Promoting and protecting the health and wellbeing of our staff has always been an essential element in creating and maintaining a positive workplace culture at SWSPHN.
Our comprehensive Health and Wellbeing Strategy has helped preserve this positive culture during the unique challenges presented by COVID-19 and supported our staff in the delivery of high-quality services to our community.
SWSPHN’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy was launched in 2019 and aims to:
- promote positive health and wellbeing
- improve understanding of mental health
- support employees living with mental health conditions
- and address risk related to poor health and wellbeing of staff
We have a project team made up of health and wellbeing champions from across our organisation which meets quarterly to develop initiatives which align with those objectives.
Not surprisingly, we’ve focused heavily on mental health during the past 20 months.
We’ve participated in Safe Work NSW’s free mental health program which includes in-house training, access to expert support and a mental health capability assessment. Using Safe Work’s Mentally Health Workplace five-step benchmarking tool, we moved from having a rating of intention (level 2) to taking effective action (level 4) in the last financial year.
Impressed with our results, SafeWork invited SWSPHN to be the subject of a case study video which was published in May, to encourage other businesses to access free NSW Government resources to support their employees’ mental health.
You can watch the video on the NSW Government website.
Other initiatives aimed at improving the health and wellbeing of our staff have included:
- Staff participation in Steptember, embracing the opportunity for greater physical activity
- Hosting Paralympian, champion basketball player Brett Stibner who spoke about the importance of staying diligent about your personal safety and the safety of others both personally and in the workplace
- Holding physical activity challenges
- Implementing the COVIDsafe Workplace Plan
- Providing ongoing health and wellbeing support and information related to the impact of COVID-19
- Delivering Mental Health First Aid training for new employees
- Hosting a South Western Sydney Local Health District’s Health Promotion Service presentation, giving staff the opportunity to learn more about the 5 Ways to Wellbeing
- Initiating a monthly lunchtime online trivia competition to ensure staff stay connected
- Holding self-care workshops
- Updating policies and procedures to improve workplace culture and staff engagement