• Leaders create a psychologically safe environment and set the tone for how safety, mental health and wellbeing in the workplace is valued and prioritised.
• Positive leadership practices and behaviours promote worker wellbeing, create inclusive cultures and work experiences, and lead to improved performance.
• Workers are more likely to seek help, reach out to leaders and support each other through difficult times when the tone from the top reinforces these behaviours as ‘norms’.

• Individuals and teams have the confidence and skills to understand their own wellbeing and support the wellbeing of others. 
• Addressing stigma and providing supports can look different in every workplace but should include education and awareness.
• All workers understand and respect the need to maintain privacy and confidentiality in relation to mental health disclosures.

• Teams with positive, strengths based cultures promote psychological safety.  
• Promote actions that include diversity, inclusion, respect, collaboration, camaraderie, reward and recognition, and a strong sense of meaning and purpose.  
• Culture is influenced best at a team level, where strengths can be better identified, with the aim to expand across the whole organisation.

• An inclusive workplace creates equal opportunities for individual workers and teams to participate, contribute, and develop healthy and respectful interpersonal relationships.
• Paying attention to the unique and diverse needs of individual workers across the workforce can support the design of workplaces and resources that are tailored and accessible to all workers.

• When designing or reviewing any workplace structures, systems, policies and practices, consider worker wellbeing alongside your organisation’s needs and outcomes.
• Policies that prioritise wellbeing should be effectively communicated in a way that a diverse workforce and those who may need additional support can understand.
• All wellbeing and mental health policies should consider your workers’ privacy and confidential information will be kept secure.

• Psychosocial risks are aspects of work and workplaces that can cause psychological or physical harm or injury. These can lead to workers having long recovery times, with cost to themselves and their workplace.
• Investing in ongoing education and training, supports, processes and systems can help to proactively identify hazards and assess and manage risks to psychological health.
• Timely and effectively solutions can be created by implementing a range of assessment tools to identify hazards, in addition to regular and ongoing worker consultations, effective management of hazards, and transparent reporting.
• WorkSafe offers further guidance here.

Co-design and develop your plan with workers and identify opportunities to include mental health and wellbeing actions into accountable workplace practices.

Create a Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy/Action Plan to know what to do to drive commitment, accountability and action across your organisation. 

This Strategy/Action Plan should consider the whole workplace, the organisation’s needs and challenges, unique worker groups and regulatory requirements. 

The Strategy/Action plan should align with the organisation’s overarching mission/vision, values and strategic / business plan. 

It should outline the: 

1. Key goals (shared vision) in creating a mentally healthy workplace
2. Action areas/initiatives that will be delivered
3. Roles and accountabilities for achieving these goals and initiatives, and 
4. Metrics or measures that will show progress and outcomes.

A tool has been developed to support organisations through the key steps to create a Strategy/ Action Plan. Please see here for the Guide to developing your Mentally Healthy Workplace Strategy and Action Plan.

Promote and embed a culture of care, trust, safety and transparency across all teams and at all levels of the organisation, including all units/divisions and different worksites. Foster a culture that creates psychological safety and upholds the values of diversity and inclusion.

Key things to consider include:

1. Organisational purpose is clear and well understood

• Workers connect with the organisation's mission and understand how their role and responsibilities relate to the organisation’s overarching purpose.
• Information is shared openly, allowing workers to feel empowered to build a stronger sense of purpose in their work, and foster trust in their team and the workplace.

2. Teams experience psychological safety

When developing psychological safety, leaders and teams need to consider: 

• What a shared understanding of psychological safety would look like, and be experienced, and how to create it.
• How they might undertake team-based co-design activities that focus on defining behaviours that promote psychological safety and understand any issues that may be stopping this.
• How they will measure psychological safety at regular intervals to ensure it is consistently maintained.
• Workplace leaders and advocates to promote psychological safety.

3. Workplace mental health is considered across different stages of an individual's employment 

• Provide relevant interventions catering to worker needs and their circumstances at different employment life-cycle stages (e.g. induction or onboarding, promotion into leadership role). 
• Provide workers with the right resources and training to improve their skills and confidence, and independently choose how they structure or conduct their work (whenever possible).
• For workers experiencing declining wellbeing or mental ill-health, co-design and provide reasonable adjustments and provisions to reduce or remove barriers that they may be experiencing when at work.
• Certain worker groups (e.g. women, young individuals, migrant individuals) are at an increased risk within a workplace. As an employer or leader, you should be mindful of this and provide and maintain a working environment that is safe and free from risk to health so far as reasonably practical.

