Mental Health in the Workplace with Amelia Todhunter

Welcome back to Season 2 of Hire with Confidence, presented by People 2U! In our return episode, we delve into the crucial topic of mental health in the workplace with Amelia Todhunter, current Player Development & Wellbeing Manager for Richmond Tiger's Women's football team.

In this intriguing chat, we explore various concepts of workplace mental health, discussing its definition and prevalence. From a business standpoint, we uncover strategies for positively impacting employees. On the individual level, we provide tangible ideas for self-care and discuss how colleagues can support each other. Plus, we examine the emergence of new leaders in both sports and business, drawing parallels between coaching transitions and leadership shifts in the corporate world. Tune in for an engaging conversation packed with valuable insights and multiple takeaways!

People 2U is not your usual labour hire company in Australia. Enjoy a simple labour hire process, from start to finish, where every step is taken care of by a team who understands how much you need effective people solutions for your workforce. We know you need quality solutions, and you need them fast.

For more information visit our website at: https://www.people2u.com.au

To apply for any of our current jobs visit: https://www.people2u.com.au/currentjobs/

Transcript

Rebecca: 0:00

Welcome back. We're here for another season of High With Confidence presented by People2U. Today we're kicking things off with an important chat about mental health in the workplace, and we have Amelia Todd Hunter join the show to provide information around this topic plus provide practical tips for businesses and employees on how they can have a positive impact in this space. With a master of counselling and a Bachelor of Exercise Science and Human Movement and a Bachelor of Psychology, she is well qualified to lead us through this important conversation. People2u acknowledges the traditional owners of country on which we live and work throughout Australia and pay our respects to Elders, past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Radio. Let's get into it. Work on, Amelia. We're excited to have you here. Thanks, Beck. Thanks for having me. In a simple definition what is mental health within the workplace?

Amelia: 0:50

I think mental health within the workplace you can't take that away from purely mental health. So I think for me, mental health is on a spectrum and I think it's from that crisis into thriving and along that spectrum of where you fit. You're going to, from day to day, move along that spectrum, Even hour to hour. You're going to move along that spectrum and I think it's understanding yourself and being self-aware of kind of where do you fit and what are the tools that you can do to implement and make yourself feel a bit better. But obviously, once you kind of go down to the crisis mode and even a few steps before that, what is really impacting your mental health and can you get out of it by yourself or do you need help? On the excelling side of things, I think within a workplace it is feeling safe, it's feeling supported and it's feeling heard and listened. So I think that's what makes a good workplace it just is adaptable to support their people.

Rebecca: 1:52

And, on a personal note, I think you mentioned the word safe. I think that almost ties into leadership as well, like good leaders make people feel safe and accepted, which I'm sure we'll talk about later as well Beautiful. Now, one in five Australians between the ages of 16 to 85 experience mental illness in any year. In terms of mental health in the workplace, from a business point of view, how can businesses positively impact employees in this space?

Amelia: 2:17

I think there's no right or wrong answer here, but I think, overall, it's just creating that safe space, a good culture for your people and your colleagues. Obviously, there's plenty of mental health days and celebrations out there, and it's not just mental health, it's inclusion, it's everything that those days that they do celebrate. It's making sure that your workplace celebrates those and shouts out and does some things for their staff and employees to get amongst each other and that just creates that safe space of being able to talk about who they are and where they fit. And, like I said, I think it's celebrating days, not even mental health specific, but inclusion specific, for, like, zero discrimination day, first of March, world by Polar Day, 30th of March. I think those things just a simple email from HR. These are some resources if you or somebody that you know might need help or just kind of doesn't blow the budget.

Rebecca: 3:20

It doesn't blow the budget.

Amelia: 3:21

It doesn't need to be cupcakes and balloons and streamers, but I think being able to send out an email or a poster, having a poster up there it's so simple, like this, was the easiest sheet to find Like any business can go print that what are five days of the year that we're definitely going to celebrate and what ones can we send an email for? Yeah, so simple but can be really effective.

Rebecca: 3:46

It's a big thing for businesses to tackle, isn't it? It's pretty daunting.

Amelia: 3:50

Absolutely, and you don't want to offend anyone. And I think that's where, like we just recently celebrated International Women's Day and we're just like well and diverse people and whoever wants to kind of come in and come and celebrate. I think, yeah, because you don't. You don't want to offend anyone, just because you're just a bit worried, but you can't not celebrate because you're worried about offending people.

