From Little Things Big Things Grow
“Bite-sized steps,” is how Head of People & Culture at Axiom Workplaces, Megan D’Cruz, responds when asked about the benefits of workplace mental health coaching.
“It doesn’t need to be hours on hours on hours,” she says. “It’s about putting your mind to [mental health and wellbeing] on a regular basis.”
Rewind a few months and Megan and her team had just finished workplace mental health training, delivered by Black Dog Institute and proudly funded by NSW Government.
According to Megan, the training led to an increased appetite for mental health and wellbeing initiatives and conversations across the small organisation of 40 employees.
“I wanted to do more, but didn’t know where to start,” she says. “I saw coaching and thought, ‘let’s give it a go’.”
Megan registered and was connected with her free workplace mental health coach, Sarah Alwyn. Sarah helped Megan transform her ideas into actionable steps.
“It [workplace mental health and wellbeing] doesn’t have to be this big, huge audacious thing to tackle,” Megan says. “Sarah brings it back to a point where you can understand everything. She broke it into bite sized pieces.”
“I got some really clear goals, and short-term goals that I could achieve, and we just had regular check-ins. It was great.”
“Having those check ins help me be accountable to what I wanted to achieve,” she acknowledges.
Megan cites creating a mental health policy as one of the goals she focused on.
“I think one of the barriers Megan had was that senior leadership weren’t always on the same page,” says workplace mental health coach Sarah.
“So getting them on the right page was a really important step in the development of the mental health policy.” With guidance from her coach, Megan was able to collaborate with senior leadership, and ultimately gain buy-in for the mental health policy.
At that point, Sarah says, it was all about consulting the rest of the team to develop a robust mental health policy that speaks to the needs of the organisation.
Now, Megan says proudly, her organisation has a mental health policy.
“It helps start the conversation,” Megan acknowledges.
“In the HR profession, we all know how important work health and safety is … but having that policy is really key because it gives you a clear understanding of what the requirements are and what you can do, and then it just helps you bring people on board with everything else you need to do.”
And now, Megan says, there’s a real shift in the organisation.
“I went slow and then it clicked, and I ran fast with it. It was an amazing feeling,” she smiles.
Megan speaks with pride about a Wellness Hub her small team launched for the organisation. “We went live last week,” she beams.
Sarah states that the Wellness Hub, a digital content portal that contains resources, information and support pathways for mental health and wellbeing, is one of the actions Axiom Workplaces took to mitigate or manage identified psychosocial risks in the workplace.
“Staff can tap into that independently, privately and confidentially,” Sarah says.
Perhaps the biggest tool to validate Megan’s hard work is the organisation’s already-existing weekly engagement survey.
“Wellness is a whole section on its own, and it’s always been one of our areas of focus.”
Now, she says, it’s already uplifted. In fact, at one point, wellbeing was measuring higher than any of the other indicators.
“We’ve still got a way to go,” she acknowledges. “You can’t become complacent around mental health and wellness, it’s just great to see what we are doing is having an impact already. There are changes just in the way people are thinking and talking about mental health and wellbeing now.”
Learn more about Workplace Mental Health Coaching here.
Three key takeaways for small business
- You don’t need to have a problem to benefit from workplace mental health coaching. “I wasn’t concerned about psychosocial hazards,” Megan says. “It was more not knowing the detail of [what they are] that was concerning me.”
- Coaching is tailored to your needs and schedule. “The thing I found amazing was that it was so flexible and fitted into my world,” Megan says. “Give half an hour to have that initial conversation and see whether it’s right for you.”
- Don’t be scared to explore workplace mental health. It affects all workplaces and there are many resources, guides and templates your coach can give you to get you started. “Having a mental health policy helped start the conversation,” Megan says. “It doesn’t have to be a big deal.”
