The Roadmap Planner

Healthy Heads has developed the Roadmap Planner to aid better understanding of psychological health and safety, and to assist businesses of all sizes in transport, warehousing, and logistics to establish a Workplace Wellbeing Plan to help meet their work health and safety (WHS) duty of care. The Roadmap Planner is built upon the Seven Workplace Strategies outlined in the National Mental Health & Wellbeing Roadmap. By implementing these seven strategies, organisations can create their own Plan to protect and support their employees.

Access the Planner here: Build a Workplace Wellbeing Plan – Healthy Heads in Trucks & Sheds

Through the Healthy Heads newsletter, we will be featuring each of the Seven Workplace Strategies. The first in the feature series is 1. Build leadership capability.

Workplace strategy 1 – Build leadership capability

Most leaders don’t have the qualifications to address an employee’s psychological or emotional issues themselves, and it is not appropriate to try and do so. However, leaders, managers, supervisors, and business owners are in a position of influence when it comes to how safe people feel about speaking up about mental ill health or workplace concerns. Leaders have a role in normalising workplace discussions about mental health and other hazards in the workplace that might affect someone’s mental health. These hazards are called psychosocial hazards.

Whether you’re a leader of a small business or a large company, or you are a team leader, you are in a position to help create a culture where employees are empowered to care for their own mental health. As leaders you set the standard and employees will often take their behavioral cues from you. If you show that you are serious about your own health and you prioritise maintaining psychologically safe work practices, others will follow. This might include actions like ensuring you take allocated breaks and use these to recharge properly, rest, walk or stretch and have a healthy snack and stay hydrated. Other examples include taking leave if you are unwell, developing good social connections in the workplace and regularly checking-in with employees, which can be as simple as asking ‘How are you going today?”.

Leaders can also ensure the workplace is a psychologically safe and thriving place by promoting awareness and understanding of mental health.

So where do you start?

Try these as your first steps:

1. Read the seven stories in the Healthy Heads Planner
2. Hold a team or leadership meeting where you introduce Healthy Heads and the industry-specific resources we offer (our Toolbox Talks might be useful)
3. After this meeting share the Healthy Heads People Leader Handbook with your people leaders
4. Book in to attend a mental health training course yourself or think about who in your leadership team should attend a course. Healthy Heads has worked with Lifeline, Black Dog Institute, Mental Health First Aid Australia and AP Psychology & Consulting Services to tailor their evidence based courses to our industry, these are listed here.
5. Set a date to run an event for all your employees to attend. Your first awareness raising event might be R U OK? in Trucks & Sheds (14 May 2024). See our website for workplace resources including a Workplace Guide, Conversation Guide, social tiles, posters, real stories and more.

By completing these first steps you are well on the way to applying some of the elements within the Seven Workplace Strategies. If you would like further information on our Roadmap Planner please reach out to our Director, Industry Relations and Program Management, Melissa Weller on [email protected]