As we head further into 2021, I’ve been thinking about ways in which we can take control over areas of our lives and how this increases resilience and overall health. In particular, the connection of mind and body, looking at where Eastern and Western understandings of health can both give guidance.

Finding ways in which we can regain a sense of control in our personal lives despite what is happening all around us can help us with managing our feelings of anxiety and uncertainty. What are things we can do in terms of looking after our physical health? And what are the flow-on effects in terms of our mental health? In the West, we used to look at the mind and body as related but separate systems and illness as a faulty body part. While your sore wrist may be RSI from using a mouse, one way of treating it would be painkillers and maybe a steroid injection. A holistic response looks at your posture, how much time you spend on a computer, what forms of exercise you are engaging in. The Eastern understanding of the body would look at is as a connected system that includes diet, social connections, spiritual engagement – the totality of your life away from work.

A simple way to bring all of our systems together is to have awareness of what we eat and how we move. Both of these activities impact the body and mind. We know the relationship between exercise and mood. There is now a growing understanding of how food impacts our mental clarity and emotional wellbeing: what we eat and how we move influences how we feel, how we sleep – and how we think and work.

Problem-solving capacity increases after exercising – so the idea of clearing your head by going for a walk is an easy starting point; it also increases endorphins, thereby lifting mood.   The previous image of the dedicated employee who only eats lunch at the desk has been replaced by a workforce – led by compassionate leaders who lead by example – think walking meetings! At AccessEAP, we know how quickly time passes, so our Wellbeing Champions work with our employees to implement initiatives to remind everyone to take mindful and active breaks. As a leader, role-modelling good habits is essential. Recharging your batteries increases satisfaction and productivity and minimises burnout. Getting away from the workplace, whether on a break from your workspace or around your neighbourhood and enjoying the season – the shade of a tree in summer or bracing wind while rugged up in winter – activates a range of our senses, a key aspect of mindfulness. If you haven’t exercised much, start with a walk, and increase the time and the intensity. No matter what your current level of fitness is, working towards a physical goal promotes mastery and self-esteem.

High sugar/high-fat foods give a short term lift which is often followed by a sugar slump or binge-regrets. I’m certainly tempted by the array of quick and easy local café options but the majority of what I eat I try to be mindful about. The gut and the brain are intimately linked – what you eat affects the production of neurotransmitters. Serotonin is produced in the gut, and so good gut health has a significant impact. Looking after the gut means a high-fibre diet, low in processed food and sugars – which includes regulating your alcohol intake. As with exercise – make changes gradually, so you don’t set yourself up to fail. You may also notice that regular exercise and mindful eating will impact the quality of your sleep.  You can get the benefits of small changes as well as a sense of control in a year which still feels unusual.

We're excited to talk about diversity and inclusion this month. With awareness days in general and Harmony Week in particular, it's easy to fall into a tick box routine, invitation to morning tea sent, social media post drafted and approved, and in our busyness to get on with the day to day, we can miss the opportunity for real reflection or discussion. The pandemic has leaders more than ever explaining the "why" behind what we do.

We're turning our spotlight on diversity and inclusion and the strategies we need to foster and develop to achieve real progress personally and in our organisations.

We don't have to look far to see the value in committing to diversity and inclusion in our teams. The benefits are evident when we get it right, but the wins don't always come easy in this area. What does Harmony Week mean for us 12 months on? As leaders, what more do we need to be mindful of when our experiences of workspaces and ways of working are so very different? How can we rise to the challenge of the shifts required to ensure that all of our people's needs are met?

Our leader tool we've created provides practical ways to ensure diversity and inclusion are part of how you and your teams work, while our personal tool provides day-to-day ways to support diversity and inclusion. Find our wide range of Leader Tools and Personal Tools, in the Employer and Employee Login Areas of our website. Reach out to here at AccessEAP on 1800 818 728. As always, our people are here to help support you and your people be their best in life and work.

This month we will be celebrating International Women's Day and Harmony Day within Harmony Week. Harmony Day is about inclusiveness, respect and belonging for all Australians, regardless of cultural or linguistic background, united by a set of core Australian values.

These are just two days that are highlighted but we encourage you to celebrate and implement diversity and inclusion in the workplace across all of March and throughout the year. To support your organisation through this, below are two great resources.

National LGBTI Health Alliance
Inclusive Language Guide: Respecting people of intersex, trans and gender diverse experience 

Learn how to use inclusive language in a respectful way with this Inclusive Language Guide

Universal Music UK
Creative Differences: A handbook for embracing neurodiversity in the creative industries

The Australian workplace is changing at a rapid pace as we navigate towards global market trends and the process of working together with First Nations people and the inclusion of multi-cultural, gender diversity together with a growing ageing workforce.

