With the Mental Health Essentials program in its final year, the Victorian Chamber is proud to have reached over 750 senior leaders and managers, and over 2000 employees to deliver our message on how to create and maintain a mentally healthy workplace.

As part of the program, participating employees completed a pulse check survey to provide employers feedback about mental health in their workplace – what they are doing well and where opportunities for improvement lie.

With 2,799 responses, employees have voiced their concerns and have delivered a clear message to all Victorian employers about where they can invest their time and resources to address the work-related factors that matter most to Victorian employees.

<script id="infogram_0_34f74953-a41d-4291-bbe4-88b33747851d" title="Employee pulse check" src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed.js?ACV" type="text/javascript"></script><div style="padding:8px 0;font-family:Arial!important;font-size:13px!important;line-height:15px!important;text-align:center;border-top:1px solid #dadada;margin:0 30px"><a href="https://infogram.com/34f74953-a41d-4291-bbe4-88b33747851d" style="color:#989898!important;text-decoration:none!important;" target="_blank">Employee pulse check</a><br><a href="https://infogram.com" style="color:#989898!important;text-decoration:none!important;" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Infogram</a></div>

Clarity about work expectations is consistently the most positive-performing question in the pulse check survey, irrespective of industry type, business size, or location - signaling most employees participating in the program are clear about what they need to do, and how their performance is evaluated.

The lowest performing questions both include the word ‘involved’. The pulse survey identifies that employees don’t feel they have enough input when it comes to how work is organised, or sufficient input into changes that will affect how they work.

The survey results indicate maintaining updated job descriptions and clearly defining role boundaries are important factors all employers should address.

If you or your business want to make positive changes to mental health in your workplace immediately, there is a very simple thing every business can do: sit down and talk with your employees about the way work is organised and allocated; be receptive to their ideas about how things could be done better; and get their involvement in any changes that are likely to affect the way they work.

Consultation is not only a legal obligation under the OHS Act 2004, it’s also commonplace among high-performing employers, as those businesses have witnessed the direct link between an engaged workforce and retention, attendance and productivity.

All the work-related factors that cause work-related stress are important, and at this stage, the Mental Health Essentials program has been enlightened to see which matter most to Victorian employees.

Mental Health Essentials program

If you would like to participate in the Mental Health Essentials program, please visit the program webpage here to register your interest.

The Mental Health Essentials program offers free mental health training and consulting to small and medium sized businesses who employ young workers and want to create mentally healthy workplaces.

The program is supported by WorkSafe’s WorkWell Mental Health Improvement Fund.