4. Mental health and wellbeing literacy is promoted

• Promote and support education, learning and development that is designed with workers to improve workplace mental health and wellbeing knowledge, understanding and skills across all levels.
• Upskill leaders to actively set an example of ’best practice’ and engage in open conversation about mental health and wellbeing. Ensure leaders and workers understand the importance of maintaining privacy and confidentiality.
• Promote and provide clear pathways of support.

5. Promotion of care, trust, diversity and inclusion

• Workers at all levels of the organisation demonstrate care and compassion and treat each other with trust and respect.
• Workers and leaders create a strong sense of belonging and inclusion for all workers.
• Leaders encourage, support and reinforce positive behaviours through appropriate recognition and role modelling.
• People address conflict proactively when it arises.

6. Psychological safety enables diversity and inclusion

• Adopt ways of working and interacting at work that promotes trust, transparency, a speak-up culture and enables workers to learn and grow.
• Have regular conversations and open discussions about mental health (e.g. on lived/living experience, case studies, sharing of experiences) to reduce stigma.
• When making decisions or planning and implementing any change agendas, consider the wellbeing of workers, including people with lived/living experience.
• Use a holistic, person-centered approach that considers worker wellbeing from a physical, psychological, social, cultural and spiritual perspective when designing and providing support.
• Seek understanding and insights as to the best ways to provide supports to workers from diverse backgrounds (e.g. through materials translated into a worker’s preferred language and practical demonstrations guiding task completion, where appropriate).

7. Proactive psychosocial hazard management

• Identify psychosocial hazards through widespread and regular worker consultations to ensure proactive identification, management and prevention.
• Transparently report all identified psychosocial hazards and how these are managed.
• Work collaboratively with workers to identify effective strategies to address risks.

Equip leaders with the skills, capabilities and confidence to create a mentally healthy workplace and lead teams that are psychologically safe.

Actively support and promote opportunities for all workers to grow and develop. Equip leaders with specialist skills-based training to build their confidence and capability in managing people, especially through difficult times. This could include training on how to become a trauma-informed workplace. 

Key things to consider include:

1. Visible role modeling

• Leaders actively role model care and proactively engage in early intervention conversations to contribute to a culture of openness.
• Leaders role model how to manage competing priorities, professionally and personally.
• Leaders have good communication skills, including being able to effectively resolve conflicts.
• Leaders know how to create psychological safety and avoid toxic positivity (which encourages individuals to only report positive outcomes and feedback, regardless of the reality of their circumstances).

2. Leaders feeling empowered to share

• Leaders are educated, supported, and empowered to show appropriate vulnerability and know how to safely speak about their lived experience in a workplace context, or share learnings and challenges in their careers.
• Leaders are educated in emotional intelligence.
• Leaders understand the benefits of supporting a safe environment which allows individuals to be vulnerable, and able to share their experiences in their workplace.

3. Strengths based leadership

• Leaders are collaborative and support workers and teams to use their strengths at work, providing personal and professional development opportunities for them to feel empowered in their roles.
• Leaders encourage job crafting (when appropriate) and know how this improves psychological wellbeing.
• Leaders regularly praise workers and teams for positive work behaviours and outcomes.
• Leaders ensure that workers receive adequate support to complete their tasks, while also accounting for other priorities.

4. Accountable and responsible leadership

• Leaders understand regulatory obligations and their role in developing and implementing strategy, plans and actions that embed workplace mental health and wellbeing (including safety).
• Leaders recognise barriers that may impact their working environment based on circumstances such as industry and organisation size, and ensure they are able to address these and adjust accordingly.
• Consider the needs of diverse workers and any barriers they may face to seeking help.

Embed structures, systems, policies, and processes to support mental health and wellbeing.

A mentally healthy workplace is driven by a foundation of strong structures, systems, policies and practices that considers the mental health and wellbeing of all individuals. 

Key steps to take include:

1. Policies are designed with workers for workers

• Policies, practices, systems, and structures are co-designed, implemented, and reviewed in collaboration with the workers that may be impacted by them.

2. Policies are reviewed to balance people and your organisation's needs

• Regularly review policies, practices, systems, and structures to ensure they meet and balance the mental health and wellbeing needs of workers and the needs of the organisation.
• Ensure workers feel comfortable raising questions, challenges or concerns, or proposing changes, in a safe forum with the expectation that they will be supported and a meaningful outcome can be reached.

3. Availability of mental health and wellbeing resources

• Adequate tools, resources, and interventions are available, accessible, and known to all workers, through organisations such as Beyond Blue, WorkSafe Victoria, and Black Dog Institute, amongst others.
• Ensure resources and supports are easily accessible for all workers in time of need, ideally housed in a single location, such as a shared-drive or intranet.
• Regularly remind workers that they can access support through helplines, organisation specific support programs, medical professionals, and online tools and resources.
• Ensure resources are regularly updated so that they remain fit-for-purpose and relevant.