Our business leaders can no longer afford to overlook diversity and inclusion in the workplace. The challenge to organisations is the 'how to' effectively harness and embrace the richness of difference in a way that generates wide ranging solutions and boosts the wellbeing of staff. The current workforce is looking to their leaders to ensure all employees are considered when programs and opportunities are offered - that unique strengths and struggles are taken into consideration.

What do we mean by diversity and inclusion?

Diversity means all the ways we differ, all the ways we are unique. This includes, for example, cultural heritage, gender, sexuality, age, physical and mental ability. Some of these differences we are born with and cannot change. Inclusion puts the concept and practice of diversity into action by creating an environment of involvement, respect and connection where the richness of ideas, backgrounds, and perspectives are harnessed to create business value. Organisations need both diversity and inclusion to be successful.

Businesses can maximise the productivity and efficiency of their diverse workforce through:

One of the elements that underpin personal and organisational resilience is planning. Planning done right means that we have taken the opportunity to think clearly about the environment our organisation currently operates in and where we are heading into the future.  When we take stock of our organisational strengths, culture, people and teams, we can identify those areas where there are gaps to grow into.

We've turned our spotlight to managing through change. How can we as leaders, identify the areas within our control that we can positively support growth and balance the needs of individuals, teams and our organisation?

Our new tools highlight the importance of a “life audit” and offers some practical tips to identify whether we are working towards those goals that are important. They also explore strategies to help your people achieve their goals while recognising the ever-present need to keep pace with change. Find our wide range of Leader Tools and Personal Tools, in the Employer and Employee Login Areas of our website. 

Being proactive when planning and preparing our people for change can quickly move the dial into positive territory. More and more, we are talking about the importance of a growth mindset, both personally and professionally. Our Organisational Development Team are experts in this area and are here for you. If you have any questions or require support, reach out to here at AccessEAP on 1800 818 728. As always, our people are here to help support you and your people be their best in life and work.

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LT

Last year leadership styles were put under the microscope as world leaders battled the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. Leadership styles and the differing focus on priorities were on display, as leaders sought to balance competing needs. There was a leader who captured the world's attention demonstrating empathy, kindness and "love on full display"¹. How leaders responded to the threat has shaped the outcomes. Once again, leaders and their people in Victoria have had a difficult week. We've heard how the snap lockdown affected leaders and their people, personally as well as professionally.  What can we learn from how they have faced the challenge using their strength and resilience?

For us at AccessEAP and from what we have seen in our data, a leadership style that prioritises people's wellbeing, supports their performance and helps people and organisations thrive has been instrumental in helping people, teams and organisations rise to the challenge of constant change.

We've created new tools which highlight key leadership traits that have helped us throughout the pandemic and beyond as well as address what our people should expect from us as leaders. There is a dual responsibility to recognise and nurture to get the most from these relationships. Find our wide range of Leader Tools and Personal Tools, in the Employer and Employee Login Areas of our website. Reach out to here at AccessEAP on 1800 818 728. As always, our people are here to help support you and your people be their best in life and work.

[1] https://info.accesseap.com.au/e/872921/ics-jacinda-ardern-leadership-/4y6gv/165849879?h=3nKlTTbLC431Z9zOpMcMxV7bCY7TAwxY-SfFmXy777o

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Published in Education Today 15th February 2021

As most educators are aware, mental health conditions can have long term, direct and indirect effects on a child’s development including impacts on social skills, the ability to absorb information and their enthusiasm for learning. This makes it vitally important that parents know all of their options for assistance.

So, what help is there for teachers who are experiencing childhood mental health issues in the home and what can they do? Most organisations will have an Employee Assistance Program in place and teachers can confidentially access this support for themselves and family members.

Marcela Slepica AccessEAP Director, Clinical Services.

Read more

In the face of the changes we all went through last year, now is a good time to reflect on how our workplaces and activities will change. What will this mean to leaders of organisations as we optimise our work environments? This month I look at two related concepts: big-picture, structural changes to our workplaces; and how we respond quickly to ensure that our best assets – our teams – are supported.

Managers have always looked at how they can improve productivity, support customers and engage with employees to deliver on goals.  Previously this might have looked at maximising resources like the real estate where offices are located. Hot desking was loved by management but not embraced by employees. Concepts of touch-free, physical distanced workspaces, rosters which stagger staffing levels and even downsizing office space are being discussed at companies and departments, and these changes will make their presence felt over coming months. For those who have remained at their workplaces, managers have had to adapt to ongoing changing/fluctuating restrictions and help their employees through these changes.

