Brazil's NR-1 and psychosocial risks: what changed for employers

For years, mental health at many Brazilian companies lived in the HR department, in awareness campaigns and motivational talks. The update to NR-1 moves the topic somewhere else. Since May 26, 2026, psychosocial risk factors have been part of occupational risk management, alongside noise, heat, chemicals and ergonomics. This guide explains what the standard now requires, how it shows up in the risk management program and why leaders sit at the center of prevention. It is useful for multinational companies with operations in Brazil as well as for local employers.

What changed in NR-1?

NR-1 is the Brazilian regulatory standard that sets general provisions and occupational risk management rules for every employer with staff hired under the country's labor code (CLT). Ordinance MTE No. 1,419 of August 27, 2024 rewrote chapter 1.5, which covers Occupational Risk Management (known in Brazil as GRO). The new text explicitly lists work-related psychosocial risk factors among the hazards the organization must identify, assess and control.

The change was due to take effect in May 2025. Ordinance MTE No. 765 of May 15, 2025 postponed the start to May 25, 2026, and the requirement applied from the following day. In the meantime, the Ministry of Labor and Employment published a guide on psychosocial risk factors for employers, workers and occupational health and safety professionals.

The practical consequence is easy to state and hard to deliver. Psychosocial risk is now an item in the risk inventory, with a control measure, an owner and a deadline.

What are work-related psychosocial risk factors?

They are features of how work is organized, managed and experienced that can harm people's mental and physical health. They sit in the work itself: in targets, working hours, relationships, role clarity and management style.

Some examples that appear often in official guidance and in the literature:

The list is not exhaustive. Each organization needs to look at its own reality, and the same factor can weigh differently in a retail store, a factory or an offshore platform.

How do you include psychosocial risks in the risk management program?

Psychosocial factors follow the same logic as other hazards under NR-1: identify hazards, assess risks, define preventive measures, implement them, monitor them and record everything in the Risk Management Program (known as PGR), which combines the risk inventory and the action plan.

1. Prepare the identification with the right people

The occupational health and safety team leads the process but cannot do it alone. HR, line managers and worker representatives need to take part, because they know the real routine. The standard requires organizations to consult workers about how they perceive risks, and psychosocial risks rarely show up in a spreadsheet.

2. Gather evidence from more than one source

Surveys help but are not enough. Combine structured listening (interviews and group sessions by area), observation of the work and data the company already has, such as sick leave, turnover, absenteeism, overtime and reports from the whistleblowing channel.

3. Assess and prioritize

Every factor needs a risk assessment that considers the possible severity and the likelihood. A department with unreachable targets, long hours and a history of mental health leave comes before a department with a single complaint.

4. Build an action plan that changes how work is organized

This is where most companies go wrong. Measures aimed only at individuals, such as a talk on stress or a meditation app, rarely control a risk that comes from how work is organized. The plan needs to include adjustments to workload and targets, clear roles, communication rules, safe reporting channels and leadership development.

5. Monitor and record

The risk management program is a living document. The indicators chosen during identification show whether the measures are working, and the program needs a review whenever something changes: a restructuring, a new manager, new targets, a merger.

Why do leaders weigh so heavily on psychosocial risks?

Because most of the factors above land on the manager's desk. Managers distribute work, set priorities, accept or push back on deadlines, mediate conflict, give or withhold feedback and decide whether a problem raised by the team gets dealt with or ignored.

The World Health Organization's 2022 guidelines on mental health at work recommend training managers to protect and promote their teams' mental health. The international standard ISO 45003:2021 also includes leadership and management aspects among the sources of psychosocial risk.

A common pattern in companies of every size is the manager promoted for being an excellent specialist, never prepared for difficult conversations, who passes pressure down exactly as it came from above. When that manager learns to distribute work, give feedback without humiliating anyone and listen before a problem turns into sick leave, several risk factors drop at once. That is why leadership development is often one of the most far-reaching measures in the action plan.

What are the most common compliance mistakes?

The first is treating the standard as paperwork: a program with one generic paragraph about "stress" neither identifies nor controls anything. Another is confusing an engagement survey with a risk assessment. The survey is a good data source, but it does not say what the risk is, where it sits or what will be done about it.

Companies also tend to put all the responsibility on the worker. Offering psychological support is positive and does not replace changes to how work is organized. Some leave managers out of the process, which keeps the measures from reaching daily routines, and others run the assessment once and forget it. Restructurings, new managers and new targets change the risks, and the inventory has to keep up.

Where to start

A good first step is to bring occupational health and safety, HR and a few managers together to answer three questions: where are people getting sick or leaving, what has recently changed in how work is organized, and which conflicts keep coming back. The answers usually point to the first areas for a detailed assessment.

If the company's culture treats constant pressure as a sign of commitment, the work goes beyond the risk program. Culture mapping helps to see those patterns, and our article on psychological safety in teams shows what leaders can change day to day. For shift-based operations, see also communication at shift handover.