4. Embed mental health and wellbeing into business as usual practices

• Enable, promote and role model practices that embed mental health and wellbeing into daily tasks, meetings, training, projects, workplans, and decision-making processes.
• Ensure leaders are consistent and clear in their practices and strategies to encourage mental wellbeing and ensure that work is structured to support this.

5. Ensure the privacy and confidentiality of your workers

• It is essential to consider the privacy of your workers and the confidentiality of any information you receive.
• Ensure that your policies and procedures take into account how you will keep information confidential and model respect for worker’s privacy.
• Ensure that you have the agreement of the person experiencing the illness or injury regarding what is shared (or not), with whom and under what circumstances.
• Ensure that data that is captured about the workforce, such as disability status or the proportion of the workforce from a diverse cultural background, is stored sensitively and for a purpose.
• Review and update the confidentiality agreement so that it remains relevant and fit-for-purpose.

Proactively manage psychosocial hazards and prioritise psychological safety.

Workers are likely to be exposed to a range of psychosocial hazards within and outside the workplace, which may contribute to declining wellbeing or mental ill-health. Where hazards are not managed well, they can psychologically injure a worker. 

Workplaces should encourage proactive risk management to mitigate and minimise psychological hazards. 

Key steps to support this include:

1. Collaborate and consult with workers to identify, assess, and mitigate hazards

• Leaders work collaboratively with workers to identify psychosocial hazards to mental health and wellbeing and assess the risks.
• All leaders and workers collaboratively mitigate the impacts of hazards, as far as reasonably practical, and implement and communicate controls to prevent their re-emergence.
• Provide all workers with training on identifying psychosocial hazards and associated risks to help drive risk management capability and protection from harm, including mechanisms for reporting. WorkSafe Victoria has a range of existing resources dedicated to managing psychosocial risk factors through the WorkWell Program. Mental Health First Aid training may also be beneficial.

2. Adopt a strengths based approach

• Use strengths based approaches when identifying and managing workplace risks and hazards, including recovery at work or return-to-work practices. Consider how specific hazards have been effectively mitigated in other parts of the organisation and apply those learnings across the organisation.
• Emphasise the value that workers bring to the workplace as individuals, through their skills, knowledge and potential.

3. Psychological safety is embedded across training and workplace practices

• Drawing on the key action areas of Positive Team and Workplace Culture and Leader Capability Development, embed psychological safety into workplace training, practices and policies to ensure that workers feel safe to raise issues or concerns about hazards in a timely manner, and believe that they are addressed as a priority and are proactively managed.
• Measure psychological safety in teams as a lead indicator for safety and workers willingness to speak up early.
• Measure psychological safety for diverse worker groups, including culturally and linguistically diverse workers.

4. Monitor, measure and report transparently

• Embed processes to transparently monitor, measure, and share findings on the psychosocial risks and levels of psychological safety in the workplace and review for continuous improvement in consultation with workers.
• Monitor, measure and report on cultural diversity data relating to levels of psychological safety and emotional and mental wellbeing at the workplace.
• By keeping all workers aware of the actions that the workplace is undertaking in supporting their emotional and mental wellbeing while at work, workplaces can build trust amongst their workers.

(Please see WorkSafe Victoria for additional guidance).

A strengths based approach leverages the strengths of individuals, teams and organisations. It applies to tasks, interventions, worker interactions and team cultures, and workplace actions. Strengths based approaches improve the likelihood of positive outcomes for workers and the workplace. 

Reframing mistakes as learning opportunities will also support worker and team development and growth. 

Consider needs, preferences, and strengths that vary across different worker groups.

The Framework, and its features, should not be considered in isolation. 

Developing an integrated approach to workplace mental health requires all three features to be addressed: 

• Protecting mental health by reducing workplace risks and hazards;
• Promoting mental health by taking strengths-based approaches; and
• Responding early to mental ill-health regardless of the ‘root’ cause (workplace, personal or external factors) in an appropriate way.

Continuously monitoring and improving actions, initiatives and interventions will allow workplaces to understand what works best for their workers and their organisation. This may include how to adapt existing initiatives, and assess what is sustainable.

Be willing and prepared to adjust initiatives to respond to the evolving environment and changing needs of workers and the workplace.

Reporting progress and outcomes transparently builds trust and engagement with workers.

Actions should be co-designed, implemented and evaluated with people with lived and living experience, and/or the impacted workforce. This includes people from diverse cultural and demographic backgrounds, individuals with intersecting identities, people living with disability, people across a range of employment types, and people across different locations.