The concepts of physical and mental health overlap significantly. When employees feel that their physical environment is safe, their job is safe; then it is easier for them to feel emotionally safe and remain productive. While we can’t guarantee how safe anyone’s employment is, we can provide a calm, caring presence for our employees, and encourage them to take steps to look after themselves within the workplace and at home.

Encouraging (and role-modelling!) self-care is not only a kind and ethical approach to leading our people. It increases self-esteem and productivity by giving employees a sense of autonomy and control, and the effects carry across to home life.

Working hard is admirable – and setting a realistic boundary is as well. As the economy and the collective soul of the country recovers, I’m aiming for balancing constructive work with exercise, closing the laptop at a decent hour, and connecting with family and friends. At AccessEAP, these are discussions that leaders frequently have with their teams: our KPI discussions now include talking about mental health and wellbeing as well as outcomes and results.

The pandemic has forced us to look more closely at the way we work particularly in terms of team and people interactions and dynamics. The way that our teams function is crucial to our workplace culture and productivity. If your organisation adopts an approach of creating teams based on aptitude, skills and diversity it can create endless potential but also a natural breeding ground for differences in approach and opinions, and if this isn’t acknowledged, it could lead to potential conflict. 

From time to time we all encounter situations where we dislike a person’s behaviour and we feel we need to say something. It may be that your job requires you to have these conversations with people on a regular basis. A common myth is that raising the issue might make things worse, however, a carefully constructed conversation might save things from getting worse.

Constructive Conversations Training

To arrange a training session for your organisation, please speak to your Relationship Manager.

Here are some tips for initiating a potentially difficult conversation:

Communication has been a major theme over the past year and indeed every year for us at AccessEAP. Our Wellbeing in Focus Calendar dedicates a month and often a quarter to the theme each year. Anything on courageous, difficult or constructive conversations is very well received, and the feedback we get from our customers is that you are looking for more. A major part of communication is listening. We spend a lot of time talking about listening, and how important it is to demonstrate active listening, how important it is to “be heard”. Listening is a crucial part of what happens when you ask “R U OK?” or invest in diversity in your teams. Being present, having empathy and risking missing out by putting down your phone and giving someone your undivided attention, is easier said than done. Yet it is fundamental in gaining understanding, having meaningful conversations and establishing or nurturing connection. It is a skill that few truly do well, but when we find a good listener, they are often a very valuable person in our lives.

If we are good listeners, how do we do it? If we are poor listeners, how do we improve? If we are somewhere in between, can we do better?

Listening is so much more than just hearing, or waiting your turn to speak (without interrupting), it is an active skill and as a leader, you become highly attuned to your people and where they are at. Practice active listening by paying attention, asking questions and taking in behaviours as well as what is being said out loud.

Our Leader Tool focuses on ways to improve your listening skills and why its such an essential part of being a good leader. Our Personal Tool covers good listening skills and how listening skills can help parents. Find our wide range of Leader Tools and Personal Tools, in the Employer and Employee Login Areas of our website. Reach out to here at AccessEAP. As always, our people are here to help support you and your people be their best in life and work.

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LT

The beginning of the year may have felt a little different this year. By now, most of your people are back in their workspaces and in the swing of things. We have encouraged our people and teams to take some time to reflect on the year that was and the year ahead, and do the thinking and planning that can sometimes be hard to find in the day to day rush of work. It can be hard to feel confident in a plan that is so susceptible to what’s happening around us in the pandemic. As a leader, how can you help your people and teams be nimble, agile, flexible, resilient and able to pivot through change in a way that fosters mental health and wellbeing?

We're turning our spotlight to continuing and committing to good wellbeing habits throughout the year. By now, many of those new year’s resolutions that have been made have already been discarded. We’ve put together some tips on how to reconnect with and ensure work and personal intentions can become good habits.

We already started (or continued) conversations about what our people want to focus on or achieve this year. We’ve encouraged taking the time to stop, pause, think, ask the right questions before doing the doing. It’s a practice that can help restore or support mental balance when things feel frenetic or out of our control. What it looks like for each person, or each team can differ greatly. As a leader, be mindful you work for your people, help them fulfil their aspirations, find what motivates them and so you can help focus on the things that matter to them.

We've created tools that focus on strategies that you could already be kicking goals with, just starting to talk about, or there may be ones that need a complete overhaul.  Whatever is the case, starting the year with a clear idea of where you want to go will help to set you and your people up for success. Find our wide range of Leader Tools and Personal Tools, in the Employer and Employee Login Areas of our website. Reach out to here at AccessEAP. As always, our people are here to help support you and your people be their best in life and work.

