Health & Wellbeing Series - Session 7: Maintaining a Healthy Workplace During Change

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e
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morea everyone we'll just give it another minute um and then we'll kick off
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morning everybody um pardon me welcome to uh our seventh installment in the um
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wellbeing series um we are very fortunate to um welcome back Lieutenant
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Colonel Alana Stone to take us through um that seventh webinar which is going
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to be on maintaining a healthy workplace during change obviously that's something that we're going through at present and
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will continue into the new year so it's really really um useful to um explore
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this topic and work through potentially how we actually go about maintaining our
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own health and also the the health of those around us in the workplace so um just a reminder that
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we're using the question and answer function during this webinar and also that we we welcome those questions and
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um if you could please um send those through as as they come to mind and we will address them uh at the end of the
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webinar if there's sufficient time if not we will come back with some um some
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answers to those questions so um welcome again Alana and if I can just please
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hand over to you aome C Frank thank you for the introduction so
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um so M everyone um it's really fabulous to be here with you this morning I'm sort of beaming into a screen near you
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and I think I've pretty much got the hang of talking across the sort of ether um I see some some faces um so hello and
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welcome um and some pictures of cats which is fabulous um I am calling in I
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guess or in in from my um uh home office or just downstairs in our in our living
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room um and I have tried to um keep my two Fury family members out of out of
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the way but um hopefully we won't get too distracted by them if they bark um in the background so I don't have I in
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advance if that does happen um yeah so a warm welcome everyone um I guess who's joining us here today from across the
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Four Winds the different places that we work in and spaces um it's great to be here and I hope everyone is um is
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hanging on in there I'm pretty surprised it's December already um it feels like a very rapid Ascension towards the end of
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the year and I sort of feel like I've lost um October and November in there somehow but anyway um I hope that we are
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at a good place settled in and looking forward to I guess the next sort of um hour together today um so for those of
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you I haven't met before my name is Elana Stone a proud member of the New Zealand Defense Force usually dusted in
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a little bit of green but taking the opportunity to come Branch out and wear a bit of yellow today um and yeah I'm
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based in the Wellington region and have been in the New Zealand Army now as a psychologist for about n years which
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sort of shows my age a we bit um but proudly taken the Helm of uh the
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director of New Zealand defense for psychology uh about this time last year um so for those that don't know too
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much about the psychology directorate within defense we cover a wide range of sort of brief interventions across um
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sort of areas like like psychological support to operations um critical incidence resilience performance uh and
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and well-being um as well as a range of interal assessments and selection activities um across the Defense Force
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so we have a directorate of about 40 with about 35 psychologists um across the M two and three services in our
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civil staff as well um yes so really pleased to be here again um supporting this initiative um you know focused on
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the well-being of our people which you know unsurprisingly um and of No Doubt is
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quite a challenging time for defense and and all members of Defense Force as well so um before getting into things um
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yeah just a shout out again to Wendy and Frank for supporting everything in the background and facilitating the series
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and um we'll be kind of running point on the it magic today um that is not my uh
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strength at all so um hopefully they're there to work magic if um if anything happens in the background but um yeah
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please use the Q&A function as we go through um and and yeah if we don't get
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to any of the questions There's an opportunity to kind of um pop your questions in the Q&A and I'll get back
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to them after our presentation today Al righty so I think that's all I
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have to do um as as the sort of opening I guess um so we'll kick into
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things so within our Defense Force whilst we can sort of conceptualize our workplace at the broadest level as as a
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Defense Force as a whole within that we are quite diverse organization and which um our daily workplaces all look quite
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different uh different trades different roles different workspaces contexts in which we might operate uh within that
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and um and and how that looks on a day-to-day basis can be quite different as well so what matters I guess is the
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environment created in those work in each of those different workplaces that enables us to show up in an authentic
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way and bring our full selves to the work that we're doing um in a way that feels supported and nurtured as we Face
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the demands and challenges of the work that we do all the demands and challenges of things that might be going
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on around us so that's kind of what we're going to spend a bit of time on today and so I hope I've taken this presentation in the
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right sort of Direction um so I'm I'm quite I was quite Keen to sort of cover a couple of models in particular about
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um you know what what can we do to kind of put protective factors into the workplace essentially while we're
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navigating these periods of sort of change and increase in demand um so
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we'll we'll see how we get on with with the with the flow of of sort of content um and and there'll be a portion coming