Co-designing actions will promote buy-in and participation from workers as they are more likely to feel engaged, valued and heard. It will also mean that actions and interventions are better catered to meeting their needs and preferences.

Note: consultation with workers is not the same as co-designing with workers. Consultation is asking for input from workers but controlling the outcome. Co-design enables workers to be actively involved in the whole process, including design, prioritisation/decision making and implementation.

Creating a mentally healthy workplace and workforce is an ongoing process, requiring organisations to prioritise actions, embed these into business-as-usual and measure the outcomes over time. 

Workplaces should assess the level of effort, resources and time that actions will take, and the impact it will have on workers’ wellbeing and the organisation. This should be done in consultation with workers. This will allow some actions to be prioritised and create a pace of change in workplaces that allows leadership and workers to be brought along the journey. 

Where possible, instead of focusing on the ‘quick wins’, workplaces should prioritise actions that prevent the highest risks to worker safety and mental health and wellbeing, including to culturally diverse workers.

Workplaces vary in how progressed they are in implementing initiatives. To ensure the approach taken is effective, interventions and actions must be evidence-informed and have a level of standardisation in how tools and resources are applied in practice.

As workplaces seek to implement programs, actions and approaches to support workplace mental health, they should leverage guidance from key agencies and tools.

The tools created are intended for general information and guidance purposes only and should not be considered or relied upon as an official compliance tool or advice. Using this guide does not ensure compliance with Occupational Health & Safety (OHS) regulations under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004. Additional resources such as those provided by WorkSafe Victoria need to be considered / adopted to abide by regulations. 

Whilst efforts have been made to ensure information presented is accurate and reliable, it is important to note that laws, regulations and requirements can change over time and may vary by jurisdiction. This guide does not constitute legal, professional or regulatory advice. It is recommended that you consult the appropriate jurisdictional resources and consult with qualified legal or compliance professionals if you require specific compliance and regulatory guidance.

This framework has been developed for all Victorian Businesses, including sole-traders, small business, not-for-profit organisations, for profit organisations, government organisations and volunteer organisations. Either the term “workplaces” or “organisations” has been used in this framework as a catch-all to represent all different types of businesses and places where people conduct work. Unless specifically mentioned, the information provided is guidance for all Victorian business types and all workplace types, including working from home or remote work, and working outdoors.

This framework has been developed for all Victorians engaged in work. It recognises that people are engaged in work as full-time, part-time or casual employees, self-employed, contractors, subcontractors, volunteers, apprentices, student-workers and other types of work. . The term “worker” has been used in this framework to represent all different ways Victorians are engaged in work. This includes all forms of work, including short term, casual, irregular or insecure work.

This guide is intended for general information and guidance purposes only and should not be considered or relied upon as an official compliance tool or advice. Using this guide does not ensure compliance with Occupational Health & Safety (OHS) regulations under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004. Additional resources such as those provided by WorkSafe Victoria need to be considered / adopted to abide by regulations. Whilst efforts have been made to ensure information presented is accurate and reliable, it is important to note that laws, regulations and requirements can change over time and may vary by jurisdiction. This guide does not constitute legal, professional or regulatory advice. It is recommended that you consult the appropriate jurisdictional resources and consult with qualified legal or compliance professionals if you require specific compliance and regulatory guidance.

Guidance for how to create your own Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy is provided using four steps. 

Where appropriate, the content for your strategy should be developed through a co-design process involving collaboration and engagement with your workers at all stages. 

Suggestions for how to co-design and collaborate during various steps are provided. 

This guide can be used by all types of organisations, and by sole traders, regardless of whether they are just starting out, or are further along on their journey to creating a mentally healthy workplace. 

It is particularly helpful for individuals with management / leadership roles, and people and culture team members responsible for workplace strategies and systems. 

This guide suggests options for organisations of all sizes, so you can choose the actions that are right for your organisation.

The time it takes to complete your Strategy and Plan will depend on the size of your organisation and the extent to which you engage with your workers throughout the process of creating your Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy. This may take as little as a few hours or up to several weeks / months as you collect and incorporate worker input, insights, and perspectives.

Before you begin, have a clear view of who you would like to involve in the process and which workers / worker groups you would like to have represented. Think about the key roles across your organisation, and where unique needs and preferences of different workers should be considered.

For sole traders, it should take as little as a few hours or several days / weeks as you think about the type of Mentally Healthy Workplace you want to create.

As you are creating your Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, keep in mind the implementation principles outlined in the Victorian Mentally Healthy Workplaces Framework.

