This year’s theme for the Business Leaders’ Breakfast was, ‘The critical impact of organisational culture on workplace mental health’. Karen Maher, the founder of SmartCulture was the keynote speaker.
Karen is a leading Australian work health and safety consultant and keynote speaker specialising in enhancing workplace cultures and the reduction of psychosocial risks and hazards. Her experience spans over 20 years, as an employment and safety lawyer in Australia and the UK, which includes working as a work health and safety consultant, investigator, trainer, and keynote speaker.
The breakfast seminar highlighted the importance of Mental Health in the workplace. It emphasised the rising impact of mental health conditions in the workplace, citing statistics from Workers’ Compensation Trends and Challenges. With mental health conditions accounting for a significant portion of workers’ compensation claims, most claims were linked to mental stress caused by work-related harassment, workplace bullying, and work pressure. These conditions result in more compensation claims and lead to higher costs and longer absences from work.
Return-to-work recovery paths are longer for mental health conditions with only 42% of injured workers, compared to 72% of physical injured workers returning to work by 26 weeks (FY2022/23). The return-to-work rate for mental health condition claims is also significantly lower than for all injuries.
With the ever-increasing focus on workplace psychosocial safety and mental health, it has never been more important for organisational leaders to keep their workers mentally healthy and safe. Creating and maintaining a strong workplace culture is critical to this process.
Establishing a mentally healthy and safe workplace culture does not happen by magic, it takes effort, authenticity and most importantly, great leadership.
Guidance materials are available on the Victorian Worksafe website. https://www.worksafe.vic.gov.au/mental-health