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up where I'll encourage you you know if you've got a pen and paper you know to even write down some of the you know answers or Reflections about you know
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what does this stuff look like for for me in my wepl do I see this do I not see this you know and um as we go sort of
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through um yeah so um I guess the first sort of question you know putting it out
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there is you know what what is a healthy workplace um and and so you probably can
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conjure up a few different sort of um thoughts or images when you think about you know what does what does a healthy
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workplace look like for me and that might be quite different for for most people um in terms of what what matters
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to you you know what matters for you showing up um you know in your Reflections as a leader as well you know
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what's important to me to make sure that I'm kind of protecting or emulating in in the teams that I lead um as a basis
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to to essentially a definition from the World Health organization um the
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description here just sort of aligns between a collaboration so some kind of relationship between workers and
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managers where there's continual Improvement to sort of protect and promote health safety and well-being of
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workers and sustainability of the workplace so that's kind of a nice sort of um you know uh textbook definition of
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what you know a healthy workplace is supposed to look like but can be quite Broad and quite vague and so I've I
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thought that this little model I just put one more thing um this little model might be quite useful it's it's quite a
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simplistic model um called the jobs demands resource model so it's a theoretical framework that was um
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introduced I guess I think it was like the early 2000s um we're kind of has a look at well you know what how do we get
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balance how do we get this kind of concept of what's healthy in the workplace and um and and this model sort
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of looks at um you know job demands on one side and resources on the other and
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essentially a healthy workplace is the sort of navigation of of balance of of them between so job um demands are
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aspects of a job that require physical psychological um or emotional effort from people um and they can be stressful
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they can be depleting of our um you know of our resources and can potentially lead to things like burnout uh reduce
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well-being um Etc if they do exceed an individual's capacity to cope with those
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demands so some examples are things like um high workload time pressure um
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emotional demands and Hazards as well in the workplace and so um we'll talk about
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hazards in a little bit more depth um soon but it can be both physical and um psychosocial psychological as well um so
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a high load or a tip in the job demand um side can lead to things like
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decreased job satisfaction low performance um absenteeism High turnover and a raft of other kind of you know
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undesirable outcomes as well as um you know Concepts around burnout as well and burnout is quite topical um at the
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moment so um yeah and and you know and prevalence so um so that's the kind of
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job demand sort of workplace Hazard side and um and on the other side we have sort of job resources so aspects of the
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job that help employeers achieve goals reduce the job demands or the impact of them um and stimulates personal growth
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development um and have a positive impact on motivation um well-being and
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performance so some examples of these sort of things uh and we'll talk to these in a bit more in a bit more depth
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but it can be things like social support you know autonomy at work opportunity for development you know good uh
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relationships with managers um per you know performance feedback a positive workplace culture and these resources
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can buffer their negative impacts of job demands um reduce stress and contribute to I guess the overall kind of um
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feeling of a positive workplace and so what we' striving essentially to achieve is the sort of balance um between
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between job demands and job resources at quite a simplistic um level so um that's
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kind of what we're going to focus our time on today um is having a look through this kind of concept of you know
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H you know we'll spend a bit of time first looking at you know what are what are workplace hazards or what are the job demands um and then we'll spend the
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rest of the presentation kind of focused on this other end here just so that we've got that sort of Distinction
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that was me being clever with sort of we're going to focus on that one right so when we think about workplace hazards
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it's quite um you know and particularly I'd say in the last five years there's
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been a little bit of a shift but prior to that the focus really was on sort of physical health and safety standards and
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regulations within a workplace and so we've got quite robust uh legislation that sits in the space um but there
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hadn't been quite enough or or or much sort of attention focus on sort of Psychosocial hazards or psychological
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hazards in the workplace so there's a much bigger increase and sort of awareness of this and actually obligations to um have things and and be
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able to detect when these um kind of things are occurring and also put strategies or or implementation of of
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sort of initiatives in place to manage the effect measure and manage the effect of psychological hazards so these are
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anything really that increases the work uh risk of work rated stress um and it can be physical mental emotional
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reaction that someone may experience when the demands of their of their work exceeds the ability to at um all
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resource to cope and here are some examples of what
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we are meaning by psych psychosocial risks and Hazards in the workplace so these can be a wide range of things but
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um Center on sort of a an element of support So a lack of support or poor relationships with co-workers so
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thinking about things like workplace civility or exposure to um bu and harassment conflict um role Clarity so
