NOM-035, eight years later: what's working and what isn't

On October 23, 2018, Mexico's Official Gazette published NOM-035-STPS-2018, the standard that requires every workplace in the country to identify, analyze and prevent psychosocial risk factors. Eight years later, the obvious question is: is it working? The honest answer is that no one knows for sure, and that alone says a lot.

If you're not yet familiar with what the standard requires, I recommend starting with my article “NOM-035: what your company needs to know about psychosocial risks in Mexico.” Here I review what we know about its results.

A basic problem: there's almost no official data

Mexico's Ministry of Labor (STPS) doesn't publish specific figures on how many companies comply with NOM-035, how many inspections have targeted it, or how many fines have been issued. Most statistics in circulation come from software or consulting firms that sell compliance solutions, so they should be read with caution.

One of the most cited is a 2022 survey by WebLatam, shared by Holmes HR, covering a thousand companies. 78% had already identified their psychosocial risks using the questionnaires, but only 32% had complete evidence of compliance. The gap is telling: many organizations run the survey and stop there.

“Binder” compliance

That pattern matches what we see in practice. For many companies, NOM-035 has become paperwork: run a questionnaire, file the results and keep a printed policy in case an inspector shows up. What's usually missing is exactly what the standard asks for next:

• An action program when results show risk, with owners, dates and a follow-up evaluation.
• Sharing results with staff, who have the right to see them.
• A truly confidential channel for workplace violence complaints.
• Identifying and referring people who experienced a severe traumatic event at work.

At the other extreme, many small businesses simply don't know the standard applies to them. Even with fewer than 16 people, and no obligation to run questionnaires, they still need a policy, prevention measures and care after traumatic events.

How seriously are authorities enforcing it?

Penalties exist and they aren't small. The Federal Labor Law sets fines of 250 to 5,000 UMA, roughly 29,000 to 587,000 pesos at 2026 values, and they can apply per affected worker.

However, when the assessment requirements took effect in October 2020, authorities announced that early inspections would be conciliatory and that no fines would be issued on the first visit. Since then, consultants and vendors claim enforcement has grown, especially for medium and large companies, but there are no public figures to confirm it.

The official questionnaires have limitations

This is the strongest criticism, and it comes from academic research. Reference Guides II and III are the questionnaires most companies use to comply, because the standard accepts them as valid. Two recent studies question how well they measure what they claim to measure:

• A Tecnológico de Monterrey team evaluated Guide II, designed for workplaces with up to 50 people, in 2024. They found it internally consistent, but its structure didn't hold up statistically, and it may not accurately identify people at high risk.
• UNAM researchers analyzed Guide III, for workplaces with more than 50 people, in 2023. They concluded it is reliable but has low validity: its scores relate to anxiety, but only weakly. They recommend complementing it with measures of burnout, workplace violence, psychosomatic symptoms and sleep.

The practical consequence matters: a company can comply to the letter and still have an incomplete picture of what's happening with its people.

What did change: mental health is now an occupational illness

The most significant progress came from another direction. In December 2023, Mexico published a new table of occupational illnesses in the Federal Labor Law that includes mental disorders such as anxiety, depression and sleep disorders. NOM-035 required employers to prevent the risks; now the law recognizes the illnesses those risks can cause.

Even so, formal recognition remains minimal. In 2025, Mexico's Social Security Institute (IMSS) recorded 249 cases of mental and behavioral disorders as occupational illnesses nationwide. For a workforce of millions, that figure hardly reflects reality; it most likely points to underreporting and to how hard it still is to link emotional distress to work.

So, does it work or not?

NOM-035 has one undeniable merit: it put mental health on the agenda of Mexican companies and gave them a shared language. Its design is also sound, especially the idea of intervening at three levels: organizational, group and individual. The problem isn't so much what it asks for, but how it's being applied:

1. 1There is more assessment than intervention.
2. 2Enforcement is hard to see, and there's no public data to measure progress.
3. 3The official instruments have limitations few companies know about.
4. 4Group and individual interventions, the ones closest to people's daily lives, are the least developed.

Going beyond the questionnaire

If your company already covers the basics, here are some ways to make the standard genuinely useful:

• Treat the results as a starting point, and complement them with conversations, interviews or specific measures of burnout and workplace violence.
• Share the results with the team and build the action plan with their input.
• Train leaders and supervisors: many psychosocial risks come down to how people are managed.
• Offer a clear path to psychological care for anyone already showing symptoms, delivered by mental health professionals as the standard requires.
• Measure again and compare: the two-year reassessment shows whether your actions worked.

Complying with NOM-035 on paper is easy. What changes a team's life is what happens after the questionnaire.

If you'd like support taking NOM-035 beyond paperwork, with burnout prevention workshops, awareness training for leaders, or psychological care for your team, in English or Spanish, feel free to reach out.