Workplace risk management and the new NR-1 as a strategy for psychosocial risk prevention: a focus on mental health and quality of life at work

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze how the new version of Regulatory Standard No. 1 and Occupational Risk Management (ORM) can be used as psychosocial prevention strategies, focusing on the promotion of psychological well-being and quality of work life. This was an integrative literature review guided by the PICO strategy, with a survey conducted in the SciELO, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases. Descriptors such as "quality of work life," "mental health," "psychosocial," and "NR-1" were used, combined with the Boolean operators AND and OR. Inclusion criteria encompassed full, free articles in Portuguese, authored by Brazilians and published in the first half of 2025. Results indicated that although the new NR-1 represents a normative advancement by recognizing psychosocial factors as part of occupational safety, its adoption in Brazilian organizations remains limited. Key barriers include a shortage of qualified professionals, institutional resistance to treating psychological well-being as an organizational responsibility, and the absence of standardized instruments to assess psychosocial risk factors. Therefore, the new NR-1 should be applied by organizations in an integrated and multidimensional manner, going beyond mere legal compliance. Implementing the standard requires companies to develop technical capabilities to identify, assess, and monitor risks related to psychological well-being, incorporating these aspects as priorities in internal policies and daily practices. Moreover, a cultural shift is necessary to value active listening to workers and recognition of subjective experiences, as well as the use of collected data to guide concrete interventions, avoiding bureaucratic or reductionist approaches that overlook the complexity of work-related suffering. Despite existing challenges, effective application of the new NR-1 represents an opportunity to transform occupational health management, promoting more humanized work environments, provided it is accompanied by technical training, cultural change, and greater interdisciplinary coordination.