Psychosocial Risks in the Work Environment of the ITCA Higher Technological Institute

This research studies the level of occupational psychosocial risk in 2021 of the teaching and administrative staff at a Higher Technological Institute in the city of Ibarra-Ecuador. With a qualitative approach, this field research compares the results obtained from a study on the level of psychosocial risk in 2019 and the results of this same evaluation during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in 2021. For the data collection, in both cases, the Psychosocial Risk Assessment Questionnaire established by the Ministry of Labor of Ecuador was applied and validated with the Cronbach's Alpha values of the instrument by dimension, and the Pearson coefficient was calculated. The results showed that between 2019 and 2021, the level of risk did not increase. The indicators in 2021 show 93% low risk and 7% medium risk. In this case, the pandemic did not contribute to the exponential increase in psychosocial risk due to the corrective actions proposed and executed in the prior evaluation carried out in 2019, the adaptability of the staff, and the measures taken by the institute during the pandemic. These measures effectively mitigate psychosocial risks in the work environment, corroborating the importance of evaluations and continuous improvement plans in Higher Education institutions.