Reminder 

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy does not need to be completed in one go. Take your time, and revise and iterate as you go, so that your Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy is comprehensive and actionable.

While it is important for leadership teams to support your strategy, co-designing throughout the process with others in your organisation can lead to better outcomes. Try to include workers who offer different perspectives when co-designing. This could include workers from different ethnic or cultural groups, age groups, gender, job types, locations and/or those who bring a particular perspective such as lived experience and/or people with a disability. It is also important for leaders to be involved to create buy-in at all levels.

Although you may not necessarily be co-designing your strategy with others, think about the perspectives of your customers and individuals you interact with through your work and things you may need to consider for them, and you, to feel psychologically safe and respected.

Description and instructions: Define what your Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy will seek to achieve.

In this step you should: 

1. Briefly explain the purpose of your Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and commitment to creating a mentally healthy workplace to your workforce.
2. State your Vision.
3. State the goals you wish to achieve through your Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy. 
4. Outline the engagement and co-design process you will undertake to create the Strategy, including where and how your workforce will be involved and engaged.
5. Provide information on how the Strategy will be used within your organisation.

Tip: To save time, fill out the template: 'Template 1: Your Vision and Goals for your Mentally Healthy Workplace' (included as attachment to download from this page).

This template has some prefilled examples to help you. The template also provides guidance for how sole traders and organisations of all sizes can set SMART goals - goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound.

Description and instructions: Assess what your organisation is already doing to support workplace mental health and wellbeing. This step identifies and documents what you already have in place which may contribute to your Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

In this step you should: 

1. Ask yourself 'self-assessment' questions such as: 
   1. What is this workplace already doing which contributes to the vision and goals identified in Step One? Look at any data, policies, practices – even those that do not focus on worker mental health and wellbeing. 
      1. For example: Your workplace may have a practice of facilitating workers to manage their working hours around their children’s school drop-off and pick-up times. This benefits their overall mental health and wellbeing knowing their workplace supports them to prioritise and balance their family commitments. 
      2. Another example is considering professional development opportunities that enable workers to learn and grow – which also can contribute to improved mental health and wellbeing, as well as benefit the organisation.
   2. Of the things you are currently doing, what is working well that can be amplified across the organisation?
   3. Of the things you are doing what can be improved / done better (or stopped)?
   4. Where are the gaps that need to be addressed to support your mentally healthy workplace vision and goals? Develop priority action areas to address any existing gaps. This could include gaps in data collection, for example, cultural diversity data.
2. Use a survey-based self-assessment tool to support you in answering these questions.

Tip for medium to large organisations: If you are a medium to large organisation, you are encouraged to explore and use the tools listed below: 

• WorkSafe Victoria - WorkWell Toolkit
• Comcare - People at Work assessment tool
• Thrive at Work survey

Tip: Whether you choose to use a self-assessment tool or not, to help you save time, fill in the template: 'Template 2: Assessing the current state of your workplace against your desired vision and goals for a mentally healthy workplace' (included as attachment to download from this page).

The template can help you summarise and define the 'current state' of your workplace. The template is structured using the 'areas of focus' of the Victorian Mentally Healthy Workplaces Framework, which represent the key drivers of a mentally healthy workplace.

Reminder: Consider your workplace setting, and if feasible, engage with your workers to understand the hazards they experience.

Description and instructions: After completing your self-assessment and developing an understanding of your current state (in Step 2 above), you now need to identify priority action areas / initiatives your organisation can implement. This allows you to specify and prioritise the actions you must take to continue what is working well and address any identified gaps. 

In this step you should: 

1. Determine the key priorities your organisation needs to focus on as you work towards becoming a mentally healthy workplace, and the specific steps your organisation must take to action these, or new initiatives to implement.
   1. Key priorities can be determined by reviewing the gaps that you have identified, and determining how these can be addressed. 
   2. Remember to engage with the relevant workers who are either directly or indirectly impacted by these gaps. This could include addressing the effects of discrimination in the workplace, for instance, by engaging with workers from diverse background on their experiences of workplace inclusion.
2. Consider the effort required (i.e. the number of resources, time required etc.) alongside the level of impact these actions / initiatives will have both for worker wellbeing, including social and emotional wellbeing, and the broader organisation. 
   1. Make sure that the effort dedicated to these initiatives does not outweigh the positive impact it will have for you and your team members.
   2. Understanding effort vs. impact will allow you to prioritise the order that you might want to implement your actions / initiatives.
3. Determine timeframes for when you would like your key priorities addressed by. 
   1. Specify the timeframe when within which you would like your organisation to implement the actions / initiatives you have identified. 
   2. Timeframes will vary depending on the priority action / initiative, stakeholders involved, urgency and availability of resources. Plan around these factors to determine what timeframe is most suitable.
4. Define the roles and specify who is responsible for taking ownership of each priority identified. 
   1. Everyone in the workplace should know what they must do to achieve a mentally healthy workplace.  

