Your how-to: Implementing targeted behaviour change workshops focused on advanced mental wellness competencies
This refers to the definition and understanding of implementing targeted behaviour change workshops focused on advanced mental wellness competencies within your work environment.
This initiative involves setting up structured educational sessions, primarily focusing on enhancing mental wellness skills of your workforce. The key objective is to identify, manage, and improve mental health issues by fostering both personal resilience and a supportive work culture.
These workshops, while targeting individuals, also aim to shape the wider work environment. They are founded on the premise that fostering mental wellbeing can improve productivity, reduce absenteeism and ultimately enhance overall organisational performance. Hence, they are designed to help your team understand their mental wellbeing, demystify common misconceptions, and provide practical strategies for managing stress, burnout, mental health disorders, and promoting resilience.
Appropriate to the Australian context, these workshops should work in tandem with the Safe Work Australia’s national policy body's 'Work Health and Safety Act 2011' which seeks to secure the health and safety of workers and workplaces through the elimination or minimisation of risk. Thus, these workshops not only bring about improved mental wellness but also correspond with legal requirements of health and safety at work.
Please note, these sessions should not replace individual mental health support or therapy offered through professional services, but rather work as an addition to them.
Step by step instructions
Understanding the Importance of Mental Wellness: Begin by ensuring a strong awareness and understanding of the importance of mental wellness in the workplace among management and staff. This includes making everyone aware of the impacts of mental health on productivity, absenteeism and overall organisational performance.
Developing Workshop Goals and Objectives: Based on your team's needs and expectations, develop specific goals and objectives for the workshop. Remember to align them with the 'Work Health and Safety Act 2011'.
Catering to Different Learning Styles: Ensure the workshop program caters to various learning styles. Use various training methodologies such as presentations, discussions, role-plays and group activities to ensure maximum engagement and retainability of information.
Evaluation and Feedback: After the workshop, conduct an evaluation to understand the effectiveness and impact of the session on the employees. This could include feedback forms, discussions or post-workshop surveys.
Identifying Needs and Expectation: You then need to conduct internal surveys or discussions to identify the mental wellness needs and expectations of your workforce. The aim is to gain a clear understanding of the current levels of stress, resilience and mental wellbeing in your team.
Designing the Workshop Content: Engage behavioural and mental health professionals to create the content for the workshop. Include information on signs and symptoms of mental health issues, resilience strategies, maintaining work-life balance and promoting a positive work culture.
Scheduling and Running the workshops: Find suitable dates for the workshops that suit the majority of your employees. Try to choose a space that is comfortable and conducive to open discussion. Make sure to schedule break and exercise times as well into the workshops for holistic wellbeing.
Regular Follow-ups: Finally, follow up on the training to ensure the newly-acquired knowledge and skills are being used and that the strategies are positively affecting the mental wellbeing of the staff.
Use this template to implement
To ensure you can execute seamlessly, download the implementation template.
Pitfalls to avoid
Australia's workforce is highly diverse, and not taking into consideration the cultural nuances can lead to unsuccessful implementation of these workshops. Some cultures may have different understanding of mental health and wellness - ensure the training content is inclusive and adaptable.
Without adequate understanding of mental health concepts, the workshops may not be effective in promoting real awareness and understanding. It is crucial to work with qualified professionals, whose expertise can help shape workshop content and delivery.
Simply conducting the workshops is not enough. Implementing follow-ups to check on the progress of individual staff members is essential to ensure that the learnings from the workshops are being effectively implemented.
Planning behaviour change workshops requires a significant amount of time for preparation, delivery, and evaluation. Inadequate time allocation may result in rushed sessions that do not fulfil their purpose. Devote sufficient time to fully benefit from the workshops.
Creating a safe space is crucial in allowing individuals to open up about their mental health. Failing to provide such environment can limit the effectiveness of these sessions as participants might not feel comfortable to share their experiences.
Australia's Fair Work Act 2009 places certain legal obligations on employers with regard to mental health in the workplace. Failing to adhere to these guidelines can result in disciplinary measures including penalties.