hazards. The longer, more often and worse the exposure to poor role clarity, the higher the risk that workers may be harmed.

Practical control measures

Here are some ideas for control measure that can help you prevent and manage poor role clarity.

Review your control measures

You must review your control measures to check they are working as planned. If your control measures aren’t managing the hazard or is creating new risks, you must make changes.

Get feedback from those affected by the changes, and include them in any modifications to their workplace or work routines. Look at your incident records to see if numbers are going down.