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there's quite a large portion that fit within the sort of role Clarity space so around you know potentially having
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unclear job expectations and conflicting roles and responsibilities potentially doing more than one job um at once um
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and organizational change which is something we'll touch on in a second as well so that can certainly be seen as a
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psychosocial risk and Hazard of the workplace place um and and other elements kind of center around yeah job
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demands and job control um and can be also exposure to um traumatic events or
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um uh potentially um you know objectionable material the content of the of the role that individuals might
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be completing or doing um could also have um you know TR trauma I guess
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exposure as part of that so these are just some examples of what makes psychosocial risks and Hazards in the
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workplace um and I want to sort of Center in on change so um for those that
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had attended um one of the earlier presentations that we did on um sort of
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managing I guess you know resilience uh during times of change uh I spent a bit of time sort of talking about change as
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a stressor and um and and why our brains react to that and so essentially it's
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kind of cruxs is that you know our brains are hardwired with a you know a a
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threat and reward response and essentially a change can be seen as something that sort of disrupts our
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brain's sense of control so we we do have a series of kind of you know physical emotional cognitive um
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behavioral sort of impact uh impacts uh in response to change and change is
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everywhere um and sometimes it's change that we do for ourselves and sometimes it's change that happens around us so um
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change and uncertainty can be viewed as a workplace Hazard especially if they're not managed well and there's a ser
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series of things that we can put in place to kind of help us maintain um healthy workplaces and um and our
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responses as we navigate through what is essentially this kind of vuka kind of context of
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change so um I guess that leaves us to you know what if we're in this situation
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where we've got change going on around as these these high job demands like what on Earth do we do because sometimes
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we can't just focus on you know turning things off as as easy as that concept sort of sounds sometimes so um so the
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rest of the presentation today we'll be talking about you know protective factors and things that we can do to
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create that sort of balance of the healthy workplace um so there's there's
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a body of work that had been done uh in Canada and um and this was by uh
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Canadian Mental Health commission and the Canadian standards Association and they and they put together some work
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that um focused on and research that focus on what are the protective factors or the
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factors that are prevalent in workplaces that are are deemed sort of healthy or that have good psychosocial health and
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safety in the workplace and there were sort of 13 factors that came out of that that you know organizations that are
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that are seen to be sort of psychologically or psychosocial health and um and safety as a as a as a
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priority and that are seemed to be psychologically safe and healthy you know what do they what do they have and
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it was these 13 factors that came up so um we're going to spend a bit of time going into um you know what what each of
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these factors are but um there was there's a model that I'd quite like to talk to as well um which is around um
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you know sorry I'm just fumbling around trying to push the right button um to
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maintaining healthy work places and it's called The Triple S model so since shield and support being the three S's
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and it ties and you most of you should be familiar with our mental health Continuum so it kind of goes from healthy at one end to Ill at the other
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end and it and it's around sort of mental health and the fact that we can oscillate between that and I think it's quite useful you know even when we think
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about team or organizational context where you know there might be moments where your team is you know functioning
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really well um and also sort of slipping in depending on the job demands and the stresses that are going on around us and
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and the sort of sense shield and support construct is around you know there's things that we can do kind of pick up or
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sense um you know actions that identify when um things might be you know
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exceeding kind of normal job demand um and and shielding against them when people or teams might be struggling or
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kind of um exposed or or or um under a lot of sort of job demand and and and
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exposure to uh sort of workplace hazards and then what support could we put in place if if things aren't going so well
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so um as we go through so it's just a useful kind of barometer I think um for
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having a think about um maintaining healthy workplaces and we're going to um sort of look at each of those 13
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psychosocial factors with this kind of model of sense shield and support overlaid um across
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it so back to the 13 factors so we're going to move move through each of these
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um and what I would encourage you to do is to have a think you know do I see this in my workplace do I have this in
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my workplace um and what does that mean to me is how important is this particular factor for me so um it's
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sometimes useful just I think um and the slides will be made available so you can go back um because I think too um this
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could be a useful activity to do um as a team and often if we were kind of um you know engaging in workplaces where um you
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know well-being and and sort of you know High job demands or or there was something going on we might sort of
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apply this kind of model where we would come in and have a look at each of these sort of 13 factors um what are some
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things that workplaces can kind of do to um to navigate and promote these things