Rebecca: 4:18

Do you think there is a bit of like or if we don't do anything, we can't get it wrong?

Amelia: 4:23

Absolutely. By ignoring the fact, I don't feel like you create a safe space for people, so I think you better to do it, and if there are people that do have an issue, then it's definitely listen to them, get their point of view on things and adjust for the next year. I think that's what's so great about these days, these celebrations is that it comes around each year. Obviously, we hate talking about it, but COVID was a big factor, but it did show that employees can work from home and they can tick the boxes, that everything that they need to do, even if it is only one or two days a week from home, but it is that supportive, flexible workplace. Sometimes they need to be able to drop the kids off at school or get the shop in Dundra in the day and having that flexible working, those working hours, I think it's going to help with mental health and that will also impact, obviously, home life as well.

Amelia: 5:22

One other fact on that is exactly what we just did the mental health first aid training. I think that just creates a lot of awareness and acceptance within the workplace to open up the forums for discussion. I am such a strong believer that everybody within a sporting organization, within businesses that should have their mental health first aid and it just creates a safe space. Yeah, which?

Rebecca: 5:45

is so powerful. How often do we hear about people having the day off because they go into a first aid course? But people doing mental health first aid courses isn't as common, you know. Hopefully it does increase if you can definitely sign up and join your local mental health first aid course. So Mills and I did one this week and it was hugely beneficial.

Amelia: 6:05

So Through the Richmond Institute, shout out, Love the shout out. Well done Mills.

Rebecca: 6:12

How common are employee assistant programs, otherwise known as EAPs?

Amelia: 6:17

Even if individuals have their own psychologist counselors, I think it is really important to have because it's free, it's confidential, where you work doesn't know who's on that, your individual name, it just knows the number of people that are seeking that resource. So the more support you can offer your employees, the better you're going to thrive. Having the free service is really important because it is. It's expensive. But if they want to work on their mental health and it might be day to day tasks and things like that, it might just be organization skills, it might just be being able to vent. So I think it's just very important to offer that absolutely and easy access to it.

Rebecca: 7:06

And I love how you say it doesn't matter what mood you're in like we go back to the spectrum which you first brought up. You know you could be thriving or you could be in crisis mode or somewhere in between, but it doesn't matter where you are in that spectrum, it's still really beneficial Even just having, like here at our club, we have like a wellness wheel.

Amelia: 7:24

Obviously, each workplace is very different, so we were really strongly. When was it 2022? It was something our club was really invested in, in the wellness wheel and just making sure there was a balance in life. So you've got on our wellness wheel body, mind and emotion, country and land, family, community, culture and spirit and that will mean something different to everyone. And understanding that at a particular week time of year you might be ticking three of those five boxes and then being aware to then shift.

Amelia: 7:59

Okay, well, I've really worked on my body these last few months, but I've really not. I've been impacting my family and I haven't really been able to spend time with them or I haven't given mum a call in a while. So, really knowing that it shifts and it will mold to your life at that time, but knowing that, okay, these are the five things that are really important to me. What do I need to focus on now? From a business point of view, it is really important to have something, have something on the walls, have something known for staff that hey, look, it might be something different for you, but we do really prioritise mental health here, and this is how we do it. It might look a little bit different to you and it's totally up to you if you want to invest in it, but it gives them that option to prove that they are 100% behind you in your mental health.

Rebecca: 8:52

Yeah, wow. And in terms of a wellness will, I'm sure there's many different names for it. Absolutely Like you know, do they have to go to a business to get it made, or is it? Can you sort of Google something and put it together yourself with your HR department?

Amelia: 9:04

Yeah, absolutely. I think HR is definitely the place to start, but you could honestly go and Google it. You could sit down in a group, get people from different areas at the business and what is meaningful to them and what are the themes. What are some common themes that we can really focus on? What does mental health mean to us and kind of put that together and really, maybe it's monthly get employees to check in with that wheel and see where they fit. It might not be a wheel, it literally might be a line, it might be squares, it might. Yeah, you just a mind map.

Amelia: 9:43

It's kind of whatever fits with the business.

Rebecca: 9:45

Yeah, that's cool. It can be, yeah, done in so many different ways. Absolutely Radio. So let's flip it From an employee perspective. What can individuals do for themselves to have great mental?

