SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA / ACCESS Newswire / February 18, 2026 / Australia's nationwide psychosocial safety reforms are creating a new compliance burden for employers and a corresponding opportunity for enterprise software providers. From 1 December 2025, psychosocial hazards are enforceable under Work Health and Safety law, requiring organisations to identify, assess, control and continuously monitor psychological health risks with the same rigour applied to physical safety hazards.

The reforms mark a structural expansion of employer obligations. Boards and officers must now demonstrate due diligence over risks such as excessive workload, bullying, harassment and poor organisational change management. For many organisations, that means implementing documented risk management systems capable of withstanding regulatory scrutiny rather than relying on informal wellbeing initiatives.

For software investors, the change effectively establishes a new compliance category. Employers that previously treated psychosocial health as a cultural or HR issue must now embed it within formal governance frameworks, supported by risk registers, consultation records, evidence tracking and ongoing review mechanisms.

Sydney-based platform ReFresh is among the startups building infrastructure for this regulatory shift. The company raised $1.3 million in pre-seed funding to scale.

Historically, organisations relied on engagement surveys, HR policies and employee assistance programs to address workplace stress and culture. While widely adopted, these approaches were not designed to meet WHS standards for hazard identification, control implementation and governance evidence. Under the updated regulations, psychosocial hazards must be treated as identifiable risks within a structured safety management framework.

ReFresh was founded by Harrison Kennedy and Taylor Laing to address what they describe as a governance blind spot. The platform centralises psychosocial risk detection, structured risk assessments, control tracking, incident recording and board-level reporting within a single system. It includes formal psychosocial risk registers, audit workflows, consultation logs and version-controlled evidence management aligned with regulatory expectations.

"Psychosocial risk has been discussed for years, but until now it hasn't been treated as a formal safety obligation with clear accountability," said Harrison Kennedy, co-founder of ReFresh. "What the legislation makes clear is that intention is no longer enough. Organisations need systems that allow them to manage psychosocial risk properly and demonstrate that they are doing so."

Within five months of launch, ReFresh partnered with global payroll and HR platform Deel, which was recently valued at $17.3 billion, alongside employee assistance provider Sonder. The company reports adoption by organisations including Safewill, Amped HQ and Nakatomi. Operating with a lean team, ReFresh says it has achieved SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and CCPA compliance within seven months, positioning the platform for enterprise buyers in regulated industries.

Legal advisers have indicated that psychosocial safety regulation is not a temporary compliance exercise but a permanent evolution in workplace governance. Employers must demonstrate proactive hazard identification, structured risk controls and documented review processes, with enforcement risk extending beyond policy statements to operational evidence.

Australia's reforms are also being watched internationally, with similar expectations expanding in the United Kingdom and Canada, where regulators are increasing scrutiny on work-related stress and psychological injury claims. If those markets follow comparable enforcement trajectories, psychosocial risk management software could become a durable global compliance category.

Organisations are reassessing how they evidence oversight of psychological health risks. For employers, the shift represents a permanent expansion of safety obligations. For investors, it signals the emergence of infrastructure built around a newly regulated area of workplace risk.

Media Contact

Contact Person: Kim Smith
Email: kim@thirdhemisphere.agency
Website: https://refresh.tech/

SOURCE: ReFresh