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occurring so the first one that we have is psychological and social support um so this is really around you know the
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support structures the available psychological and social support um opportunities that workplaces present
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and when when this is going well um and workers feel supported um there's
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increase in satisfaction uh there's good healthy attachment to work and workplace there's good um you know organizational
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commitment and people feel involved and performance is high and when it's not uh going well and there's no sense of sort
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of support and connection or that psychological safety in a workplace there's absenteeism withdrawal there can
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be conflict uh turnover um you know people aren't as productive and there can be an increase in accidents in the
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workplace so uh that kind of gives you a bit of a guide of you know when it's when it's going well this is what it can
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look like and when it's not uh these are the things that can kind of pop up within a workplace so the questions
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under using the sense uh The Shield sense and support model really around you know asking yourself um or
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potentially asking you know if you're a leader asking yourself you know um what makes me feel supported at work or what
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is the current level of support in my unit so if things are um you know going
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uh going well you know what what support Avenues do I have um you know who can I rely on do I feel connected and
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supported by my manager and one up um and uh you know what if you are asking
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that as a leader um you know what what do we do or how do we show that we care about the well-being of our
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staff um so just uh yeah I think I'll leave it there not so support um what
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helps improve the situation when you don't feel supported so what access and avenues do you have to kind of um reach
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into resources uh within the organization when things aren't going well and what do I do you know how do I
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respond as a leader when people don't feel
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supported right the next one is um and these are all like real Heavy Hitters right so they're not sort of easy
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overnight Solutions I'm just going to throw this stuff out there um but these are the factors of healthy workplaces um
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and organizational cultures I'm sure many will be aware I mean this is a this is a big one and it's systemic and um
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and there's lots of uh lots of things that need to happen to sort of promote and generate um healthy organizational
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culture um but I I'll just sort of caveat these um with there's no singular
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sort of thing that you need to do um but it's sort of a presence of this kind of construct or concept that will go
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through um and there'll be lots of little actions in between that you can do to kind of generate um you know the
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the the sort of presence of these factors in the workplace um so
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organization culture um so positive organizational culture shares um you know is when we um have a clear
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understanding of um you know what values are important what matters um to to
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people in the workplace that there's an alignment and and a um and and behaviors
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kind of demonstrate the values within an organizational culture um so when
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organizational culture is good there's accountability there's trust um values
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are sort of demonstrated there seen and it seen to be quite a positive environment and when it's not going well
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it's yeah sort of the the opposite of that clearly so um when we're thinking about you know shielding so you know
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what what does what's important for you uh to feel connected and respected at work what what's important to you when
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you're thinking about you know the culture or the type of workplace that you want to you know that you want to work in um and and as part of it you
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know either as a team or a leader asking yourself you know what are our values um some workplaces will you know if you
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rolled up in with Defense Force we have our nzdf values but a lot of workplaces will have you know principles which
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might guide their practice um or or sort of um subset sort of uh values for
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workplaces that we try and kind of put all the things that we do against those values so how clear are they um you know
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articulated in your workplace so thinking about that um and and also um you know as a as
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a leader or someone working within a team um you what does a positive work environment look like for your work unit
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um you know and how do you respond if there's um you know behaviors or things that sort of um fall outside of that so
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some useful activities um you know in terms of um defining and um and
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developing organizational culture would be things like having um you know lots of workplaces might have visions or
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missions or they might have Team Charters that kind of describe or to put um you know what what's above the line
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and below the line of kind of a general sense of workplace culture um and
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there's a little bit of a difference between um you know culture and climate so climate being kind of the everyday
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sort of experience and lived experience of what organ organizational culture sort of shows up like um and often can
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be um a little hard to pin down because uh culture I guess as a construct can be
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you know filled with sort of Unwritten uh unspoken um you know rules or things
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that kind of happen as well so um cult can be quite tricky to change and slow to move um but it is not um it is it is
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not necessarily um static I guess so something that um yeah to reflect
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on um another really important factor um protective factor is clear leadership and expectation so knowing how um you
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know knowing what you need to do at work and how your work contributes uh to the team and also um that there's clear
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communication both ways of anything that might be going up you know on so you know regular updates staying in you know
