Mental Health Matters

Posted 6 May

Mental Health Matters

Work-related stress and mental health conditions can significantly impact a business. This can be in the form of loss of productivity, higher rates of absenteeism, decreased profit and possibly even an increase in workplace accidents and incidents.

Running a business can be stressful. As a business owner, to give your business its best shot at success, you need to look after yourself as well as your employees.

We’ve all heard it said that to look after others you have to first look after yourself but it’s not always as easy to do as it is to say. Here are some tips on how to look after yourself and reduce your own stress levels.

• Maintain a healthy work-life balance, make sure you carve out time for family and friends and activities you enjoy.

• Maintain a healthy lifestyle by eating healthily and getting enough sleep.

• To create some space between work and home, have a dedicated location on your commute home where you change from thinking about work to thinking about home and what is ahead for the evening. For example, in Wagga Wagga, it may be as you drive over the Gobba Bridge you consciously switch off from work.

• Have a support network, talk to a friend and if you need to, asked for help.

As an employer you have obligations under Work Health and Safety legislation to ensure you are looking after the mental health of your employees. You can manage mental health risks in the same way you manage physical risks in the workplace.

• Identify the hazards

• Assess the risks

• Control the risk

• Continually review the control measures to make sure they are working.

There are some other great ways to manage mental health in the workplace. A few ideas to get you thinking…

• Offer an Employee Assistance Program.

• Organise a volunteering day – a great way to do something for others, build team cohesiveness and increase personal feelings of wellbeing.

• Organise lunchtime exercise classes for your team.

• Regularly provide positive feedback to staff in a public forum in your workplace.

• Organise social activities outside of work.

• Best of all … Get your team to come up with their own ideas and get them involved in implementing them too!

Mental Health matters.

For more information and resources see the following link. https://www.business.gov.au/risk-management/mental-health/mental-health-and-wellbeing-support-for-business

The Australian Government’s Business Balance initiative is designed to help small business owners take proactive steps to improve their mental health.