Where does the psychosocial survey fit?

If you've already conducted a psychosocial survey—or have one scheduled—you might wonder how the Safe Minds Index relates to what you're already doing. The short answer: your survey data becomes more valuable, not redundant.

The value and limitations of psychosocial surveys

Point-in-time psychosocial surveys provide substantial value in identifying hazards through employee voice that are not captured via other approaches. They serve as lead indicators for where harm may occur in the future.

However, surveys alone can present challenges:

• They're periodic: An annual or biennial survey gives a snapshot—not a view of employee experiences between measurement cycles. This can be a valuable pre- and post-metric to help understand prevalence and impact, but organisations need to examine micro-data sources along the way too.
• Competing priorities: Employee perception is valuable, but organisations don't need to wait until the timing is right to get a snapshot of where they currently sit on psychosocial health and safety. Workforce data, past surveys, injury management and claims data, turnover patterns, safety incidents, and operational metrics tell different parts of the story.
• Multi-source integration benefit: Mapping lead and lag data, systems, policy, capability, and workforce patterns enables organisations to profile risk and make predictions through big data modelling. This means you get the power of big data insights using the information you have on hand right now.

The Safe Minds Index: a multi-source maturity score

The Safe Minds Index™ is designed to organise and complement your existing psychosocial data. Here's how different data sources fit together:

Data source	What it contributes
Psychosocial surveys	Workforce sentiment, hazard identification, employee voice
HR/Workforce data	Turnover patterns, absenteeism, leave trends, tenure analysis
Safety data	Incidents, near-misses, reported hazards, investigation outcomes
Claims data	Workers compensation claims, claim types, costs, durations
Operational data	Workload metrics, staffing ratios, overtime patterns
Policy & governance	Policy documentation, control review cycles, board reporting frequency

Your survey is one input among many, triangulated against operational reality to produce a standardised maturity score that tracks over time.

What happens to survey data in the Index?

If you've conducted a psychosocial hazard assessment or engagement survey, that data can be ingested into the Safe Minds Index framework. It contributes to your overall score and provides depth and granularity to the employee sentiment dimension.

If you haven't conducted a survey yet, the Index can still generate your score using other available data sources. Many organisations start here and add survey data when they're ready.

Should you still run surveys?

In many cases, surveys provide substantial value through:

• Hazard identification: Hearing directly from workers about what they experience
• Regulatory evidence: Demonstrating consultation with workers (a compliance requirement)
• Depth on specific issues: Investigating particular teams, locations, or concerns
• Identifying hotspots: Revealing where hazards are prominent
• Predictive power: Lead indicators provide future risk forecasting

The difference with the Safe Minds, Better Work program is that surveys are part of the solution—not the entire solution. You can still use your preferred platform, survey approach, or provider. InCheq's Safe Minds Index is a partner-enabled solution that provides standardised benchmarking for every organisation.

The Safe Minds Index gives you the longitudinal view, the multi-source triangulation, and the standardised score that boards and regulators increasingly expect. Surveys give you the human voice and targeted depth. Together, they provide defensible evidence of systematic oversight.

Already surveyed? Here's what to do next

If you've recently completed a psychosocial survey:

1. Your data isn't wasted. It becomes a key input to your Safe Minds Index score.
2. You can establish a baseline now. We can integrate your survey results with other available data to generate your initial Index score.
3. You'll see where gaps exist. The Index identifies which data sources are contributing so you know where to focus.

If you have a survey scheduled:

1. Proceed as planned. The survey will provide rich insights and worker consultation information. This data can be added to your Index once complete.
2. Consider baseline timing. If you want a baseline Index score first, we can generate one from existing data before your survey, then update after. Your Safe Minds Index is updated quarterly for most organisations, so there's no need to wait.

The bottom line

Surveys are still important. But they don't tell the whole story.

The Safe Minds Index turns fragmented data—including survey data—into a standardised, compliance-mapped maturity score that evolves with your organisation. Your existing work becomes the foundation. The Index makes it defensible and moves you forward.