Tip: The Framework provides practical actions that can be taken by organisations, with actions specific to different areas of focus that may be relevant to your workplace needs (e.g. Workplace Culture, Policies, Leadership).

Tip: For organisations of all sizes on how to go about determining who is responsible for the different priorities within your workplace: 

• State the role of leaders, teams and individuals in driving mentally healthy workplaces, with consideration for each individual or group’s capability and capacity.
• Identify a ‘lead’ person who is accountable for each prioritised action / initiative. Depending on the size of your organisation, you may wish to assign a set of shared and / or specific roles and responsibilities to different leaders, teams and / or individuals.
• Define each role by having open conversations with individuals to understand where they want to help and agree on how these preferences can be balanced with the needs of the organisation.
• Encourage workers to comfortably raise challenges in their roles, so roles can be reviewed and supports can be offered if needed.
• Ensure that privacy and confidentiality of any disclosed mental health or wellbeing concerns are respected, and that there are processes and expectations in place regarding how that information is treated.

Description and instructions: Having a way to measure and monitor progress of your goals and actions is an important way to keep your organisation accountable and to build trust and engagement within your workforce.

In this step you should: 

1. Discuss and identify what indicators would show you are making progress in the right direction (lead indicators), and not just measuring what has happened (lag indicators).
   1. Example of lead indicators: (For small to large organisations) Percentage of leaders who have completed ‘psychological safety training’ or ‘cultural inclusion training’ and are using their training with their teams. (For sole traders) having accessed resources that educate you on mental health in the workplace.
   2. Example of lag indicators: (For small to large organisations) Rate of worker turnover. (For sole traders) How burnt out you are feeling
2. Decide on measurable indicators that relate to your goals / priority areas. 
   1. These can be data-based (e.g. survey data results, workers compensation claims data, absenteeism rates, attendance at training sessions, proportion of policies reviewed through a wellbeing lens) or;
   2. Statement-based (i.e. verbatim comments, feedback/conversational comments) (e.g., worker engagement survey data, culture survey data, feedback surveys)
   3. Try to combine these to give you a more holistic picture.

Tip: For sole traders and organisations of all sizes - Engage with your workers to gather feedback on what metrics may be the most suitable. Consider new methods of data collection to obtain information that you otherwise may not already have access to. An example of this might be measuring worker satisfaction through a survey about a service provided in your workplace.

Once you have defined your baseline for your indicators, you should consider when you are going to review your progress. Quarterly check-ins are a good place to start to review your indicators, see what is working well and consider opportunities for improvement, so you can keep momentum going.

Congratulations on taking steps to become a mentally healthy workplace and creating your own Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy! A strategy document can become very lengthy, so having a summarised and high-level overview of your 'Strategy on a page' can be useful. 

In this step you should:

1. Summarise the vision and goals you created in Step 1. 
2. Summarise the priority action areas / initiatives you identified in Step 2 and who is responsible for these. 
3. Summarise a timeline by when you would like your action areas / initiatives achieved by.

Tip: For sole traders and small organisations - to save you time, fill out the template: 'Template 3: Mentally Healthy Workplace Strategy Summary Page' (included as attachment to download from this page).

Once completed, print this template to display in various locations throughout your workplace as a visual prompt and reminder to yourself and workers.

This guide is intended for general information and guidance purposes only and should not be considered or relied upon as an official compliance tool or advice. Using this guide does not ensure compliance with Occupational Health & Safety (OHS) regulations under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004. Additional resources such as those provided by WorkSafe Victoria need to be considered / adopted to abide by regulations. Whilst efforts have been made to ensure information presented is accurate and reliable, it is important to note that laws, regulations and requirements can change over time and may vary by jurisdiction. This guide does not constitute legal, professional or regulatory advice. It is recommended that you consult the appropriate jurisdictional resources and consult with qualified legal or compliance professionals if you require specific compliance and regulatory guidance.

Please note: This guide does not cover how a workplace may support a worker to recover-at-work or return-to-work after a physical injury. References to ‘illness’ or ‘injury’ refer to psychological illness or injury only. Where an employee has experienced a compensable mental injury it is recommended you seek appropriate information on supporting these employees through WorkSafe Victoria, Safe Work Australia or relevant resources within your operating jurisdiction.

