Gallup’s recent 2023 ‘State of the Australian and New Zealand Workplace’ report1 validates a long-standing concern of business leaders: our employees are struggling. In fact, according to the data, as many as four in five employees are not thriving at work, costing Australian and New Zealand businesses an estimated AU$245 billion each year.
The post-pandemic workplace is facing more challenges than ever before. ‘Quiet quitting’ and staff churn are just the tip of the iceberg. With mental health issues more widespread than any of us care to acknowledge, how can we better support the one in five adults experiencing mental illness in any given year?2
The 2020 Productivity Commission Inquiry Report into Mental Health3 identified the need to equip workplaces to be mentally healthy. While conversations about safeguarding the psychosocial wellbeing of workers have gained airtime in boardrooms across the country, there is limited evidence to show that traditional EAPs and other workplace initiatives are meeting the needs of employees or employers.
The time has come to shift the needle on workplace mental wellbeing, but it requires a change in perspective. Rather than presuming that our efforts and current solutions suffice, as key decision makers and business leads, we should be challenging ourselves with a different question: ‘How can we do things differently?’