Amelia: 9:59

health. It's 100% up to the individual. Find what works for you, trial it. Everyone's different. For me it's exercise, eating healthy, making sure I go to my hot pilates or swimming Like that's my time, whereas other people it might just be simply connecting with family, connecting with friends, it might be taking your dogs for a walk. So I think, find what works for you and make sure you schedule that into your weekly life and don't be afraid to debrief with people and have that discussion hey, like, what do you do for yourself care, what do you do to help with your mental health? So I think opening up those conversations does create that safe space as well.

Rebecca: 10:47

Love the words don't be afraid, very powerful. Obviously we're talking from a business and employee perspective, but if we bring sport into it because we love sport and Aussies love sport, you know, 2024, there are some modern coaches, or a new wave of coaching emerging. Think the likes of Craig McCray at Collingwood, scott Roth at Tassie, jack Jumpers, even a Daisy Pierce at West Coast, afw, who hasn't actually coached her first game yet but is quite visible and quite active in the new wave of coaches space. Is it similar in your experience within the workplace? Is there a new emerging wave of leaders and managers?

Amelia: 11:25

Absolutely. I think it's really exciting that space of those younger leaders coming through. I think as much as we don't want to upset anybody by saying this, but even female leaders coming through have a different lens to what male leaders do that suck it up.

Amelia: 11:41

Mentality is starting to really go from the workplace and it's very much about listening and understanding. And how can we best support you rather than seeing it as this person's complaining? They want better, this, better, that. It's more like right, let's stop, let's listen and how can we be better? Because if we're better, our whole workplace and business is going to be better for it.

Rebecca: 12:08

In this day and age, with all the technology and our short attention spans, it is so obvious when someone is not listening, and it happens so often. Someone asks you a question, you answer it and you're answering it, and you're not even listening to me right now. We've just got to give each other attention, don't we? You know you talk about active listening. What does that look like?

Amelia: 12:28

It's eye contact. It's not in. It's taking in what they're saying, not trying to think ahead of how you should respond. It's not looking around the room looking at your watch. It's actually giving that person that time and space to be able to chat to you and create in those relationships. Actually be present, take the time. That's all they need and that could honestly be from them feeling like they're heard and listened and having a good day to what they did not care one bit about. They probably won't have the conversation with them again.

Rebecca: 13:05

And if, as you say, if you remember they had a footy match from the weekend, or remember their kid's names or remember some other detail they said and follow up about it. That makes you feel like a million bucks when someone follows up again. Anything else you want to put on the record in terms of mental health in the workplace.

Amelia: 13:20

Making sure when you do get new employees, just making sure their induction process is really smooth, as simple as on day one having a computer, they're ready for them. Having uniform having even name tags or people just wearing name tags if it's a smaller business, because the sooner they feel a part of the culture and the workplace, the better they're going to get stuck into their work but also build relationships with the people around them. Okay, well, let's take that.

Rebecca: 13:55

What about if you're a remote business and you have someone a new employee starting Brisbane but you're based in Melbourne? How can we try and attack that and you make them feel welcome, safe and accepted as quickly as possible?

Amelia: 14:08

I always love a good icebreaker. So yeah, depending on how big the company is, I think if you get a few people online, do a bit of like a fun icebreaker. What is your go-to icebreaker? My go-to icebreaker? Oh, that's such a tough one.

Rebecca: 14:27

I asked a hard-hitting question.

Amelia: 14:29

I always do love the like pineapple on pizza and like they had to vote, or just veggie might belong in the fridge or the cupboard and just like a few questions of that stuff to just get some laughter going. I think they're always good.

Rebecca: 14:50

I guess it's quite a good segue. What is your coffee order then, Mills?

Amelia: 14:54

Great question I'm going to go with when I want to spoil myself an oat mocha, oh okay, but when I'm trying to be good, probably isn't. If you add up everything, an oat latte with honey. Love it and do you find that's good for your mental health? Oh my gosh, absolutely. And I'm not a coffee drinker? Well, I never was.

Rebecca: 15:15

Thank you so much for offering your expertise and some really simple and effective tips for businesses and employees out there regarding mental health in the workplace, and no doubt our listeners are going to get a lot out of this episode, and I've definitely enjoyed our chat and getting to know you a little bit better as well. So thank you very, very much. You're most welcome. Thanks, pat. You're a busy person, so thanks for listening. If you liked what you heard, please drop us a review. That would help the show a lot. It's great to be back for another year and we look forward to rolling out some inspiring chats over the next few months. Stay tuned, people, to you, people for here, there, anywhere.