Please note: This guide is specific to a Victorian context and does not cover processes, policies and legal requirements of other States and Territories. Organisations that operate across different States and Territories are advised to understand processes, policies and legal requirements of each jurisdiction as appropriate.

To effectively use this guide please: 

1. Read through the information below about recovery-at-work and return-to-work.
2. Complete the most relevant checklist to assess your preparedness for supporting a worker recovering-at / returning-to work. This includes ‘Handy Tips’ for practical advice. 
3. Refer to the ‘Additional tips’ sections for more practical steps if suitable.

Checklist 1: for small to large organisations

Checklist 2: for sole traders

This guide is for individuals across all organisations with roles in: 

• management / leadership,
• people and culture, 
• work, health and safety,

responsible for formally coordinating the recovery-at-work / return-to-work of workers.

Recovery-at-work plays an important role in helping workers to get better. 

Benefits include:

.

Returning to work as soon as it is safe to do so after illness or injury has many benefits including: 

• Provide new training and learning opportunities where previous roles and capabilities may not be suitable for the worker for a period of time (e.g., high stakes or high stress situations).
• Check in regularly to see how the person experiencing the psychological illness or injury is feeling and how they are experiencing work, noting that their needs and preferences are most likely to change over time.
• In consultation with the worker, review and modify daily tasks, particularly tasks which may be unhelpful or triggering for an individual experiencing psychological illness or injury. This may include decreasing the frequency or durations of meetings, decreasing the frequency of client/customer interactions, providing longer timeframes to complete tasks, providing written instructions (not just verbal), providing regular rest breaks, encouraging walk and talk meetings, etc.).
• Look at modifying / reducing working hours / providing flexible work arrangements including working from home.
• Consider developing a confidentiality statement with the worker and reviewing it regularly.
• Make arrangements to accommodate the worker attending appointments to support their recovery (e.g., scheduling client meetings around these appointments. The best practice is to ask the person what will be most helpful to them to support their recovery).
• Be supportive and understanding of the worker’s lived/living experience.
• Establish ‘liaison’ or ‘peer’ roles to support workers from culturally diverse communities.
• Ensure the workplace is accessible and safe to accommodate the given illness or injury (i.e., Is the lighting helpful or does it need to be modified? Is the workspace too noisy or quiet?).
• Support your worker in accessing additional resources and support if they require.
• Encourage open and honest conversations.

This guide is intended for general information and guidance purposes only and should not be considered or relied upon as an official compliance tool or advice. Using this guide does not ensure compliance with Occupational Health & Safety (OHS) regulations under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004. Additional resources such as those provided by WorkSafe Victoria need to be considered / adopted to abide by regulations. While efforts have been made to ensure information presented is accurate and reliable, it is important to note that laws, regulations and requirements can change over time and may vary by jurisdiction. This guide does not constitute legal, professional or regulatory advice. It is recommended that you consult the appropriate jurisdictional resources and consult with qualified legal or compliance professionals if you require specific compliance and regulatory guidance.

Individuals who work on a time-limited basis before moving to another role (e.g. construction workers).

Individuals who work irregular hours and days, and as a result may have income that changes pay to pay, dependent on the organisation’s point in time workforce needs. These individuals are not eligible for the benefits associated with full-time or permanent part-time work (e.g. non-permanent retail staff).

Individuals who have working arrangements where there is uncertainty about whether they will continue to be employed or will continue to have the same working conditions and experience in the future (e.g. full-time work for a small startup). Short-term and casual workers can also be in insecure work roles.

This includes people who work non-standard hours, as they may not be working at the same time as their peers or leaders, but could also include other types of workers who may be more likely to miss out on receiving information or support services, due to the nature of their work.

People who are engaged in geographically isolated work away from their colleagues, or workers who are isolated for any other reason, for instance, Fly in-Fly out (FIFO) workers.

• It can be hard for people in temporary work to build relationships with teams (e.g. create a sense of work family). Where all workers in a team are short-term or temporary, it can be hard to create a sense of team connectedness (for example, in construction). 
• This can lead to workers not feeling safe and comfortable to discuss mental health issues at work or asking where they can seek help.
• Less connection with work colleagues also means that people in temporary work can feel less valued than full-time team members, as they aren’t able to ‘celebrate the wins’ as a group.

• Intentionally find ways to encourage people in temporary workers to collaborate in teams where appropriate, so they can get to know their colleagues.
• Encouraging workplace socialising can also help foster relationships. with others in the organisation or team. This could include creating space for ‘water cooler chats’, peer mentoring opportunities, and social events. 
• Create a ‘buddy system’ with other full- or part-time colleagues, to ensure people in temporary work can ask questions informally.

