Health & Wellbeing

How to approach an employee who may have poor mental health during the coronavirus lockdown

The coronavirus pandemic has created uncertainty and instability that has the potential to exacerbate existing anxiety and depression, and contribute to the onset of new mental health problems.

Given this environment, understanding how to support people experiencing mental health issues is a pivotal part of guiding your team through these challenging times.

The Head of Operations People and Culture at the Black Dog Institute, Marian Spencer shares her tips for how you can spot the signs that a staff member might be going through mental health challenges, and what you can do to support them through it.

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Why walking or cycling to work makes your staff happier and more productive

In Australia, more than 9 million people commute to work every weekday.

New research from the University of Melbourne shows that the distance they travel and how they get there – car, public transport, cycling or walking – can significantly influence their well-being and performance at work.

So what can your organisation do to make active commuting easier for your staff and volunteers?

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Walking the talk: How walking meetings can make your staff fitter, happier and more productive

The Young and Well CRC is an international research centre, based in Melbourne, that focuses on the role technologies can play in improving young people’s mental health and wellbeing. Young and Well CRC is also a leader in workplace health and wellbeing.

In 2014, they publicly released their innovative and comprehensive wellbeing policy, with the aim of supporting other organisations to prioritise wellbeing in the workplace.

In this guest post, Rose O’Sullivan, Young and Well’s HR Advisor and Operations Support, shares why they love one particular initiative from their wellbeing policy – the walking meeting – and why you should bring walking meetings into your organisation too.

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Why resilience and wellbeing are the keys to your team’s productivity – according to positive psychology expert Michelle McQuaid

Michelle McQuaid is a best-selling author and workplace wellbeing teacher and coach, with more than a decade of senior leadership experience in large organisations around the world. We spoke to Michelle to find out more about the importance of building resilience and wellbeing in staff and teams, and why happiness shouldn’t be the holy grail at work.

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Can you ‘teach’ staff to be more emotionally resilient?

You may know someone like this at work: optimistic and resilient, they appear to bounce through challenges drawing on an internal strength that helps them work through problems they encounter at work. Always hopeful and positive about the future, they treat stressful events as a “one-off” situation, appearing to have a built-in buffer that protects them against both ordinary and extraordinary events. Perhaps this is even you.

This sort of emotional resilience is often considered innate. But can it be taught?

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