The importance of mental health and wellbeing in the workplace – here’s what you can do!

You’re suddenly bombarded with three urgent deadlines due by EOD, combined with meetings on meetings; and if you throw in family and personal commitments – it’s the ultimate recipe for disaster. We’ve all been there – the immense burnout, feelings of hopelessness and stress overload isn’t a pleasant feeling. If you’re experiencing this, the sad reality is that your employees are too.

1 in 5 Australian employees have taken time off from work in the last 12 months because they were feeling mentally unwell and 45% of employees will have experienced some type of mental health condition in their lifetime according to ABS [1].

With an increased prevalence of individuals experiencing mental strain, particularly during extended lockdowns, it’s critical to identify the signs and unveil ways to promote mental wellbeing in the workplace. As we approach mental health awareness month in Australia we thought it was befitting to unpack the topic, the impacting factors, and ways you can support!

Factors impacting employee mental wellbeing and the consequences

There are a plethora of factors that affect mental wellbeing in the workplace but common variables are high or low job demand; lack of support in the workplace; poor working relationships and environment; organisational change; traumatic events; and the one on the rise, remote working [2].

So what’s impacting your employee’s mental health at work and what are you currently doing about it?

When you don’t adequately support mental health, it trickles down to the wider organisation, we’re talking poor productivity, working relationships, employee engagement and retention and there’s more to add to that list. The ramifications of simply sweeping mental health issues under the rug is $10.9 billion – that’s how much it costs Australian organisations per year. That’s $4.7 billion in absenteeism, $6.1 billion in presenteeism, and $146 million in compensation claims [3]!

Ways you could help promote mental health and wellness in the workplace

There are many ways you can support your employees and there’s no one size fits all but here are some tips that work for us!

Start the conversation!

Check-in with your staff, normalise chatting about mental health and continue building awareness. Cultivating a healthy workplace culture will allow your employees to be more open to having these difficult conversations with you – not everything has to be about work so make the effort to get to know your staff members.

Listen to your employees!

Many organisations conduct employee surveys, questionnaires, or face-to-face interviews to gain insight into how their employees feel at work. This data can be incredibly useful in identifying the causes of mental fatigue, understand what matters most to your employees and can help shape future initiatives.

Understand the importance of work-life balance!

Work pressure is the number mechanism causing work-related stress! Huge tip: don’t overwork your employees. Great workplaces prioritise work-life balance and delegate manageable workloads to reduce burnout. You really can’t have a productive, efficient and profitable workforce unless you take care of your employees first and foremost.

Don’t forget to fuel social interaction and stay connected as we shift towards remote working!

It’s so easy to feel disconnected and lonely while working from home. Ensure you continue to collaborate and communicate effectively to promote a sense of togetherness. Virtual catch-ups to keep up to date with teammates, team building activities such as fun trivia nights or cheeky virtual drinks can work to maintain a positive work culture and mean a lot to your employees.

At KidsCo, mental wellbeing is at the heart of everything we do and drives our commitment to impact the lives of thousands of carers and children in leading organisations across Australia. As schools close and parents work from home, our mission has been to alleviate the stresses of juggling work and family through our virtual support programs.

To give parents a much-needed break or some time to power through their day, our incredible teachers keep the kids engaged with some interactive virtual entertainment. It’s made lockdown more enjoyable for the little ones who feel the impact of isolation and has been a lifeline for parents balancing both roles at home.

Find out more about how you can support your working carers here.

[1] State of Workplace Mental Health in Australia, chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/viewer.html?pdfurl=https%3A%2F%2F

[2] https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/topic/mental-health#mental-health-in-the-workplace
[3]www.headsup.org.au%2Fdocs%2Fdefault-source%2Fresources%2Fbl1270-report—tns-the-state-of-mental-health-in-australian-workplaces-hr.pdf%3Fsfvrsn%3D8&clen=755626&chunk=true

Possibly one of the hottest topics discussed within workplace culture – what makes a fun, engaging and productive workplace?‍

With the varying interests and hobbies that can be found in an office, it can be difficult to find common practices that suit everyone. However, we’ve found there are some daily activities that the whole office can enjoy and works for us. We use all of these five practices to make up our fun and productive office atmosphere!