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good clear communication and that there's you know clear Direction about what's important um if someone is um
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able to you know if someone raises a concern that um you know workloads too
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high or or job demands are are in access to the resources able to kind of manage
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or mitigate the impact you know clear leadership needs to kind of work way to
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uh to to be able to kind of reduce that strain or come up with a solution to be able to kind of um you know achieve
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achieve the balance so um when we have good clear leadership and expectations
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in a workplace we have high morale you know you have more resilience and individuals and teams there's a greater
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sense of trust there's well-being less sick days um you know more productive and then obviously on on the other side
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there's the opposite of those things there um so questions that you can ask
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kind of using the sense Shield support model uh um you know what can what you
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know am are there clear expectations of what's expected of me in my role um and
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as a leader or a manager of a team you could ask you know how do I um how do I increase role Clarity or meaning um for
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my team members you know how well do my um workers understand the roles that they're doing and how they contribute um
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to the broader organizational outputs um and if there's ever you know
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a sense of that sort of unclarity like how do I respond um you know and how do we kind of assure that there's a clarity
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about um you know expectations so clear leadership and
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expectations um Civility and respect so this I guess workplace civility is is
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describing a series of sort of behaviors and actions that um can be quite Insidious I guess um when when it's in
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civility so they can be quite subtle but it's sort of around that um engagement and social interactions with people
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within the workplace so um having Civility and respect um means that you know all staff are considerate and fear
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and the interactions with others um and when it's good uh we have respect in the workplace there's appropriate sort of
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conflict management there fair treatment of of team members and when it's not um going well uh you'll see an increase in
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um kind Cas emotional exhaustion it can lead to things like burnout as well um
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there'll be unresolved conflict in the work Place higher turnover and possibility of sort of Grievances and
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complaints as well um so using the sense Shield support model um there's some
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things in there you can do to kind of reflect on um you know how do I um you know if you're thinking about this
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yourself um you know do I feel included um or recognized at work you know how do
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I feel that those relationships around me are um and where do I go when what do
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I do what actions can I take when I don't feel included or recognized in the workplace
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um the next one is psychological competencies and demands and so this is really about um making you know um the
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balance of people being matched right role right job um so you know how the interest skills and emotional capability
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of workers match the demands of the role so um this might be um you know signaling potentially if it's not going
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well um you know extra training that might be needed to um improve improve or sustain performance um it could be uh
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you know that people have taken a knock for for whatever reason so what can we do to kind of restore a sense of
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confidence in the work in the work that you're doing um you know and how well do interests and values align with um the
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role that you're doing um now so when it's going really well um the the
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research sort of suggest that there's better health of workers there's greater selfefficacy higher performance and
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satisfaction and we retain people in in roles and when it's not going well um there's higher turnover there's more
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signs of um mental ill health and distress um people can um report higher
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defensiveness of their work or defensiveness of um of uh yeah
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defensiveness and interactions and they can be higher workplace conflict as well so having a think about
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psychological competencies and demands like do I have enough and the right training for the role that I'm
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fulfilling um growth and velopment so it can be quite this particular factor I think um can be easy to be forgotten
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under times of change uh when you know that there might be so much focus on sort of you know getting through or or
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just doing the job that I've that I've got to get underway and and sort of forgetting to kind of keep focused on
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you know um how am I growing and how am I developing what does my career look like um and you know how am I kind of
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continually improving so this is um something that's really important I think for leaders to kind of be mindful
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of and also for you know as a good stock take question for yourself as well around you know how do I um you know
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what what development have I been able to to get after how do I want to grow in my career um what goals do I have so um
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the PDR process is one way of um being able to achieve that but simply being able to sit down and think about um you
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know what what are my what are my values um you know and how am I achieving it and how am I building the work you know
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that I'm doing is that building um towards achieving or or in line with those values um so it's really important to
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keep a finger I guess on the pulse of um development and um growth opportunities
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um even in periods of
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change uh recognition and reward so particularly under times of change um I
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again you know having appropriate acknowledgement and um and recognition uh for people and the work that they're
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doing and can be either um you know formal or informal and it's it's
