This page provides general information only and is not legal advice. Obligations vary by jurisdiction. Consult your WHS regulator or a qualified professional for advice specific to your situation.
On 1 June 2026, Australian organisations can no longer register for the People at Work (PAW) survey platform. On 2 October 2026, the platform closes entirely. After that date, all historical data and reports will be inaccessible. If your organisation has relied on PAW to meet psychosocial risk obligations, you need a plan before then.
This page covers: what’s changing, what it means for your legal obligations, what to look for in a replacement, and how organisations are approaching the transition.
What is happening to People at Work?
The People at Work (PAW) tool was launched in 2020 and used by approximately 5,000 Australian businesses, with over 160,000 individual workers completing surveys. It was the primary free psychosocial risk assessment tool recommended by Australian WHS regulators.
Safe Work Australia has confirmed it will be decommissioned due to three key gaps that have emerged since its launch:
- Legislative gaps: Changes to legislation since 2020, including new obligations around sexual harassment, isolated/remote work, and fatigue, are not adequately covered by the PAW framework.
- Declining engagement: PAW’s response rates have fallen significantly, reducing the reliability and usefulness of its data. A tool that employees don’t complete cannot identify risk.
- Superseded by research: New evidence-based approaches to psychosocial measurement have emerged since 2020. Shorter, more precise tools now generate equivalent or greater insight with significantly less survey fatigue.
The decommissioning timeline
- 1 June 2026Last date for new organisations to register on the platform
- 1 July 2026Last date to launch new surveys
- 2 October 2026Final date to access the platform and extract all historical reports and data
If you have historical PAW data: Export all reports before 2 October 2026. Once the platform closes, this data will be unrecoverable. See our step-by-step export guide →
Does decommissioning PAW remove your legal obligations?
No. The removal of the People at Work tool does not reduce your legal obligations by a single line.
Under the Work Health and Safety Regulations (adopted across most Australian states and territories from 2022–2023) and Victoria’s Occupational Health and Safety (Psychological Health) Regulations 2025, every Australian employer has an explicit, enforceable duty to:
- Identify psychosocial hazards in the workplace through consultation, observation, surveys, and data analysis
- Assess the risks those hazards create, considering frequency, intensity, duration, and severity of exposure
- Control those risks using the hierarchy of controls, with an emphasis on higher-order controls (work design, systems, management practices) over lower-order controls (awareness training, EAP access)
- Review the effectiveness of controls over time, and in response to reported incidents, organisational changes, or worker feedback
This is called the PSRM lifecycle (Psychosocial Risk Management): Identify → Assess → Control → Review. The Model Code of Practice: Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work sets it out clearly. PAW was one tool organisations used to satisfy the Identify obligation. You still need to satisfy that obligation. You simply need a different tool to do it.
A real consequence worth knowing: In Victoria, an employer was fined close to A$380,000 for failing to take adequate steps to identify or assess psychosocial risk. This preceded the December 2025 regulations, which have since strengthened enforcement obligations further. Across jurisdictions, failure to demonstrate active psychosocial risk identification is no longer treated as an oversight. It is a breach.
What should you look for in a People at Work replacement?
PAW was static and annual. The landscape has moved on. When evaluating replacement tools, experienced H&S managers are looking for:
Frequency of data collection
An annual or one-off assessment leaves you blind to emerging risks for months. Psychosocial hazards shift month to month: new management structures, workload spikes, team relationship breakdowns. Monthly or quarterly check-ins give you data that’s actually current when you act on it.
Employee completion rates
PAW’s declining completion rates were one of the reasons it was retired. A tool that takes 30+ minutes will not be completed. Look for validated short-form assessments. Research shows that purpose-built psychosocial measures of 2–5 minutes can capture over 75% of the insight found in long-form surveys (Zábrodská et al., 2026, COPSOQ III research). High completion rates mean more reliable data.
Coverage of current legislative hazards
The PAW tool didn’t cover sexual harassment and isolated/remote work as explicit hazards. Any replacement should align with the 2022 Model Code of Practice and state-level regulations, covering the full set of hazards including fatigue, job insecurity, and remote work.
Breakdown capability
Organisation-wide data tells you something is wrong. Department, role, and location breakdowns tell you where it’s wrong and who’s most affected. That specificity is what you need to implement targeted controls. Without breakdowns, you can’t make proportionate decisions.
Documented evidence for compliance
Your replacement tool needs to generate outputs that demonstrate ongoing, systematic risk management. A one-time survey result is not sufficient. Regulators across Australia are increasingly asking organisations to show their monitoring process, not just their findings.
Employee value (not just employer data)
Tools that give employees something back (a personalised reflection, tailored support, or a pathway to help) achieve higher and more honest participation. When employees see value, they complete honestly.
How Clearhead’s Psychosocial Risk Pulse Tool differs from People at Work
People at Work did important work for Australian businesses. It helped thousands of organisations take psychosocial risk seriously for the first time. Its decommissioning is not a failure. It’s a reflection of how much the field has advanced since 2020.
Here is how the Clearhead Psychosocial Risk Pulse Tool differs:
Discontinuing Oct 2026
People at Work
Recommended replacement
Clearhead Pulse Tool
The Clearhead tool is not free. That cost buys you ongoing monitoring, documentation of compliance activity, employee support pathways, and a team that works with you on the data. The legislation now requires continuous, active psychosocial risk management, and the tool is designed to fit that obligation.
What if we’re a small organisation?
For organisations under 100 employees, the Get Started tier at $1/user/month covers the core obligation: monthly check-ins, 18-factor hazard coverage, ISO 45003 alignment, and an organisation-wide risk report. For a 50-person business, that’s $50/month to maintain documented, ongoing psychosocial risk monitoring. Most organisations find this fits within an existing H&S or wellbeing budget.