NR-1: understand what changes and the importance of the new standard, according to experts

The update of NR-1, which officially requires the management of psychosocial risks in companies from May 26th, represents one of the biggest recent changes in the relationship between work and mental health in Brazil. In practice, the standard places factors such as moral harassment, abusive goals, excessive working hours and constant pressure at the center of corporate obligations, alongside physical, chemical and ergonomic risks.

To CNN, experts described the new regulation as a profound change in mentality. Mental health is no longer just a "benefit", but a legal responsibility of companies.

What is the NR-1 standard and what changes with it?
NR-1 is a general occupational health and safety standard in Brazil. It establishes guidelines for Occupational Risk Management (ORM) and, recently, includes the management of psychosocial risks.

This means that organizations need to ensure safe physical, emotional and psychosocial conditions for everyone who contributes to the business, regardless of the contractual relationship, according to the executive.

"Mental health has always been discussed, but rarely managed. With NR-1, it stops being a matter of intention and becomes a topic of process, with an obligation to identify, monitor and act. This places psychosocial risks at the same level as any other corporate risk", explains Adriano Lima, specialist in HR management and leadership.

The change also increases the legal risk for companies that neglect toxic environments. For Adriano, the new NR-1 creates a watershed in this sense.

"When the standard includes psychosocial risks within the scope of management, it transforms the work environment into an objective variable. If there is evidence of chronic overload, harassment or disproportionate pressure without any structured action from the company, this stops being a subjective issue and becomes a real legal risk."

Ticiana Paiva, psychologist, reinforces that moral harassment and abusive goals fall directly within the scope of the new regulation.

"Moral harassment, disproportionate pressure, recurring humiliation, permanent demands and unattainable goals are classic examples of psychosocial factors related to work", he says.

Urgent change
The discussion gains even more relevance given the recent explosion of absences linked to mental health in the country. In 2025, 1 in 7 workers will be laid off due to mental and behavioral disorders, according to the INSS (National Social Security Institute). Historically, this is the highest recorded number of incidents linked to mental health: around 546 thousand workers. The scenario demonstrates a need for change in organizational culture.

Psychiatrist Daniel Sócrates, a specialist in mental health at work, states that anxiety, depression and burnout are leading the cases today, and that workers spend months (or years) working under exhaustion before recognizing that they are falling ill.

"The official data from the INSS are quite clear: anxiety disorders lead the way, followed by depressive episodes, recurrent depressive disorder, reactions to severe stress - including burnout - and conditions linked to alcohol use", he highlights. "But the biggest problem lies before the diagnosis - in the huge population of professionals who continue to deliver while they fall ill in silence."

"Burnout is the diagnosis that the patient is the last to accept. That's why it appears late and severe", he adds.

The psychiatrist explains that burnout usually appears in environments marked by continuous stress, excessive demands and a lack of healthy work management.

"Burnout is not a synonym for depression. It is often the precursor to it. Those who ignore burnout, in general, are postponing a more serious depressive condition."

In addition to the emotional impacts, work-related illness can cause severe physical consequences.

"Chronic occupational stress is not restricted to the mind. It crosses the heart, metabolism and brain. It's a full-body clinical problem disguised as a management problem", highlights Daniel.

Prevention
For experts, prevention inevitably involves the way leaders lead teams on a daily basis. Adriano Lima states that mental health cannot be treated as a parallel topic to work.

"Mental health is not incorporated with speech, but with decision. It's in the way the leader organizes demand, defines priorities, deals with deadlines and creates predictability."

He emphasizes that the role of managers is central in preventing burnout.

"Burnout does not appear out of nowhere, it is built in environments where there is excess without direction, pressure without pause and demand without recognition. And the person who regulates this environment is the manager."

The expert also warns that most leaders are not yet prepared to deal with the new demands related to mental health.

"The majority were formed to deliver results in a work model that no longer exists. The context has become more complex, faster and more emotional, but leadership training has not kept up with this change."

For the professional, seemingly everyday behaviors can generate structural illness in teams.

"Constant demands without clarity, changing priorities all the time, culture of permanent urgency, lack of recognition and lack of confidence in speaking are some of the main factors."

Ticiane Paiva is still aware that healthy environments today have little to do with superficial benefits.

"Today, a healthy environment is not a colorful room with a bean bag and free coffee. It is a place where there is psychological safety, achievable goals, respectful leadership, predictability, clear communication, autonomy, recognition and reliable channels to report problems without fear of retaliation."

The psychologist criticizes superficial initiatives that do not address the real causes of corporate illness.

"Turn everything into a 'yellow September' lecture; offering a meditation app while maintaining unsustainable journeys; apply research without an action plan; train employees, but not leaders. In short: take care of the symptom and preserve the cause."

For Daniel Sócrates, the main strength of the new NR-1 lies precisely in the possibility of anticipating problems before they result in serious absences.

"The regulatory logic is reversed: instead of treating the illness after it appears - with sick leave, labor action and social security costs -, the standard obliges the company to look at the factors that precede the clinical picture."

According to him, this could allow for faster and more effective interventions.

"NR-1 will only prevent illness if companies stop treating mental health as a reactive topic. Prevention is not what is done after leaving. That's what you do before you get sick."

The identification of these risks, according to experts, depends on continuous monitoring and concrete analysis of internal data. Adriano Lima states that the signs usually already exist within organizations, but are not always observed appropriately.

"The signs appear in the increase in absences, in the turnover concentrated in specific areas, in the drop in engagement and in teams that constantly operate at the limit."

Ticiana Paiva states that the process requires abandoning "guessing" and investing in structured management.

"It's not enough to ask if the employee is happy. We need to understand if work is making people sick."

She advocates diagnoses based on validated questionnaires, analysis of indicators, interviews and structured listening to teams.

Research shows disparity in the effects of work on mental health

Source: CNN