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sometimes um you know might depend on the work you know people around you or or how people like to be recognized for
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work but it is really important to keep up and and celebrate many Milestones it's important to um uh you know in an
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informal sense saying thank you might be all that it takes for someone to feel like they're doing a good job um for the
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things that they're doing but also um you know having opportunities to more formal recognize and and um you know
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reward uh you know high performance as well so having a think yourself you know
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how do I um encourage um yeah how does my workplace encourage and support
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development and how would I like to be kind of recognized or shown appreciation for the work that I do um and as a
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leader you know asking yourself like how how do they um you know how would they like to be recognized for the work that
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they do and what what matters to them um and showing appreciation um for the work
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that's been um delivered uh it is important I think again in times of sort of change and um you and high de job
32:06
demand it can be something that's easily sort of Forgotten or it tapers off and so it's important to kind of um yeah
32:13
keep a finger on the pulse of recognition and reward um the next one here is around
32:20
involvement and influence and so um this one is really around um you know roles that enable people to have a sense of
32:26
autonomy and an ability to influence the decisions that um impact their work and
32:32
be able to make decisions um meaningful decisions in the jobs that they're doing um so you know when it's going well and
32:39
people have a sense of being able to be involved in decisions that impact their work and also influence um uh workplace
32:47
decisions have higher morale um a greater sense of well-being uh Linked In
32:53
the research to being more creative and having um higher job satisfaction when it's not it can lead to um a sense of
33:00
helplessness um can lead to cynicism burnout um and you know not want not
33:05
know involvement or or kind of um what's the word I'm looking for but um you know actively kind of avoiding um or not
33:13
involving or participating in um Team activities or or contributions um so again I think you
33:20
know just using the S shield and support um concept you can ask yourself um as an individual you know how do I um
33:30
yeah how do I sort of um get myself and like how do I have opportunities in the workplace to show um influence and make
33:37
decisions um how do I increase um you know Comfort potentially if if that's
33:43
something you're not use you know you're not kind of actively doing you know how do I increase my sense of comfort with
33:48
being able to contribute um and be involved in decisions around me um and
33:54
uh for a leader you know how much imput in feed do you actually receive from your team so it's important to kind of
34:00
reflect on and how do I encourage kind of in input feedback and and choice uh
34:05
and decision making from my team um
34:11
yeah uh the next one is workload management so um this is around um you know what do we have in place to
34:18
actually effectively manage workload within um within work environment so um this is around sort of having clear
34:24
goals um having a sense of um the the right resources to do jobs well um and
34:31
so there's a series of sort of questions there I'm just getting a sense that this might not be um super useful reading
34:37
these slides out pretty much but for btim but uh if if you can think about
34:42
you know what things can I do um to to make sure that workload management um is
34:47
going well um and what things can I do um or how do I know when things aren't so what have I got in place uh to make
34:54
sure that as a individual um I'm able to notice um when I might be feeling overwhelmed or um when the the people
35:01
within my team um might not be um able to kind of manage the work that we're
35:06
requiring of people around them and what do we do uh when we um sort of sense that sort of
35:18
overwhelm um engagement so um teams that have uh High sort of um that are high
35:27
Psych iCal safety um within a workplace have um High engagement so they feel motivated connected and committed to the
35:34
role and their team members around them so asking yourself you know what would I like to do to kind of improve areas of
35:40
my job that don't bring me enjoyment and what aspects do I enjoy the most and what aspects do I not enjoy um and what
35:47
would help me kind of re-engage with my role or my team if things aren't going well um again as a leader you could um
35:54
ask how you could promote engagement and connection within your work place and how does your team talk about their you
36:00
know talk about their work what's the emotional undertone and that might give you an indication of um whether you need
36:05
to put a strategy in place um and as a leader also how do you respond when your
36:11
team members are frustrated or disengaged with their work so asking yourself those
36:18
questions um balance so um this one can be um pretty hard to achieve but there
36:24
there are definitely uh in some ways also think that it it sort of gives this
36:29
concept that you know that there'll be these moments of sort of chi where you're totally in in zone and in balance and and the reality is you know you
36:37
bring your whole self to work and and your whole self and your life has you know a whole bunch of stuff going on in
36:42
the background too so it's an ability to kind of um manage the demands that we
36:47
have which are often competing across all domains of our life um and and what do we do um you know how do we um engage
36:55
with those when we come to work and sort of able to kind of contribute in the workplace contribute in your family and
37:00
personal life as well um so when things are going well and people are sort of able to achieve their balance they're
37:06
feeling valued in the workplace there's reduced stress levels there's a higher sense of control um and there's higher
37:12
well-being and higher performance and when it's not going well uh that's that's kind of the space that we get
37:17
into with um you know that sense of overwhelm um and that can lead to things like a reduced capacity for
37:24
self-efficacy um High fatigue levels um people might check out uh and there
37:29
might not be a sense of sort of progressing um pieces of work or a disengagement with work and um in the
37:36
workplace so asking yourself across the sense shield and support model um what
37:41
can you do um to increase your ability to balance work and home life so there's often things that you know that
37:48
individuals can put in place and we covered some of the stuff in an earlier session around sort of you know managing
37:53
stress but there's a lot of things I guess within the work uh work context too that can help you achieve your
37:59
balance um of home and life and and navigate uh I guess options available
38:05
within the workplace so leaders have quite an influential role in this in terms of um promoting and enabling
38:11
access to factors of the workplace like flexible working for example that can help balance our
38:18
working um and so a good again in that sort of sense checking one so how how is
38:24
this looking for me what is it showing up like um so asking yourself what does it look like when I am successfully
38:30
managing um all of the different roles in my life um and uh and and um you know
38:37
what has worked previously when certain responsibilities require energy so if I'm tipping up um in the in the demands
38:44
of my personal life you know what can I do to kind of offset what that looks like and how I sharpen the other parts
38:50
of of um of my life so um balance
38:57
um psychological protection so this one is around um bullying harassment and discrimination so this one is um
39:04
obviously that environments are free from bullying harassment um and stigma
39:09
and discrimination um and so that people feel safe people feel psychologically safe to turn up to work to express
39:16
themselves uh free of um stigma or or um belittling or um feeling like they they
39:25
