Supporting Employees’ Mental Wellbeing

Welcome to Hire Potential with Indeed, a series of fireside chats with experts in diversity and inclusion, employer branding, recruiting, HR and more.

Further, the Australian Human Rights Commission found that at least 45% of Australians aged between 16 and 85 will experience a mental illness at some point in their life, while one in five Australian adults will experience a mental illness in any given year.

With many employees spending 1/3 of their lives at work, unhealthy workplaces can quickly harm workers’ mental wellbeing. So organisations must start taking the necessary steps to facilitate a healthy and safe workplace for all their employees.

In this episode, along with our guest Jennifer Jones - HR Business Partner, Inclusion & Diversity Lead ANZ, AstraZeneca, we’ll be discussing the very important topic of supporting employees’ mental wellbeing in the workplace, plus the ramifications of the pandemic on our mental health, and what employers can do to help support their employees’ not just on R U Ok Day?, but every day of the year. 

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Prologue

Jay: Welcome to Hire Potential with Indeed. A welcoming workplace is built from the ground up with attention to diversity, inclusion, accessibility and openness. But the way many leaders and companies approach this is full of gray areas, uncertainty, and quite often fear. Hire Potential with Indeed is here to demystify the process through the most powerful channel possible, conversations, groundbreaking ones, too. 

I'm your host Jay Munro, Senior Country Marketing Manager of Australia at Indeed. And in this podcast series, we'll tackle the issues we face in the modern workplace, from diversity and inclusion, to remote working, accessibility, fair hiring practices, and more. This podcast is an initiative of Indeed.com, the world's number one job site according to Comscore with over 250 million unique visitors every month from over 60 different countries.

Introduction

Jay: Welcome to the fourth episode of Hire Potential with Indeed. Before we dive in, I wish to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which we're meeting. I pay my respects to their Elders past and present, and the Aboriginal Elders of other communities who may be here today. 

In this week's episode, which falls close to R U OK day, we'll be discussing the very important topic of supporting employees’ mental wellbeing in the workplace. Before I begin, if you or anyone you know needs support or help, please contact lifeline.org.au at 13 11 14.

Now, there's no doubt that the pandemic has had a huge impact on the mental wellbeing of workers across Australia. In Indeed's recent survey, we found that 31% of workers in Australia have felt increasingly lonely over the past year, and that number only gets bigger amongst minority groups. Further, the Australian Human Rights Commission found that at least 45% of Australians aged between 16 and 85 will experience a mental illness at some point in their life, while one in five Australian adults will experience a mental illness in any given year.

With many employees spending 1/3 of their lives at work, unhealthy workplaces can quickly have a negative impact on workers mental wellbeing. So, it's crucial for organisations to start taking the necessary steps to facilitate a healthy, and safe workplace for all of their employees. To learn more, today, we're joined by Jennifer Jones, HR Business Partner, Inclusion & Diversity Lead Australia and New Zealand at AstraZeneca. To discuss the ramifications of the pandemic on our mental health, and what employers can do to help support their employees, not just on R U OK day, but every day of the year. Welcome, Jen.

Jennifer: Hi, Jay. I'm really grateful to be here today. I'd like to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of this land, the people of the Eora nation, a beautiful part of Sydney I'm very fortunate to be both working and living on. I acknowledge Elders, past, present, and future.

Jay: Now, Jen, could you share a little bit with us about your role as Inclusion and Diversity Lead at AstraZeneca?

Jennifer: I sure can. Firstly, I would say it's absolutely a role that fuels my bucket. Inclusion and diversity are fundamental to the success of AstraZeneca. We know that building an inclusive culture, and leveraging that strength and diversity of each one of our people is going to provide us with a competitive advantage. What's my role in this? I have the incredible opportunity of being in a position to help implement and embed our important inclusion and diversity strategy. It's an enormously varied role. But to do this, I partner with our business and my internal HR colleagues, to focus essentially on three focus areas bringing the strategy to life for our local employees.

I create and support our employees with all kinds of development, learning, sharing, engagement initiatives aligned to our three priorities, so that we can positively shift that dial in achieving our metrics and a more diverse and inclusive work environment for absolutely, everyone. An enormous part of our success in D&I is because of our empowered employees who drive the agenda from grassroots. I know that we're going to chat a little bit more about this, but we absolutely see this as our super strength and has been key to how much we've achieved in a relatively short time and key to our ongoing sustainability.

Tips for implementing an employee wellness program into your company policy

Jay: In terms of AstraZeneca, what are some of the few ways that you've been successful in implementing employee wellness priorities into your company policy?

Jennifer: We have some specific policies across both our SHE, our safety, health and environment team and our HR team, which address employee wellness. Firstly, we start with compliance to the relevant acts. There's around eight of these, such as Work Health and Safety Act, the Fair Work Act, Anti-Discrimination Workers Compensation Act, etc. Secondly, we're always reviewing our policies to understand the data and the trends that we're seeing internally, and also externally with best practices in the market. A business case for prioritising employee wellbeing, I think, is that by doing so, we're actually reducing our company risks associated with things like attrition, workplace incidents, etc.

