INNEWS THE WORKPLACE AND VIEWS
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
that matters MAS Business Advisory Manager Shaun Phelan takes a look at how employers can support their teams’ mental health and wellbeing. NEW ZEALAND HAS emerged from the strict COVID-19 lockdown restrictions imposed in March and April. Challenges still lie ahead for many businesses, including the need to help their staff deal with the stress and anxiety about what comes next. Your staff are your greatest asset and their mental and emotional wellbeing has a major impact on the overall success of your practice. So what can you do to help those who need support? WORKING TOGETHER AND PROVIDING SUPPORT As an employer, there’s only so much you can do to help an employee who’s dealing with difficult situations at home. What you can do, however, is ensure that their workplace is a safe, supportive and positive environment. We offered some suggestions for how to make this happen in the July issue of VetScript. Our suggestions included regularly thanking your staff for their work, communicating clearly with your team and being open to their feedback. Other ideas that are easy to implement include taking time out to do a daily quiz together at morning tea or organising a team trip to the movies or dinner every now and then.
48 – VetScript August 2020
TALKING ONE-ON-ONE Talking freely with staff about mental health issues is a good idea, but it can be difficult to know how to raise the subject with someone. Before you start, it’s important to be clear in your own mind what you’re concerned about and the best way to have the conversation. Choosing to talk in the middle of a busy day in a public place is probably not going to be appropriate. Make sure you and the staff member set aside some free time to talk properly without distractions, and perhaps take the conversation off site. To broach the subject, you might want to keep it informal, and start by asking simple questions such as: » is everything okay with you? » how are things at home? Be supportive and listen. The best approach is usually to keep things focused on what you can do to help in practical terms. For example, you might ask whether they have someone to talk to, or what the workplace can do to ease their workload. Take what they reveal seriously. FINDING WAYS FOR THE PRACTICE TO HELP It can be hard to work out whether an employee’s stress or anxiety is due to issues
in their personal life or their work life (or sometimes both). However, as an employer you’re required to provide a healthy and safe workplace under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015. This includes supporting employees’ mental health, so if there’s something in the workplace that’s exacerbating the problem, you need to deal with it. In addition to meeting the basic legal requirements, you should think about other support your practice can offer. For example, you could provide contact details for counselling support, change the staff member’s hours or duties for a short time, provide flexible working arrangements or arrange for them to have time away from busy areas in the practice. Just remember, though, that any solutions you offer need to be sustainable. RETURNING TO WORK If your employee needed to take time off for their mental wellbeing, make sure, when the time comes to return to work, that they provide you with medical certification that they are fit to return and, if necessary, work with them to plan their return. Your employee may feel vulnerable and anxious about how their colleagues will react to their return. Make sure
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