Thursday, 02 October 2014 11:47am
An employer has slashed its psychological injury rate through a tailored program that includes training on dealing with "complex personalities", a wellbeing forum in Sydney heard yesterday.
University of Sydney's safety, health and wellbeing director, Julia Cohen, told the Creating a Resilient Workforce forum, hosted by ABC Commercial and the Black Dog Institute, that the University turned around its psychological injury rate "really fast" after developing a new wellbeing framework three years ago.
The rate dropped from seven per cent of all injuries recorded to only two per cent, she said.
She noted that while the University was currently seeing a "small spike" in injuries because of "changes in the top level structure" of the organisation, which were creating some uncertainty in the workplace, the lower rate was being sustained.
Cohen said the University decided to develop the wellbeing framework after data showed it had high numbers of psychological stress injuries and "a huge number of repetitive strain or muscular stress-type injuries", which were "costing us a lot of money".
"We looked at corporate-based wellness programs and rejected them all," she said, noting that they were "prescriptive" and expensive, and consisted of "basically one approach".
As a result, the University developed a tailored wellbeing framework that focused on issues raised by staff.
Workers told the University they wanted to see good leadership, understand how leadership worked, and be led by people who were involved with them, Cohen said.
They also wanted more workplace discussions about wellness.
The framework, in its first phase, focused on tackling psychological issues in the workplace, with workers attending courses on "complex personalities" in the workplace and how to build resilience.
Managers were also provided with training on how to build resilience in their team members.
Further, staff were provided with some "basic mental health education" that focused on recognising and acting on mental health issues, Cohen said.
Once the psychological aspects of the framework were in place, the University introduced the "Happy Body at Work" program, which included pedometer and walking challenges, she said.
She said it was positive to see "the fun that people are now having with moving at work".