1. You are the product of the people you spend most of your time with

The people we surround ourselves with influence the environment and culture we work in. We have a rule in our office when looking to take on more talent and that is, we base our employees off three things: character, chemistry and competence. We place the most value on the character and the chemistry of the individual, as these can’t be taught, competence can. The personality and culture in an office play a huge part in having a fun, engaging and productive workplace. Starting out with this attitude has allowed for the team to enjoy each other’s time and company in work meetings and strategy sessions. It has seen us take a “workation” where we worked from a holiday house for three days and enjoyed a mini-vacation whilst there.

2. Heads down, pens up

We call this Power Time, and it comes in bouts. We have free-flowing conversations within our office which means that we can sometimes get off track with all the fun! To combat this, we assign 20 minutes at a time to put our heads down and focus. Emails and Slack are the only forms of conversing (client phone calls are an exception) allowed and if someone breaks the rule, they owe everyone lunch. It has proved to work well within our office with the extra competition adding the element of fun.

3. Smelling the roses

Smelling the roses entails celebrating both the small wins as well as the big ones. This is a philosophy we try to implement within our workplace. When something good happens for the company, no matter how small, we take a few minutes to high five the team and soak it in. It might even be celebrating a big win over a Friday team lunch. A workplace must ensure that it credits the team for even those small wins in the workplace because that is was is what gives way to those big wins. Enjoying the wins together makes us feel connected to the company and strive to make more things happen to enjoy that time again.

4. Stop, recharge, refresh

When we want the team to be energised and productive, we encourage regular breaks and away from their desk. Sounds counterproductive right? But having the team refreshed means our minds are clear to attack the job at hand with better efficiency and effectiveness. Encouraging breaks can come in different forms; this may include scheduling meditation as a team for 10 minutes each day, grabbing coffee or going for a walk around the block. A more refreshed team yields more productive members and then, in turn, produces higher regarded work.

5. Feedback for development

Having pride in your work is great, we should feel this when we accomplish tasks, projects and more. This pride grows through opportunities to grow and develop our skill sets and make important decisions without the fear of making a mistake. Weekly feedback sessions help us stay accountable for our tasks but also allows us to feel that what we do matters, and if we make a mistake, we will not be punished, just pushed to find a solution.

While these five techniques work for us, each company is different. See here for some other ideas that some small businesses do to increase productivity and engagement at their workplace!

The ABC recently took a look into the stress surrounding the school holiday juggle and how PEXA are partnering with KidsCo to help solve the problem

It is meant to be the most wonderful time of the year, but the weeks over the Christmas school holidays often prove to be a logistical nightmare for those among us who are working parents.

Having to fill a five or six-week block of childcare, depending on where your child goes to school, is a juggling act parents across the country participate in.

“For weeks at a time children are off and parents feel that pressure to work through how they are going to keep their work commitments going and look after their children as well,” Emma Walsh, CEO of Parents at Work, said.

But accessing vacation care — also known as school holiday care — can be easier said than done, as working mum-of-three Jennifer Ramsay has experienced.

“We often think we need to have our school holiday plans in place by about week five each term so that we can get a booking or so the girls can get into something that they’d like to do,” she explained.

Ms Ramsay said, even then, in order to fill the long block her family had to be creative.

“So we do a combination of sports activities, vacation care, grandparents looking after the children, sometimes I work from home, and then, of course, we take a bit of leave as well.”

A 2007 paper by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) found that finding care for school-aged children during school holidays was even more difficult than finding care for toddlers and babies.

“With most parents being able to access four weeks of annual leave, there is already a shortfall in terms of the parents’ capacity to care for children during the school holidays, which is, of course, substantially exacerbated in sole parent families,” the paper stated.