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Being our best in life and work can be thrilling, exciting and also at times incredibly challenging. Those of your people who have or care for children will have experienced a different side of the pandemic and witnessed the impact it had on kids and teenagers. An important part of any employee experience is how their organisation recognises and supports their family responsibilities outside of the workplace. We saw for the first-time large scale online learning in our schools, with many parents and carers adding a new role as teacher in the home.

Our clinical team, and more broadly mental health experts of all types, predict that we will be dealing with the mental health and wellbeing impacts on children and teenagers for years to come with anxiety as a leading issue impacting kids. It's important to state upfront that kid and teen mental health is best approached through a system or network of support. This includes clinicians, parents, schools and support organisations. Your organisation, and how you support your people, can play a positive role to support your people and their children's and teen's mental health. 

We've created new tools that address how leaders can better support those people in their teams and organisations with kids and teenagers and for those with kids and teens some tips on supporting their mental health and wellbeing. EAP is a great way to truly support your people to be their best in life and work, and help you bring your employee experience to life. Find our wide range of Leader Tools and Personal Tools, in the Employer and Employee Login Areas of our website. Reach out to here at AccessEAP on 1800 818 728. As always, our people are here to help support you and your people be their best in life and work.

Published in The Uncommon League 19th January 2021

Burnout has often been associated with caring professions (such as nurses) and first responders (such as firefighters), says Marcela Slepica, clinical services director at employee assistance program AccessEAP. But it certainly isn't restricted to jobs that involve saving lives.

Any environment can become a burnout incubator. And often, managers play a role in creating the perfect setting for employee stress.

One of our internal Wellbeing Initiatives is the G.L.A.D. challenge. An opportunity to do something for each other to actively recognise how much time we spend at work and with our colleagues. Using an adapted version of Donald Altman’s G.L.A.D. technique from The Mindfulness Toolbox, we ask everyone to participate and write a G.L.A.D message for their assigned colleague.

How does it work?

• You will need a list of names for those that are participating. This can be an organisation wide initiative or just a team activity depending on the size of your organisation.
• Allocate everyone a person; this can be random or just split into pairs.
• Email everyone their designated person with instructions asking them to fill in the G.L.A.D. message. Whether they pick one letter or all of them.

Grateful- One thing you are grateful for

Learned- One thing the person has taught you

Appreciate-One thing that you appreciate about this person

Workplace culture has changed since the days where people started work, did what the manager told them to do and 'logged off". Today, workplaces need to engage and motivate their employees by understanding what employees need from their work. We know employees want to grow, want to be valued, involved, and to feel part of the organisation.

Each generation may have differing needs and not factoring in employees’ values, needs and expectations leads to strong emotions at work which can lead to decreased productivity. Engagement is key to a mentally healthy and productive workplace culture – organisations need emotionally intelligent leaders who know how to respond in a way that facilitates positive workplace behaviour.

What do we unwittingly do that creates negative/positive emotion?

Insight and awareness around the impact of behaviour on others is a skill that can be learned and developed – paying attention to body language and others’ reactions is key. It’s important that you choose your moment to seek feedback or deliver information.

Are negative emotions in the workplace bad?

There is no doubt that COVID-19 has had a wide-ranging impact on all of us. We know that one thing that Australians often worry about is their financial situation. Many of us may experience financial stress as a result of physical distancing requirements and the impact this has had on employers and jobs. It is perfectly normal to worry about our financial situation, even in the best of times, as we try and provide a good life for ourselves and our loved ones. With so much uncertainty across a number of industries and employers, and if our partners or loved ones have lost their jobs, financial related stress may be a key concern for many.

Employers can play a role in helping their employees cope with financial related stress by recognising the impact it can have on different groups in the workplace. It is important to recognise that there are many varied reasons for financial stress. For example, our aging workforce is facing many challenges, including their fear of entering retirement, paying for their children’s higher education and moving their parents into nursing homes. On the other hand, millennials are facing economic instability, crushing student debt, stagnant wages and looming uncertainty about the future.

How individual employees handle financial stress varies greatly. Employers should aim to reduce the impact that this type of stress can have at work in the form of presenteeism. Breaking down and understanding the underlying issues can be the key to helping employees become more resilient.

Here are some basic tips on reducing finance-related stress:

1) Learn to budget: If your financial situation is causing you stress, it’s vital to create a budget. Record all income and expenditure and know exactly what you spend on non-essential items. Be critical of what you are spending and cut down on any unessential items if necessary.