• Many people in short-term or casual work are less likely to report mental health challenges or hazards in the workplace to their leaders because they may worry that this might impact their ability to get work hours or continue to be employed.

• Show workers that you have an open and positive attitude towards worker mental health.
• Leaders should proactively consult people in temporary work about mental health concerns and hazards at work (which may be different to their full-time or part-time colleagues doing the same role) and provide clear management processes, systems and accountabilities for these issues.
• Recognise workers who are taking proactive care of their mental health and wellbeing to create a safe and inclusive environment where individuals are comfortable to speak about their wellbeing.

Specific examples of actions you could take include:

• People in temporary work can feel ‘forgotten’ in team or organisational communications. As these workers are not always at work every day, they may miss key organisation updates, including those specific to mental health and wellbeing.
• People in temporary work are also more likely to miss out when programs / initiatives are introduced and/or restricted in access (e.g. uptake is on a first-come-first-serve basis with a cap on how many individuals can engage). This can also apply to opportunities for promotions or permanent work. 
• Privacy and confidentiality are just as important for temporary workers as they are for permanent workers. Ensure that you have clarity on what is shared (or not), with whom and under what circumstances.

• Make sure all communication includes people in temporary work – even if this is provided in writing following a team briefing or ‘town hall’ event. 
• When designing and implementing mental health policies and practices, involve those in short-term, casual or temporary work in the process. 
• Communicating what resources you have available to new or returning workers in casual, temporary, or short-term roles can build awareness around the options that your organisation provides. Where initiatives are introduced but restricted in uptake, reserve a proportion of places for temporary workers.
• If your organisation provides mental health, wellbeing, or work-life balance support to people in temporary work beyond their legal entitlements (e.g. the organisation chooses to offer benefits such as additional paid sick leave, hybrid working arrangements, flexible hours), communicate this to all workers and encourage them to leverage these appropriately.
• Ensure that your wellbeing and mental health policies include how you will protect workers’ privacy and how you will keep confidential information secure.
• Consider formal or informal ways to check-in with your temporary workforce about issues that may be affecting them, such as pulse surveys, to ask them what is working well for them or what they need. 

• Many of the same challenges that affect full-time staff also affect people in temporary work but they may not have the same working conditions or entitlements - like working from home or access to training - or financial ability to address those concerns.
• Some temporary employment contracts can stop workers from accessing training resources or participating in professional development

Ensure that the organisation actively considers risks to the mental health of their workers in temporary roles to assist in early prevention and intervention:

• Review the design of temporary jobs in your workplace: having high stress tasks to complete in a short period of time, having little or no control over the way the work is undertaken, exposure to trauma, and whether the worker may be experiencing financial strain because of the conditions of their job.
• Involve your workers in temporary roles in shaping workplace policies, practices and procedures. Promote workplace safety through work culture policies, like anti-bullying and sexual harassment policies, and leader training. Consult and engage all workers in hazard identification and mitigating risks.
• Encourage staff to seek early help through wellbeing check-ins, leadership supports, or an Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
• Where possible, embed training sessions that are specific to workers in temporary roles (e.g. online seminars that can be accessed at any time), and provide equitable access to professional development opportunities.

• Be aware of the different ways that short-term and casual roles may be impacted by mental health concerns, and the different resources that may or may not be available to those workers. In some cases, it is simply making workers in temporary work aware that these resources and supports exist.
• For people in temporary work, this could mean working arrangements that are in conflict with family responsibilities, for instance not being able to take paid leave to take care of family concerns, or financial strain due to not having continual and regular work.
• Be aware learning and development opportunities or other benefits that are provided by your workplace for workers in temporary or casual roles.
• Irregular work with limited certainty can place added pressure on workers, forcing them to make short-term decisions, and limit long-term planning and experience additional stress.

• Acknowledge the different ways that casual or short-term work affects mental health in the context of individual roles and responsibilities in your workplace.
• Be aware of the different experiences between your permanent and temporary staff and address this when creating and implementing a mentally healthy workplace plan, policies or processes. For instance:
  • For workers in casual roles who are experiencing mental ill-health, this can be associated more with presenteeism (where workers are on the job but not performing at full capacity) than absenteeism, because they do not have access to paid leave, and may not be able to afford unpaid leave.
  • For workers in short-term roles, for instance some trade workers, jobs that are associated with high demands and low control over design of the job and the way it is undertaken, have the greatest risk of mental ill health.
  • Consider the learning and development needs and opportunities of workers in temporary roles and provide them with fair opportunities to progress their careers.
  • Ask the workers in temporary roles in your organisation what resources and supports would work best for them. Try to do this frequently, to keep up with changes in their circumstances or the organisation.