Given that Australians spend up to one-third of adult life at work, cultivating wellness in the workplace is a critical practice to undertake. At RA Tas, there is a strong focus on wellbeing – embedded in our culture and acknowledged across the organisation.
The correlation between having a healthy team and a thriving and successful working environment is well understood, hence the establishment of a dedicated RA Tas Health and Wellbeing Group.
The Workplace Health & Wellbeing Group leads and champions wellbeing across RA Tas, developing and implementing initiatives that seek to inform and empower staff to adopt wellbeing practices in the workplace.
The Wellbeing Group works to five key focus areas – which inform the actions and initiatives of the group. The five focus areas are nutrition, physical health, sedentary behaviour, social and emotional wellbeing, and lifestyle and environment.
The past year has seen the Health & Wellbeing Group re-invigorated, with a state-wide increase in members and the establishment of a new Health & Wellbeing Action Plan.
The newly formed group of wellbeing champions have brought fresh ideas and perspective to the program. Notable projects undertaken and completed are the creation of a dedicated wellbeing page on the staff intranet – linking staff to health and wellbeing resources – the implementation of QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) Gatekeeper Training and the development of the RA Tas Suicide Prevention Community Action Plan (CAP).
The RA Tas CAP supports the objectives under focus-area three; social and emotional wellbeing. The group objective is for all employees to have access to support and resources to promote individual wellbeing – encompassing mental and emotional health.
The CAP is embedded in the overarching Workplace Health and Safety Policy and Wellbeing Action Plan. As representatives of all staff, the Wellbeing Group continues to work to support the implementation and embedding of the CAP across the organisation.
At its core, the Wellbeing Group strives to create an impact that reaches far beyond the individual or workplace. When wellbeing is achieved at an individual level it has an expanding influence. At RA Tas, we understand that we are also people in our communities – we are siblings, parents, neighbours and friends – how we show up at work is often a reflection of how we show up elsewhere in our lives.
If we can ensure our workplaces are healthy, then, by extension we can help make our communities, and the relationships we have within these groups, healthier too.
We need to look after the people who work with us because the biggest rewards are when employees feel good about their jobs and can fulfil their highest potential. – Kristy Brown, Director People & Culture, Chair Health & Wellbeing Champions Group