CREATING MENTALLY HEALTHY WORKPLACES

Creating mentally healthy workplaces in the Victorian nursery and garden industry

By Gerard Tan

Nearly half of Australians aged 16 to 85 years will experience a mental health condition in their lifetime. With most of us spending more than one-third of their waking hours at work, work has the potential to affect our mental health, for better or worse. Conversely, the effects of our health and wellbeing can and often do flow through to our workplaces.

It has been estimated that poor mental health costs Australian businesses more than $10 billion annually, comprising nearly $5 billion in absenteeism, more than $6 billion in presenteeism, and $146 million in compensation claims.

Research has found that while nine in ten Australian workers said having a mentally healthy workplace was important to them, just over half described their workplaces as being mentally healthy. The performance gap had significant implications. Employees in mentally unhealthy workplaces were almost three times as likely to take time off work due to feeling mentally unwell, compared to their counterparts in mentally healthy workplaces. They were less likely to seek support or to provide it to others.

Following a successful application for a Mental Wellbeing of Business Communities grant, NGIV embarked on a project to strengthen mental wellbeing in the Victorian nursery and garden industry. The project highlighted industry interest in creating mentally healthy workplaces. Representatives of two industry partners participated in 10 hours of mental health training, and shared their experiences of using the Workwell Toolkit via recorded video interviews.

Members also came together in several in-person and virtual workshops to consider the alignment of employee wellbeing with their businesses. NGIV’s dedicated mental health clinician/consultant outlined the framework for discussions, drawing on the literature on wellbeing and psychological safety. Members’ learned from each other’s successes as they discussed building wellbeing at the individual, team and organisational levels; as well as strengthening their businesses psychosocial safety climates. They also learned about the Workwell Toolkit, developed by Worksafe Victoria to assist businesses in creating mentally healthy workplaces.

The project is now in its evaluation phase, with the final report due at the end of the month. Results have so far been promising. Participants have given feedback that the sessions were informative, and provided practical knowledge that could be implemented at work and in their personal lives. All participants said that they would recommend the workshops to others. Among participants’ key takeaways were a better appreciation of how employee wellbeing is aligned with and supports the achievement of business objectives, the importance of a whole-of-business approach to employee wellbeing, and how Worksafe’s Workwell Toolkit could be a valuable resource. However, perhaps the most rewarding outcome has been participants’ increased confidence in improving their own wellbeing upon completion of the workshop, and stated intentions to take the next step in businesses’ journeys towards mentally healthy workplaces.

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WHOLESALE NURSERY | LANDSCAPING AND SEASONAL LINES BORDERING PLANT OPTIONS | POTTED PLANTS

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