they can't trust the people around them so um you know in terms of being able to have a protection around this or
39:30
shielding from this what can I do to help myself and others feel comfortable at work as a leader um how can you get
39:37
to know your team members as people and build connections um you know since
39:43
checking for yourself you know am I feeling comfortable being myself at work um am I exposed to harassment bullying
39:49
and discrimination um and and as a leader flipping that asking you know what are some reasons that team members
39:55
might hold back their authentic self at work are there any barriers that might be in the way and what can we do to sort
40:01
of address those and if you know member of a team um you know indicates that
40:06
there's bullying harassments discrimination occurring in the workplace that those Avenues are correctly uh you know that it's
40:13
addressed and that they correctly sort of follows and how do I respond um to those situations and also how do you
40:19
pick up it kind of relates to that sort of Civility and respect but you know in civility what do I do and how do I
40:25
respond when I see or hear of another team disrespecting or disregarding others in the
40:35
workplace um and the last one there is protection of physical safety so workers are protected from injury and illness
40:41
and can do their job safely um so when it's good reduced to stress higher engagement when it's not there's
40:47
increases in injury and illness or there's disengagement um and people don't feel and secure at work so this is
40:53
just this is probably more yeah this is around this the physical safety and how is it prioritized at work is there a
40:59
work safety culture um how can you improve the physical preventative measures in your terms of work and how
41:05
do you respond uh you know when there is a you know an unsafe or a no Duff kind
41:10
of moment I guess um within a
41:18
workplace so I'm just going to go to um might have taken that slide out so um if
41:24
we go back to so the 13 psychosocial F factors um so those are things that are
41:30
if a healthy workplace um is present those are the those are 13 things that you'll see um being done well within a
41:37
workplace so it's quite good to go back I think and kind of reflect on you know how do these show up in my workplace you
41:44
know are they um are they present are there things that I could be doing are there things that I need to see that
41:50
these things are occurring for me within the workplace and as a leader um you know are there things that um I could be
41:56
doing promoting within the workplace to make sure that these are occurring um so it could be a good team activity to sit
42:03
down and do within your workplace um it could be something that you do individually um to have a reflect on you
42:09
know am I seeing these 13 objective factors in the
42:14
workplace um so essentially what we're trying to strive to do is to have the
42:19
sort of balance between job demands and resources which is where we get that sort of magic middle of the healthy um
42:26
healthy workplace and maintenance of healthy
42:33
workplaces so I guess there's a series of things that we can do as individuals
42:38
um in maintaining healthy workplaces um and and I wanted to kind of talk about a
42:44
couple of things here so there's things that individuals can do but actually the that there is so much importance placed
42:50
on the role of a leader or or a manager and being able to kind of facilitate and enable individuals to um to access ESS
42:57
and to have the space to do the things that promote healthy workplaces so um resilience positive wellbeing and
43:03
optimal optimal performance involve more than just an individual um so you know a
43:09
group of resilient individuals is not the only ingredient to making resilient team so I know there's um often a
43:15
temptation to kind of to go oh we need we know we need teams to be more resilient to kind of bounce back and and
43:21
sort of have that you know that balance between job demands and and job resources but actually um you know if if
43:29
it's in the context of of individuals and teams are in a context of an environment so we need to look at all
43:35
three levels which includes the environment as well and the and and the role of a leader plays such a vital role
43:40
in navigating the interactions between the team level and creating an environment conducive to well-being of
43:46
of teams and leaders so um so that's where I wanted to kind of spend some time talking about um next which was
43:53
around um you know things that we can do As Leaders to um to promote healthy M
44:01
and maintain healthy workplaces so I feel like I'm flying through the flying through the content um so looking back
44:11
um at uh the sense shield and support model um there are a series of actions
44:18
that leaders can do to Shield I guess and contribute to the maintenance of health and well-being in the workplace
44:25
so that's keeping the barometer at the healthy end of the spectrum and things that we can do to protect and promote our workplaces um you know drawing on
44:32
those 13 psychosocial um factors and preventative factors for a healthy
44:37
workplace so there's things like strengthening your team's sense of community and shared purpose so this is
44:43
really focused on um you know improving social connections within the workplace um there's the sharing of information
44:50
and providing clear expectations um encouraging individual growth and development um allowing for input and
44:57
decision making monitoring workload um checking in regularly and monitoring well-being um celebrating successes and
45:04
providing constructive feedback um identify and resolve problems early so when they happen that they're addressed
45:10
and that there's adequate recovery time too so there's um you know I think this is particularly sort of important at the
45:16
moment as we find ourselves in the last couple of weeks of um before most people start going on sort of leave is that
45:23
there's a temptation to sort of you know what I hear a lot of people talking about this kind of wind up before the
45:29
end of the year and there's a temptation to sort of jam those last couple of weeks getting everything done that's possible and you know I think you know
45:37
you need to have recovery time as well um in the things that we're doing and so you know what can be sort of moved what
45:42
what what is important to be achieving right now you know how do we kind of balance that even flow because you can't
45:48
expect to kind of operate at a at a high sort of tempo and level of performance for enduring periods of time uh you do
45:54
need to have those recovery periods in there um and I think the role of leaders too I
46:01
mean there's so much research out there even um you know if we're reflecting about the headp space app for example so
46:06
the mindfulness app um that defense had had a contract for um you know you need
46:12
to to be able to use it on a regular basis um but one of the most influential factors according to research around the
46:18
use of sort of well-being and resilience apps like head space is actually whether the manager um or or someone's leader is
46:26
promoting an advocating and encouraging the use and encouraging time and space to be able to do those activities in the
46:32
workplace so um really having a think about um you know emphasizing and encouraging use of mental skills um
46:39
training and um space to be able to kind of put supportive restorative practices in place in the
46:46
workplace um positive coaching behavior is really important as well so actually
46:51
making sure that we're connecting with our teams and and um finding out you know what what are their values what's
46:56
going on for them you know what things can be done to um going to help people kind of progress through um Pro you know
47:02
issues or challenges that might be popping up um in the workplace um yeah anticipating discussing challenges and
47:09
also um you know how do we kind of manage or plan for um Adverse Events so
47:15
things like um you know the work the period of change that defense for is
47:21
going through at the moment like how how you know thinking about how often are you connecting as a team to sit down and talk about you know how people are going
47:27
you know what's the impact um you know because people don't stay static people sort of EB and flow and and there's um
47:34
particularly as we kind of get towards the end of the year when there's an inrease in demands from all um aspects
47:39
of life um looking at the sense and sort of
47:47
