The mental health aspect of workplace health and safety is subject to increased focus by regulatory bodies such as Safe Work Australia and the Fair Work Commission. Currently businesses are legally obliged to take all reasonable steps to ensure the health and safety of their employees by eliminating or minimising risks and taking steps to prevent harm to workers.
In recent years the way that we work has changed, with employees reporting experiencing stress in their work situation, with many admitting to missing a week of work due to workplace stress.
While stressed employees acknowledge the most effective response would be to talk about the issue, most were reluctant to engage in discussions for fear of it affecting their credibility. These sentiments highlight the need for businesses to embed mental health initiatives into their culture.
Along with a greater expectation that businesses should prioritise addressing psycho-social risks, the Safe Work Code of Practice1 has suggested a management framework that mirrors an operational risks approach.
To do this businesses must identify and address risks, and have a prevention plan for issues such as:
Further, this plan must:
Such a plan raises the need for an in-house pyscho-social counsellor to oversee this function on an ongoing basis, rather than just responding to a crisis. Some large organisations such as Australia Post have introduced an executive position for managing health and wellbeing.
Employee assistance programs fulfil requirements in some respects but historically represent a reactive approach after the harm has occurred. A preferable business model would include early intervention and recognition of risks.
Research data supports the business case for a proactive approach to mental health and wellbeing in positive outcomes including:
In some industry sectors, such as nursing and teaching, the demands on staff can be intense, involving workplace violence and aggression, for example. Some initiatives have been shown to help counter this, including:
While larger businesses may be in the position to employ a qualified mental health practitioner, for smaller operations the efficacy of peer support by a group of appropriately educated team members compares favourably to employee assistance programs in terms of their shortcomings. These include not being designed for reporting, confidentiality limiting available information, lack of managerial accountability, the associated stigma in some workplaces and status as a last resort.
Mental health first aid training2 for interested employees provides both peer support and helps raise mental health awareness.
While a business psycho-social health framework can be structured in a similar way to addressing operational risks through formal assessment and analysis and implementing systems, with stakeholder input at all levels, other factors may be more important, such as:
It's also important to recognise that psycho-social risks can't be eliminated completely and that process is not as critical as culture and employee and team involvement.
Protective factors that contribute to workplace mental health wellbeing include:
Rather than focusing on prevention, an effective mental health strategy is expressed through workplace culture. At the organisational level this should be visible through systems and leadership, at team level it contributes to performance, and this is supported by team members collectively and individually.
This cascade effect can help drive accountability for a positive mental health culture at all levels from individuals, teams and executives.
The stepped process involves:
The award-winning Gallagher Workplace Health & Safety consultancy works with client organisations to assess and implement systems to manage risks, delivers mentoring and training, assists with structuring health and wellness programs, hazard and risk profiling and highly configurable online safety management systems.
Find out more by talking to one of the experts on the Gallagher Workplace Risk team.
1 Model Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work, Safe Work Australia, accessed 14 Dec, 2023.
2 Mental health first aid training, Mental Health First Aid Australia, accessed 14 Dec, 2023.
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