Battling Social Isolation in a Global Pandemic

MENTALLY ARMING A WORKFORCE

According to Heads Up, the workplace mental health offshoot of Beyond Blue, in order to promote positive mental health and wellbeing, it’s crucial to:

Develop manager capability in positive, proactive leadership. For example, promoting employee growth, matching employee skills and strengths with tasks, and providing recognition and constructive feedback.

Encourage staff to work on tasks together, discuss ideas, share skills and take part in social activities.

Emphasise the value of the work employees do, celebrate achievements and praise effort, as well as results.

When Allianz Australia mobilised their entire workforce to work from home in two and a half weeks, they sent out a survey asking people how they were feeling, and what they needed in terms of support.

In response to feedback, Allianz pushed the button on several programs sitting in the business’ mental health and wellbeing strategy earlier than planned.

"First we focused on 'Red-Zone Care' and ensured every single employee was aware of the support available through our EAP and heavily promoted the Mental Health First Aid Officer network,” says Rebekka Squire, Employee Engagement and Experience Manager at Allianz.

“This is an accredited group of employees who are trained to have a conversation and offer either emotional, mental or triage support depending on the situation,” explains Squire.

Allianz also offered additional training to their leaders to recognise the signs and symptoms of mental health concerns, and upskill on how to provide support.

"We communicated a strong message around wellbeing and reassured them that we did not expect the same level of productivity or performance in these circumstances," adds Squire.

BUILDING SOCIALLY-DISTANCED CONNECTIONS

In an effort to counteract the loss of physical contact, Allianz hosted a two-week ‘Dare to Care’ connectedness campaign, which rewarded employees with points when they shared wellbeing behaviours such as exercise, healthy eating, rest and sleep on an intranet page.

“Those points could then be redeemed in Allianz’s appreciate marketplace, where you can choose a voucher, an experience, even a blender – or you could donate your points to a paralympic committee, which is what our winner ultimately did,” says Squire.

TOP THREE TIPS FOR CREATING A THRIVING WORKPLACE

1. Prevent Harm

Firstly, you have to design work in a way that minimises harm (physically and psychologically). Crucial to that is inclusive leadership and culture. Having a network of trained mental health and wellbeing officers can also help team members when the going gets tough, sometimes a conversation is all you need.

2. Promote the Positive

Ultimately, reducing the health risk profile of your employees is the best course of action you can take. Invest in the initiatives aligned to health coping and encourage participation. Have employees focus on balance - quality sleep, good food and exercise. We all know when these things are maintained, we all cope much better - even in extreme situations.

3. Reach out

Being compassionate and empathetic is crucial. Don’t be afraid to reach out to people, ask how they are and if you suspect they’re not okay, listen to them and help them create the space they need to work through that.

Source: Rebekka Squire, Employee Engagement and Experience Manager, Allianz

Of those who took part in the program, 98 per cent said it had a positive impact on their wellbeing.

A MORE FLEXIBLE FUTURE

Squire says Allianz will continue to build on the approach to flexibility across the organisation once COVID passes.

“We have now given people much more flexibility in the way they work and this has created a very positive response as seen in our engagement scores. We’re looking very carefully at how we can continue the approach as we develop our future work model.”

Johnstone agrees that the way of work has changed forever, as well as our approach to mental health and wellbeing. “This has to be viewed as a long game, an ongoing conversation where leaders and companies everywhere introduce regular programs and seminars, invite employees to share their ideas and experiences and are armed with the tools we need to move through these troubling times."

If you or someone you know needs support, you can contact Beyond Blue Support Services 24/7 on 1300 224 636, or Lifeline 24/7 Crisis Support on 13 11 14.

CHAMPIONS OF MENTAL RESILIENCE

Mental illness is more common than you might think. Almost half of all Australians aged 16 to 85 years – 7.3 million people – will experience mental illness at some point in their life 1 . While these conditions can be serious, workplaces can play a huge role in supporting individuals back to good mental health. Nina Hendy reports.

Official figures 2 from Safe Work Australia reveal that mental stress counted for seven per cent of all Australian Workers’ Compensation statistics in 2017/18. Now as the pandemic puts unprecedented pressure on all of us, looking after the mental health of our colleagues has never been more important.

WORKPLACE SUPPORT

Adam Lloyd, General Manager of Workers’ Compensation, Allianz, believes that corporate leaders can play an important role in supporting their teams’ mental health.

“Every job involves a level of stress, and a comfortable level can create great outcomes for teams to solve complex business problems. But the concern is when it’s excessive and sustained,” Lloyd says. “Every job involves a level of stress, and a comfortable level can create great outcomes for teams to solve complex business problems. But the concern is when it’s excessive and sustained.”

“So it’s important for leaders to constantly set realistic targets that can be broken down into achievable chunks of work.

“Effectiveness within the workplace can come from helping teams establish boundaries, so to avoid the ‘always on’ virtual working environment,” he adds.

“It’s about making sure there is clear communication to what is, and equally what is not, expected from the team, and having this conveyed right from the top.

“Even the simple message of asking your teams to be conscious of having regular ‘tools down’, instead of replacing saved travel with work, given we are no longer commuting two hours a day, can have a powerful impact on employee mental health,” he says.

Lloyd says remote working can be isolating, so we all need to find ways to orchestrate social interactions, and look for new ways to connect with each other, even if it’s via regular video calls.

As a leader, he’s very focused on the team’s mental health, spending more time preparing for meetings so he can be sure he’s asking the right questions to the team to understand how things are really going.

“Leaders of new virtual teams, where employees were used to having team support physically around them, should recognise the risk that their teams may be frozen still at home. So unscheduled virtual check-ins to see if they’re coping OK with the job is a new leadership norm,” Lloyd explains.