Mentally Healthy workplaces
We spend a lot of our time at the workplace, so it is important to recognise the role that our work plays in our wellbeing. A positive workplace promotes our mental health and wellbeing.
Creating a mentally health workplace should be a shared responsibility between employers and employees. The key is to accentuate the positive aspects of the workplace and eliminate the negative aspects, recognising that no workplace is perfect. Taking the time to identify psychosocial hazards and improve psychological safety is an investment that every business must make.
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Psychosocial hazards are factors in the design or management of work that increase the risk of work-related stress and can lead to psychological or physical harm. Examples of psychosocial hazards might include:
Low job control where employees have little control over aspects of the work, including how or when a job is done.
High and low job demands when sustained high or low physical, mental or emotional effort is required to do the job. For example, long work hours; high workloads; work that is beyond the capability or training of employees; emotional effort dealing with distressed or aggressive clients including difficult patients; working with clients with challenging behaviours; having to perform work wearing uncomfortable protective clothing.
Poor support such as tasks or jobs where employees have inadequate emotional or practical support from supervisors and colleagues; information or training to support their work performance; or tools, equipment and resources to do the job
Poor organisational justice with inconsistent application of policies and procedures; unfairness or bias in decisions about allocation of resources and work; or poor management of under-performance.
Low recognition and reward with a lack of positive feedback; an imbalance between employees' efforts and formal and informal recognition and rewards; a lack of opportunity for skills development or skills/experience are under-utilised.
Low role clarity where there is uncertainty about or frequent changes to tasks and work standards; important task information which is not available to the worker; or conflicting job roles, responsibilities or expectations.
Poor workplace relationships where there is workplace bullying, aggression, harassment, sexual harassment and gendered violence, discrimination or other unreasonable behaviour by colleagues, supervisors or clients; poor relationships between employees and their managers, supervisors, colleagues and clients or others the employee has to interact with; conflict between employees and their managers, supervisors or colleagues. T
Violent or traumatic workplace events where an employee is exposed to abuse, threat of harm or actual harm causing fear and distress which can lead to work-related stress and physical injury. This is common in workplaces including first responders, health care workers, disaster and emergency services, social workers and defence personnel.
Find more information on psychosocial hazards in the workplace here.
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Employers should have a commitment to promoting a mentally healthy workplace. This could include things like:
Developing a written strategy in conjunction with staff that identifies risks and addresses workplace culture
Promoting the positive aspects of work
Managing psychological risk factors in the workplace
Supporting staff members who are experiencing psychological distress
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• Open and honest leadership
• Fair and respectful culture
• Inclusion and influence
• Good job design
• Prioritising mental health
• Work/life balance
• Employee development
• Workload management
• Mental health support
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A mentally healthy workplace has many benefits:
Increased staff satisfaction
Reduced staff turnover
Improved productivity
Reduced absenteeism or presenteeism
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Mental Health Tool Kit (Black Dog Institute)