Some examples of our recent policy reviews that embed wellness, flex work practices. I know this pandemic has been the trigger for many companies to do the same. Understanding that flex work is no longer seen in the talent market as a benefit, but really as an expectation. Another example, is our Family and Domestic Violence Leave Policy being offered as paid leave. Why is this important? Well, research from the Australian Institute of Criminology tells us both the prevalence and severity of domestic violence has increased during this COVID-19 pandemic.

Thirdly, and more broadly, I'd say we've started and continue to review our policies for inclusive language. We challenge ourselves, are policies long and written in legal terms that really might turn an employee off? Or not welcome them into that policy to use that policy? Or instead, are they written in an inclusive way, a simple way, are easily accessible, so that our employees really know that we've written them for them? They are encouraged to use the policies, and we welcome them to start the discussion with their managers about them. As part of this, we review the number of employees visiting the policy, and we ask our employees for feedback all the time.

Jay: Yeah, and I guess that's one of the things that we talk about a lot, is it's not a create, and then leave type process. It has to be constant iteration and evolution of anything to do with diversity and inclusion. Something that you mentioned there, though, is the word policy, and that can be very scary. It can scare employees off. Do you have any tips or advice on how to encourage employees to engage in a policy to understand it and I guess; help bring a policy to life?

Jennifer: Absolutely, and that's the third point that I was referring to. We really invite feedback from our employees. We want to be challenged by our employees. Are we using inclusive language? Can they see that this policy is written for them and encouraging them to use it? We look at the number of people that are viewing our policy online and the number of uptakes. Also, helping our people leaders to understand that a policy is written there to embrace and really to facilitate the support that our employees need. We're here to support them. So, challenging what the policy includes, is it really a best practice, but also the way it's written?

What happens if the workplace is the cause for a worker’s mental illness?

Jay: Okay, and I think it is really important there, like you said, to have that balance and two-way communication. Let's skip over to mental wellbeing. One of the topics that I really want to address upfront, is that we often presume that a worker's mental illness develops outside of the workplace. What about if the workplace is actually the catalyst for it? Can we just talk about that for the first couple of minutes here?

Jennifer: There's really two parts to this question. I think the scenario where the employees have a previous experience of mental illness, and it's been triggered again, in our workplace. And of course, an employee who is experiencing mental illness for the first time. I think it comes back to the first principles of, we can't solve the problem until we understand that problem. We really need to go out of our way to understand what's happening for that person. Potentially, they may be the only ones in the organisation speaking up about a mental illness, or the catalyst for that, but it may actually be part of a bigger issue, a systemic issue we need to address.

Jay: How can we make people feel safe to speak up about this? People can feel very fearful about talking about having a mental illness, or it can be a very vulnerable state that someone can be in. Are there pieces of advice on how to build or create more environments, or cultures where people can feel safe?

Jennifer: This comes down to the psychological safety. Psychological safety is at the heart of all human connection. At AstraZeneca, we want to understand who you are, and celebrate that in the workplace. Specifically, at AstraZeneca, we've really looked at how we can build the mentally health workplace, a psychologically safe workplace. We've started to firstly design a workplace to minimise harm. For us, that is meeting all legal requirements, of course, and then start to look at triggers to mental illness. So, looking at stress, workload, connection, psychological safety, at the heart of it is human connection. The leadership capability, that allyship, peer to peer support. Looking at areas that way we can really enhance, particularly in the pandemic, enhance and strengthen connections with each other.

Building from there, we've looked at the organisational resilience that we have. We started with conversations. I had employees opening up about their own mental illness. We have an employee who we provided the platform and the forum, and she shared her story with our organisation about living with bipolar. This was about two years ago. Up until that point, I don't ever remember a conversation about mental illness in our workplace. People being comfortable to speak about it, to share any stories. All the statistics tell us that our organisation, the people in our organisation are representative of the community in which we operate, and we know the stats in the community that one in five people will experience mental illness in any given year.

Particularly in the pandemic, we've been doing things such as dropping centers, breathing space, we call them and employees can come to form connections. A lot of them will come and tap await their emails and listen to the chatter. We've also had watch parties, we've played really important videos with messages, and had a conversation after, a collective conversation about what we've seen. From a leadership capability, we've been investing in training, so they at a minimum have three hours of training for leadership. How do I create a safe place in my team for all of my employees?

Every single employee has conducted training through Black Dog. And that was compulsory training. And we wanted to really embed a familiar language, a common understanding and starting place to continue the conversations and make people feel safe to start to use the language or start to say, "I'm not okay." And not be fearful of how another employee might react because it might be a big conversation for them.

We've also got an incredible EIG, Employee Resource Group. A really important part of our inclusion and diversity strategy is to have grassroots. I mentioned it's our super strength. It's a community across diverse group of people, across Australia and New Zealand who have a real passion for mental health, learning about mental health, sharing stories. It's a safe space for our employees to go for resources and allyship.

Moving from there, we have Mental Health First Aid as it's a key part of our mental health program, and it promotes and facilitates early help seeking. How can we support our employees to support themselves? Again, reducing stigma, having somebody in the organisation to go to that's not your manager. Knowing that we have a workplace that is psychologically safe means having just options as well for employees.

