Amongst current economic uncertainty, businesses are focusing on incremental optimization (i.e. lay-offs, budget cuts and price increases), without recognising the long-term impact of investing in employee wellbeing. However, there are leaders out there committed to protecting the mental health and safety of their employees. Not only because it is the right thing to do, but because it makes business sense to support wellbeing as it increases retention, productivity, commitment, engagement, customer satisfaction and as a result, the bottom line.
Identifying and Managing Potential Hazards
However, there are still many companies out there that do not prioritize or address work-related mental ill health (i.e. stress, anxiety, burnout or poor coping behaviour). Even across the T&S industry, we see a vast spectrum of prioritization of wellbeing, from proactive psychosocial hazard and stigma reduction to minimal supports and concern for employee wellbeing. The latter of which is often influenced by funding and efforts to reduce cost. However, these companies are at risk of longer-term liability and financial impacts.
Fortunately, in 2021 we saw the release of the new global standard, ISO 45003 which provides organizations with a framework for managing psychological health and safety. Yet, one might question how psychosocial hazard management for mainstream organizations might apply to the complex and challenging work of content moderation? According to Safety Consultants Prof Tim Marsh and Dr Jacqui Wilmshurst, there should be no difference between how conventional corporate and T&S hazards are assessed and managed. Trauma is a specific environmental hazard to mental health, which needs to be properly risk assessed and managed in the standard way. According to their 4P model, organization should start by adopting the holistic approach of mental and physical health promotion to help buffer against the challenges created by traumatic, distressing material and workplace pressures. This initiative can help encourage better nutrition, sleep, more movement and mental health awareness (managing thoughts, anxiety, symptoms of distress) to help support Content Moderator wellbeing.
Secondly, potential hazards should be identified, with related risks assessed. Examples of hazards in content moderation work may include extended exposure to egregious content, which may increase the risk of vicarious trauma. Or, out of date tooling which may result in additional cognitive load for moderators, thus increasing risk of stress and associated health impacts. Once hazards and associated risk are understood, they can either be removed or impact reduced as much as possible. For example, you could limit the number of hours of exposure per day to egregious content, or upgrade tooling to reduce any unnecessary, additional processes or stressors when reviewing and tagging content. This stage is often missing in mental health strategies, which rely solely on resilience building and reactive support (EAP and counselling support).
Importance of Ongoing Training and Support
Marsh and Wilmshurst (2020) also emphasise the importance of providing ongoing training. In the case of content moderation, this could include vicarious trauma awareness training, understanding the impacts of various types of content and developing relevant coping strategies, promoting support seeking behaviour, the benefits of exercise and meditative practices. The aim being to support the physical, emotional, cognitive and behavioural impact of their work. Finally, continuing support should be provided, in the form of counselling support, external professional support when required and peer support, particularly during periods of high-risk or crises.
In essence, psychological risk requires a proactive and systemic risk approach, as one would apply managing risk of fire or chemical exposure. The focus is on addressing work design to prevent harm and promote wellbeing in the first place, so less reactive supports are required, less damage is done. Most importantly, it should engage and empower Content Moderators themselves to protect their own psychological health and report when they are being unnecessarily impacted.
It’s important to note that the ISO also outlines other hazards, beyond psychological distress or trauma that show significant impact on Content Moderators, such as work relationships, organizational culture and change management practices, for example. We have seen significant impacts of these factors in the consultancy space, often having greater psychological impact than the content itself. This highlights why the ISO framework is critical to systemically assess all possible potential hazards that may impact employee mental health.
In addition to global ISO guidelines, we have seen an increase in compliance and regulation obligations in the T&S space. The Digital Services Act (DSA) requires that EU-based online platforms must comply with regulations to reduce harm or risk facing heavy fines. The Online Safety Act (2021) in Australia requires platforms there to detect and remove illegal content (CSAM, cyberbullying and terrorist) within 24 hours, or face civil risk penalties and significant fines. There are now stricter national accountability standards appearing internationally to protect users from harmful content. Yet, unfortunately, it is inevitable that this increased accountability will likely impact frontline Content Moderators most, as they grapple to adhere to increased pressure for speed and accuracy, at the detriment of the platform reputation, resulting in a new and significant psychosocial stressor to address. Therefore, more transparency and assessment of risk in this fast-paced ever-changing industry is needed to prevent and protect those most at risk, Content Moderators.
For more information on this topic, join us for next month’s webinar “Navigating Psychological Health and Safety in Content Moderation” where I will be speaking with Safety Consultant and Research Psychologist, Dr. Jacqui Wilmshurst who has pioneered the design and implementation of Psychological Health, Safety and Wellbeing, strategy, policy and interventions in both T&S and corporate organizations.
