Introduction
Creating a mental health action plan for your workplace can be difficult given the sensitivity and nuances of the topic. However, it is becoming increasingly important for businesses to consider the mental health effects of their business on their workers. Therefore, this guide will help you understand the key things to consider when creating a mental health action plan. This includes educating yourself and your employees, encouraging input and feedback from your workers, and improving and extending upon your existing business practices. Finally, at the end, we’ll sum it all up for you.
Educate yourself
The first step to creating an action plan for improving mental health in the workplace is to educate yourself (as the employer). This will help you and your team understand the purpose of the action plan. It will also help you to fulfil your legal requirements regarding mental health in the workplace.
Identifying the action plan objectives
It is really important to get a good understanding of what mental health is and how it can be positively and negatively impacted. This will help you identify the things an action plan should address. It will also help to reduce the stigma around mental health in your management team. This is because you, and any of your managing employees, will have the chance to correct any prejudices you may hold regarding mental health issues.
Meeting your legal obligations
It is also important to keep in mind that you have legal responsibilities to address potential mental health issues in your workplace. For example, under WHS laws, companies and certain officers of companies have duties to understand and reduce ‘psychosocial hazards and risks’ in their workplace. Furthermore, criminal laws, discrimination laws, and industrial laws can all apply to workplace bullying and harrassment. Employees may even be entitled to a ‘mental health day’. To help you understand your legal requirements in more depth, we recommend speaking to a lawyer.
Educate your employees
The second step is more of an extension of the first step. It is to educate your employees. This will assist them to understand how the action plan can help them, and inform them of their legal responsibilities regarding mental health in the workplace.
Understanding the action plan objectives
It is really important that your employees understand what mental health is and how it can be positively and negatively impacted. This will not only help them identify if they are dealing with mental health issues, but it will also inform them on how the action plan can offer them help. Additionally, this will help reduce the fear and stigma surrounding mental health issues in the workplace. This is because as the employer, you will demonstrate that you take mental health seriously. It also shows that you are open to discussing and improving your employees’ mental health as much as you can.
Meeting their legal obligations
It is also important to inform employees of their responsibilities in reducing mental health risks in the workplace. For example, the abovementioned laws regarding bullying will indicate to employees that workplace harassment will not be tolerated. Furthermore, under certain workers compensation laws, employees may be required to notify their employers of ‘injuries’ as soon as practicable. To understand employee responsibilities regarding mental health in the workplace in greater detail, we recommend talking to a lawyer.
Encourage input and feedback
The third step to creating an action plan for improving mental health in the workplace is to solicit input and feedback from all workers in your company. This is really important for a few main reasons. Firstly, action plans should be tailored to your business. While organisations like Beyond Blue and the Black Dog Institute provide helpful outlines, they should be adjusted to suit the needs of your business. Secondly, an action plan itself should generally encourage input and feedback on an ongoing basis. This will allow you to ensure that you can continue to prevent mental health issues and risks as they change and evolve over time. Thirdly, input and feedback is a great first step in encouraging any of your workers already affected by mental health issues to seek help. For some of them, waiting for an action plan may allow their issues time to grow.
Evaluate existing business practices
The fourth step is to look at your existing practices and start identifying the gaps. An action plan does not need to completely change the way you do business. Rather, it should build upon your existing practices. This is because what would work for a small business in one industry may not work for a large business in another. Additionally, many of the things you can do to reduce mental health risks in your workplace are considered good business practice anyway. For example, skills development can help ensure employees can manage the demands of their roles. Additionally, best practice shift systems can ensure employees get sufficient time to recover from tiring work. Therefore, you should check these practices, and gather feedback as to how well they are working. You should also consider if you have sufficient bullying, harassment, and discrimination policies in place.
Customise and download your Discrimination Policy for free.
Get this and other important workplace documents on our platform.
Get startedConsider new business practices
The fifth step is to consider new business practices you can implement to actively improve mental health in your workplace. While the action plan should build upon your existing practices, you should not shy away from new practices. While reducing the risk of mental health issues in the workplace is important, actively trying to improve mental health can ensure these issues are prevented in the long-term. It can even provide benefits to your business more generally. For example, high levels of mental health can improve worker productivity, support employee retention, and foster inviting and attractive work environments for potential recruits.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are several things you should do when creating a mental health action plan for your workplace. Firstly, educate yourself (as the employer) and your employees. Additionally, encourage input and feedback from all your workers. You should also identify gaps where mental health issues can arise in your existing business practices. Furthermore, you should consider implementing new business practices to actively promote good mental health in your workplace. These aren’t all the things you can do, but they are definitely some of the important ones.
