2.174 Building a Mentally Healthy Workplace: Beyond R U OK? Day

And one of the conversations I've been hearing more with business owners and leaders recently is how do we make our workplaces more mentally healthy? And for some, this is because they're starting to consider their psychosocial obligations.

For others, it's because with the rise of AI, their people are always feeling on.

And for others, it's just a continuation of a theme.

since COVID, where people don't have the same boundaries that they used to between work and home.

And one of the great initiatives we hear about every September is R U OK? Day.

We see organisations planning morning teas, people wear yellow.

There's a lot more discussion about checking in with another, which is a fabulous thing, because anything that encourages us to stop for a moment and ask someone how they're really doing has enormous value.

And research from R U OK? tells us that nine out of 10 people who have been asked if they're okay feel supported and cared about afterwards.

So it's a great reminder that these conversations matter.

But what I'd like to talk about today is what if we take that one step further from an individual to a workplace level and ask what actually makes a mentally healthy workplace? Because most businesses don't set up to create workplaces where people become stressed or overwhelmed or burnt out.

And I would say that every business owner that I work with wants their people to enjoy coming to work.

But we're also seeing more conversations about stress, burnout and psychological injuries than ever before.

So somewhere there's a disconnect and there's a gap.

So I'd like to explore that with you today and not from a legal perspective and not from a clinical perspective.

I'm not a lawyer, not a psychologist.

I want to talk about it from the perspective of leadership, because the biggest contributor to a mentally healthy workplace isn't a wellbeing program.

It is the leaders.

And this is one of the risks with Awareness Days, whether it's R U OK? or any other really important campaign.

they can accidentally make us feel like the job's done.

If we're holding a morning tea, maybe we're inviting a guest speaker, people are having really good conversations, but then next week everything just goes back to normal.

And if our normal is that the workload is unrealistic or managers aren't checking in with their teams or people are unclear about priorities or conflict is bubbling away, then nothing has really changed.

And this is not a criticism of these types of days.

I think they're incredibly valuable, but it's an opportunity to use it as a starting point for a bigger conversation.

Because asking someone if they're okay is only the beginning.

The real question is, is what happens after they answer? So if someone says to you, actually, yeah, I'm really struggling at the moment.