Jay: That's really, really interest. You've sparked a few questions from me there as well.

Jennifer: Great.

Jay: The first one I have is, the size of AstraZeneca, you would have quite a few different types of business units and teams, and they would have their own cultures and dynamics amongst them. You tend to see language being used in different ways. What we see more recently is, we're picking up on how language can be quite damaging. The use of language, in terms of slang, can be quite damaging. Particularly with mental wellbeing, that what we may have thought of as being not harmful at all is actually very harmful and goes against creating safe workplaces. How do you counter that and educate different departments?

Jennifer: We have a saying that we repeat, which is that words count and moments matter. It's something for all of us to understand. The words that you use, in a meeting, a one-on-one conversation, a leadership forum, they really matter, and you need to be held accountable for those words. We talk about speak up, listen up, follow up at AstraZeneca. Speaking up when you see somebody who might be using damaging words and not realising it. And now we're looking at how can we speak up with purpose, so that we are really being heard? And then how can we ensure that people are actively listening? This all builds to the psychological safety of an organisation.

Jay: You touched on EIGs, just before as well, or Employee Resource Groups, and they're incredibly important in terms of advocacy and generating allyship and just creating that sense of belonging, as well. A lot of EIGs that are created or exist in the larger organisations tend to lump mental wellbeing in with disability. Shouldn't they be separated?

Jennifer: At AstraZeneca, we have them separate. I think an organisation needs to do what's true to them. I think depending on the size of the organisation, depends on the context and the resources they have available. And I am a real advocate for just start. Just start just do something positive in the space, create a safe space for employees to gather to talk without judgement, and be prepared for that to evolve.

Jay: I want to jump back at little, as well. I'm jumping all over the place.

Jennifer: As I am.

How to help your employees feel more psychologically safe at work 

Jay: I know, I do intend to do that. You mentioned before around building psychological safety, how important that is. Now, we ran some research at Indeed that showed during the pandemic, around a third of Australian workers have started to feel increasingly lonely over the last year. That would indicate that we're starting to potentially lose our grip on that human connection in a way. What have you seen or how are you combating that at AstraZeneca?

Jennifer: They are challenging times. Loneliness is in fact one of the main contributors to mild to moderate mental illness. We know this. How do we stay connected and keep listening to each other, keep bringing people in whilst they are remote without Zoom fatigue? I think it's a shared challenge across industries. At the moment, we also have frontline employees who are working from home that have never worked at home before. Particularly in manufacturing, it would be similar to bus drivers working from home. Jobs that typically have never worked from home are now doing so and part of our I&D strategy is to be inclusive, no matter where you are and inclusive of all.

In that case, we've actually issued iPads, work iPads to all of our employees who didn't ordinarily have a laptop set up at home. They've never worked up at home. The first thing is we've been doing well being check-ins. And of course, now, secondly starting to advance their IT skills, so they can use their iPads really effectively to stay in touch. We've done actually an enormous amount of things and a lot's been driven through safe space. We've had to move really quickly. I mentioned before, just start, just start and be prepared to evolve and adapt what you're doing. Once employees know you're coming with good intention, it's really accepted that you're there for the right reasons and that it's okay to change the plans.

What will it ultimately take to ensure a better and more inclusive workplace in the future

Jay: That's really interesting. Now, we're actually out of time, but I do want to ask you the final question, which is how we finish every episode of Hire Potential with Indeed, which is, what will it ultimately take to ensure a better and more inclusive workplace in the future?

Jennifer: To create a truly inclusive workplace, now and in the future, is to get human. The one thing we have in common is that we're all human. We all have a story to tell. We're all vulnerable at times to have the courage, the curiosity, and the desire to ask questions, listen to what our colleagues are telling us, and connect on that level, I think is what's needed.

Jay: Thank you so much, Jen. I'm so incredibly grateful. Mental wellbeing is such an important topic. I think those themes of humanity and courage and psychological safety are themes that we really need to keep top of mind. Thank you so much again. Again, if you or anyone need support or help, please contact lifeline.org.au at 13 11 14.

Jennifer: Thank you, Jay so much for this time today. I've really enjoyed chatting with you. Thank you.

Conclusion 

Jay: Thank you for listening to Hire Potential with Indeed. Before you go and start building a better workplace, don't forget to hit subscribe and leave a review if you found this podcast helpful. If you'd like to read our full D&I report, click the link in this episode's description and fill out the form.

Just a quick note, the information provided on this podcast does not and is not intended to constitute legal advice. Instead, all content we discuss is for general informational purposes only, and you should consult with a legal professional for any legal issues you may be experiencing.

The data in this podcast references Indeed’s 2021 D&I report. 

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Sources: Indeed is the world's #1 job site according to Comscore, Total Visits, March 2021.

Sources: Over 250 million unique visitors every month, Google Analytics, Unique Visitors, February 2020.

Sources: The research in the report referenced in this episode was commissioned by ThatComms Co on behalf of Indeed and conducted by YouGov. The study was conducted online between 11 - 17 February 2021, involving 2,060 working age Australians (aged between 18-64) currently in either full or part-time employment, or actively looking for work.