'Gone are the days where a fruit bowl and an occasional webinar can support your workforce'
Ahead of HRD’s Workplace Mental Health Summit ANZ, we spoke with Matt Meffan, regional sales lead for the summit's principal sponsor, Unmind, about what a great wellbeing program looks like, how technology can help and how essential it is to take care of your employee’s mental health right now.
Prior to the pandemic, mental health was an increasingly challenging area for employers, but little was really being talked about. After COVID, mental health has been thrown to the forefront of every company’s agenda, even the Australian government has jumped on board and looks set to announce a new commitment to mental health programs in the upcoming budget.
“Gone are the days where an EAP, a fruit bowl, and an occasional webinar can support your workforce,” added Meffan. “Our most progressive organisations track key metrics such as turnover, absenteeism, productivity, and even how the EVP contributes to new employee acquisition.”
With one in five Australians saying they have experienced mental health or anxiety at work, leaders should consider that anyone on their team could be prone to mental health challenges and businesses should take measures towards eliminating the challenges.
“What organisations very quickly established during the last two years is that they hadn't effectively trained managers to have the nature of conversations that they were forced to have with their teams,” said Meffan. Unmind's Digital Manager Training has been the second most popular aspect of the Unmind platform this year. So much so, that we are releasing a more comprehensive manager training as a standalone platform.”
Organizations that focus on the wellbeing of their employees reap the benefits. That could be through significant ROI or slashed absenteeism, looking after your employees is the right thing to do for the health of your people and your company’s financial strength.
“Using a platform that incorporates an evidence-based measurement allows organisational leaders to continually track well-being dashboards to not only monitor for hotspots or problem areas across teams or locations, but to ensure the investment is delivering positive results and improvements”.
Unminds technology approaches wellbeing using the ‘whole person approach’. Technically this is referred to as the ‘bio-psycho-social’ model.
“Some of your people will be enthusiasts for mindfulness, others nutrition or workouts, whereas others may have presentations of clinical conditions such as trauma, anxiety, or depression. We need to ensure that no matter where an individual is on the spectrum from disengaged and struggling, to engaged and thriving, that they can invest time and genuinely find value.”
HRD’s Workplace Mental Health Summit ANZ is the premier event for workplace wellbeing insights. The summit is designed for senior HR professionals to exchange ideas on designing effective wellbeing programs and gain practical insights on how to support your workforce. Attendees will learn about evidence-based wellbeing strategies employed by top HR leaders.
Speakers include, Katrina Symons, head of HR, Johnson & Johnson, Pia Rueda, head of HR, Lenovo, Leighton Williams, workplace engagement manager, Black Dog Institute, Crystal Boysen, head of people, Canva, and Sean Silvey, head of wellbeing, health & safety, Bupa.
