Lendlease's mental health programs, including "industry leading wellbeing leave" used by nearly 70 per cent of eligible employees, have earnt the Sydney-headquartered company the title of one of the world's healthiest workplaces.
The integrated property and infrastructure company won the multinational employer category at the 2018 Global Healthy Workplace Awards presented in Italy, with the judges lauding Lendlease's integrated health and wellbeing programs that yield strong results and return on investment.
Lendlease acting group head of sustainability, Cate Harris stresses that caring for people "extends beyond keeping people physically safe to also looking after their mental and physical wellbeing".
"While we have a holistic approach to health and wellbeing, mental health has been a growing area of focus," she says.
"We're proud to say more than 1,150 Lendlease employees have been trained in mental health first aid since 2015, and thousands more in other mental health programs including mental health awareness, Mates in Construction and mindfulness courses."
In the last financial year, 68.4 per cent of eligible workers took wellbeing leave, which Lendlease provides to encourage workers to take a proactive and preventative approach to their health.
Other initiatives supporting the "healthier minds" pillar of its health and wellbeing strategy include: suicide intervention skills training, online telephonic support to improve resilience and reduce fatigue, and grief counselling.
To create healthier cultures it has a range of policies around flexible working arrangements and leave entitlements – in addition to wellbeing leave – for parents, carers and others, while programs on sleep, nutrition and fitness, as well as medical checks and initiatives, help maintain physical health.
Lendlease won the award on the back of its enduring culture of care, Harris says.
A social return on investment analysis commissioned by Lendlease found for every dollar it invested it received a return of $1.09. It found office-based workers benefited more from its health and wellbeing strategy, and Lendlease needed to identify ways to increase participation among site-based workers and those experiencing barriers due to organisational culture.
As reported by OHS Alert, Victoria's Monash University won the large employer category at the Global Healthy Workplace Awards in 2016 (see related article).
Lendlease rolls out "enquiry-based approach to risk"
According to Lendlease's 2018 annual report, the company offers preventative support to workers experiencing mental health conditions and programs to guide managers in supporting team members experiencing mental health challenges.
It says that in 2017-18, more than 3,000 employees attended mental health awareness and mindfulness courses, in addition to mental health first-aid training.
It also says its critical incidents frequency rate across the group decreased by 27 per cent.
Unfortunately, it recorded two workplace fatalities, both in New York, while its lost-time injuries increased by 6 per cent, it says.
The report says Lendlease is reviewing how it approaches and manages safety, focusing on three areas: how its "global minimum requirements" impact safety performance; how organisational culture and climate is inhibiting or enabling safety improvements; and how risk perception and tolerance vary among workers.
"We commenced a group-wide education effort with our supervisor cohort titled: 'Engage and Influence'. More broadly, we are encouraging a greater enquiry-based approach to risk, through continually probing situations by asking the question, 'What's the worst that could happen?'" the report says.
"This approach requires a commitment by our people and our supply chain teams to embrace this way of thinking, not just in the field, but across the full lifecycle of what we do. We need a risk mindset that is unrelenting in pursuing the safest outcomes in how we design, procure, plan, deliver and operate across our entire business."