Later, in 2013, a report by the Male Champions of Change collaboration stated that “many parents say they can manage the day-to-day juggle, but reconciling 12 weeks of school holidays per year with four weeks of annual leave forces many — often women — out of the workforce, or to reduced roles.”

Ms Ramsay agreed that the difference in time off for children and adults just did not add up.

“I have four weeks’ leave a year and my children have 12 weeks of school holidays a year,” she said.

What are the alternatives?

The AHRC paper suggested ‘purchased leave’ as an option for some salaried workers, “which can be used to cover care for children in holiday periods”.

But it conceded that purchased leave was not widely available and was not a solution to the discrepancy between school terms and standard working hours.

“Many children and parents enjoy spending school holiday time together, but for many families restrictions on leave availability mean that this is not an option,” the paper stated.

Instead, some companies — like Melbourne-based prop-tech company PEXA — have decided to offer their own solutions.

“PEXA has a school holiday program that is run in-house, and we partner with a company called KidsCo to run the program,” PEXA’s Linda Hibberd said.

“Children can attend one day, or they can attend every day of the school holidays. It is fully funded by PEXA and employees make a donation to the Alannah and Madeleine Foundation for their children’s attendance.”

Ms Hibberd said the company’s main motivation for offering the program was to support employees during what could be a logistically stressful time.

“The program really is an extension of our culture,” Ms Hibberd said.

“We understand that when you go home work doesn’t stop, and when you’re at work, home doesn’t stop, and so this is a way that we bring both parts of our lives closer together.”

Ms Hibbard said having children at the office was also great for staff morale.

“The program creates a lot of joy and fun on the floor,” she said.

“It’s fantastic to see the kids and the parents and all of our employees having a table tennis tournament or playing basketball or having lunch together in our plaza area.”

“That they trust employees and offer flexibility so that we can manage full lives that involve work and family.”

To check out the full article, click here.

Company benefits are a big part of employee peace of mind

‍Most companies don’t go out of their way to drive down their employee’s peace of mind, but the reality is most decisions are motivated by the company’s bottom line. However, statistics tell a story about work benefit programs that might not seem intuitive to business owners. While they cost money upfront, programs that improve an employee’s work-life balance are not just great for morale – they are also an investment that shows genuine return.

‍If you run any type of business that employs people, then retention should be one of your major priorities.

More than money and work bonuses, the number one thing that is proven to increase retention is a focus on work-life balance.

If you are interested in improving your team’s work-life balance while improving their productivity and promoting inclusion and equality, get in touch with us today to find out more about our school holiday programs.

Tag: Employee engagement

The importance of mental health and wellbeing in the workplace – here’s what you can do!

Factors impacting employee mental wellbeing and the consequences

Ways you could help promote mental health and wellness in the workplace

Find out more about how you can support your working carers here.

5 Things KidsCo do to make our workplace fun, engaging and productive!

Possibly one of the hottest topics discussed within workplace culture – what makes a fun, engaging and productive workplace?‍

ABC dive into how KidsCo is solving the school holiday stress

The ABC recently took a look into the stress surrounding the school holiday juggle and how PEXA are partnering with KidsCo to help solve the problem

What are the alternatives?

7 Reasons Sponsored Childcare
is Good for Business

Company benefits are a big part of employee peace of mind

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Your search for: "" revealed the following:

Tag: Employee engagement

The importance of mental health and wellbeing in the workplace – here’s what you can do!

Factors impacting employee mental wellbeing and the consequences

Ways you could help promote mental health and wellness in the workplace

Find out more about how you can support your working carers here.

5 Things KidsCo do to make our workplace fun, engaging and productive!

Possibly one of the hottest topics discussed within workplace culture – what makes a fun, engaging and productive workplace?‍

ABC dive into how KidsCo is solving the school holiday stress

The ABC recently took a look into the stress surrounding the school holiday juggle and how PEXA are partnering with KidsCo to help solve the problem

What are the alternatives?

7 Reasons Sponsored Childcare is Good for Business

Company benefits are a big part of employee peace of mind

7 Reasons Sponsored Childcare
is Good for Business