We now recognise that measuring resilience is as important (if not more) as measuring engagement.”
– Treesan Boonma, Regional HR Manager
Beating Burnout at Booking.com in APAC
New WHO guidelines on workplace mental health
An exciting and important step forward in workplace mental health with the World Health Organisation’s new guidelines. These guidelines promote an integrated and systemic approach to mental health at work with 3 levels of intervention; Prevent, protect and promote, and support. Its great to see the strong focus on the need to take a systemic approach through taking action at both the employee and employer level, with psychosocial risk management as a key strategy for organisations – something that has been a core part of the psychological research into workplace stress for decades now.
What does this mean for organisations?
If you’re looking to implement a workplace mental health initiative, the guidelines suggest;
- Investing in a programme that provides data insight into the root causes of stress and poor mental health so that these can be addressed or mitigated. Its much better (and more cost effective) to protect people from psychological harm in the first place than dealing with the consequences and providing reactive support
- Involve employees in action planning and implementation around how to create healthier workplaces e.g. get them involved in designing team protocols, role design, goal setting
- Provide individuals with the awareness and skills to manage stress and promote positive mental health using a psychological, behavioural or social approach. For example, a credible tool to help them recognise the need to take action, unhealthy habits or thinking styles and help them pinpoint practical steps for improvement.
- Interventions can include activities directed at teams, recognising the diverse nature of challenges faced and need for a localised approach
- Managers should be trained in how to support their employees’ mental health, developing the knowledge, attitudes and behaviours to do so effectively
More information
You can download the joint WHO/ILO policy brief here.
The full guidelines are available here.
Get in touch for a chat to understand how to implement a practical and impactful programme in your organisation.
Launch of AURA 2.1
Following the launch of AURA in 2015, it has been used very successfully in many organisations to gain data-driven insights into stress and implement focused remedies to build both collective and individual resilience. By pinpointing hotspots and shining a light on issues impeding resilience, which tend to go unrecognised, it has provided a confidential yet practical channel for taking action and led to real improvement in both the short and long term.
… Read More»Feeling burned out? This is for you…
Resilience retreat Oct 2021 by Austen Advisory
Click through the brochure above for full details
Feeling burned out? In need of a proper break to recharge the batteries? Want to learn some practical tools to navigate upcoming stresses and challenges?
Psychologist & resilience specialist, Rachel Austen has teamed up with a yoga teacher and wellbeing coach to run a resilience retreat in Snowdonia, Wales.
… Read More»Accelerating the growth of future global leaders of a leading international bank
“I have been on many leadership programmes and this was by far the most valuable development process I have ever gone through. I found it extremely thought provoking and had a very positive experience! My report was extremely insightful and a very accurate reflection of me. I have already started applying some of the insights to help handle a challenging situation I am currently facing.”
– Country CEO
… Read More»COVID-19 WORKPLACE STRESS ON THE RISE – WHAT CAN LEADERS DO?
I was honoured to be featured by Profile Asia as a guest blogger, sharing my insights on this topic and drawing on their recent survey data which revealed 45% employees feel leaders’ response has amplified their stress levels.
In the blog post, I consider the business case for tackling stress and share some practical actions that companies can take.
Collaboration with PWC – Listen to our webinar on taking action on stress and building resilience
Austen Advisory were delighted to partner with PWC’s Sean Maywood on a webinar for The Whitehall & Industry Group. Listen to the recording of our interactive webinar where we explored:
- A shared understanding of what we all mean by resilience and why it is so important
- Drawing on a case study at PwC, the types of resilience initiatives other organisations are putting in place and how you can implement them in your own organisation
- How companies can use scientific measurement tools to take focused action on the degree of stress and build resilience
Road to Resilience – taster workshop
Feel like you need a little help building the reserves needed to not only survive, but thrive, through difficult times?… Read More»
We’re here to help through COVID-19…
Is your organisation equipped to adapt positively to the COVID-19 outbreak?
At Austen Advisory, we draw on years of experience of helping organisations across the world build resilience. In response to the global pandemic, we aspire to help businesses and their people transition from a surviving to a thriving state as quickly as possible. To that end, here are 4 of our solutions that are aimed at evaluating, building, growing and developing employees.
Stressed? Help should be at hand…
It should be part of the normal management system of most organisations much as reward or health and safety are today. Sadly and misguidedly, identifying stress and building resilience is a rare topic in many boardrooms and is often only dealt with in an ad-hoc and inconsistent way after a crisis has happened. Many managements now need to exercise their proper duty of care for the mental health and wellbeing of their employees particularly with regards to identifying and quantifying the level of stress they are under and their levels of resilience to handle it.… Read More»