a summary of the 13 psychosocial factors um there are series of actions that the
47:53
wrong button series of actions that we can do um as leaders and and team members and individuals so um this is to
47:59
detect shifts so um you know what do we how do I um get a get a finger on the
48:05
pulse I guess in terms of that sensing uh if things aren't going well for people um so encourage self- monitoring
48:12
and monitoring performance and so this might be something that you know you get your teams to or as an individual for
48:18
example you could um you know pop a calendar notification or a reminder to
48:24
ask yourself you know how many times have I stopped for break or or a lunch during the week um you know how how am I
48:30
going you might ask yourself you could even use um tar tapu far as a construct um I think from one of the previous
48:36
presentations around you know how how am I going how how am I um going you know
48:42
in terms of the four elements of um the defat typ of fire model so how's my physical health how's my spiritual
48:48
health how's my social health uh and how's my mental health going so asking those questions to yourself and and then
48:54
coming up with something that you could do um if if you feel like that's not going well um and also I guess you what
49:00
I was going to say originally um as a leader how am I you know how am I checking in um and monitoring my team um
49:07
it's really important to um to make sure that you're you know checking in with people and focusing on um you know
49:13
things or strategies that could be put in place um to help bounce back um
49:20
providing constructive feedback is important so keeping open communication channels um ensuring that recovery
49:25
period um um you know if there's setbacks experienced at work that there's assistance and there's some kind
49:30
of strategies put in place to kind of help the workload management as it's coming in um you know tell you I've
49:36
talked about the monitoring wellbeing um know where to go um and know where to kind of access support and resources
49:43
I've got a slide right at the end that sort of has some of our um you know available nzdf support um our main
49:50
support service in the health um website but you know there are other elements within the organization that we might be
49:56
able to tap into depending on what the issue is and we've had um you know quite a few presentations in the well-being
50:02
series around um you know physical health and well-being spiritual health um Family Health um and and Financial
50:10
Health too so all the different kind of elements that we have available to us in terms of um broader
50:16
support um so at times too when there's sort of changes um in the workplace
50:22
where there might be an increase in job demand sometimes the way in which um you know procedures or work might be carried
50:28
out will change so making sure that you know those are discussed and accounted for um and getting a sense of you know
50:34
what changes are impacting my workplace at the moment and and what what then do I need to do so it's about getting that
50:40
finger on on the pulse um yeah remain calm keep people informed so it's really
50:46
important to um you know to to to be sort of I guess planful in the approach of being able to stop take that stop
50:53
check or the climate pulse um and having to think about what what am I sensing what's going on that I might need to
51:00
change my approach
51:06
to um support so this is when things might not be going so well or you have identified you know through that sort of
51:12
sense check um you know that something might not be um going well so there's some things here um just to be mindful
51:19
of as as a leader and in maintaining healthy workplaces um is that you're
51:24
establishing um you know the the culture and a climate that sort of is is okay to
51:29
ask for help so people can ask for help when they're not um doing well and and and also that that might be kind of
51:35
indicative of um you know checking them with people within your workplace like is it do people feel safe to ask for
51:42
help um provide time for um appointments with their medical appointments time to
51:47
to sort of sort the other things out uh around the periphery that might be detracting um from an ability to kind of
51:53
um you know perform in all aspects of of work um and demonstrate that help
51:59
seeking is encouraged valued and expected to um and uh you know working
52:05
on those open communication channels uh with your members of your team um so that people yeah do sense I guess or or
52:12
facilitate a sense of trust um in in in the relationship with you um I think as
52:18
well also it's really important to remember that um not to just write individuals off so um you know as we've
52:24
kind of talked about in in previous Pres presentations and what it sort of suggests there is there's it's a sliding scale so people will um recover and
52:32
people do bounce back um they just you know they people will go through sort of periods of time where there's just a
52:37
little bit more needed or there's something that needs to be kind of put in place to help them or help people kind of bounce back to the healthy end
52:44
of our um sort of Continuum um yeah adjust communication
52:50
style so keeping it an open communication style and also manage unacceptable behaviors I think that's
52:55
really important of the concepts or some of the things that came up across some of the slides and the protective factors
53:01
is around um you know how do we how do we deal with things when they don't go well and what's the demonstrated actions
53:08
and behaviors from leaders when um you know the values aren't being adad to or
53:13
um workpl practi workplace practices aren't being followed um so it is really important to sort of manage unacceptable
53:20
behaviors and demonstrate their actions taken
53:28
so um I guess in a little bit of a summary um for maintaining a healthy
53:34
workplace during change um there are um you know a number of things that
53:40
individuals and teams can do to help create and maintain healthy workplaces
53:46
um the 13 psychosocial or protective factors of workplaces are a great place
53:52
to S up when you're thinking about you know what do I what do I expect of my workplace what do I see in my workplace
53:59
and as a leader or or someone that's managing a team you know how how how evident or pre present are these things
54:04
within the workplace and how are the behaviors or how are the things that I'm doing you know contributing to achieving
54:10
uh you know the presence of those 13 protective factors um I think it's important too to recognize the impact of
54:17
change within the workplace um change in itself inherently places more demands on
54:23
people even if um someone doesn't appear to be imp Ed by change or might not appear to have um uh yeah might not
54:31
appear to have any kind of adverse responses to change it it it kind of increases cognitive demand therefore
54:38
ability to kind of cope and and adapt and be resilient to other job demands can be reduced um and I I quite like the
54:45
sense Shield support model to think about um you know interacting in the workplace just both as an individual and
54:52
a leader and it's quite a useful tool to sit there and think about how am I how am I um you know protecting myself or or
55:00
or growing or developing or or um ensuring that this particular factor or
55:05
thing in my workplace is present and how am I sensing when it's not going well and what do I do when it doesn't go well
55:12
um so having a think through that sense Shield support construct I think can be quite helpful um you know when you're
55:18
thinking about maintaining um healthy positive relationship uh workplaces and relationships in
55:24
them um so so there's just uh the o800 nzd for you I'm I'm I'm kind of pro um
55:32
uh um what's the right word I'm looking for promoting or advertising the headspace mindfulness app at the moment
55:38
um we have this available to us until April um and so um PID for through
55:43
defense so you know I do encourage you to access um the headspace app um it can
55:49
be a really powerful um and science-based kind of initiative and tool to kind of help um personal
55:55
well-being and resilience um and then we have our defense Health websites as well um it is really important to remember
56:01
you can't pour from an empty cup so it's important to take care of yourself first um and that the same thing goes for
56:07
teams too I think there's only so much that um teams can kind of deliver and do when the demands are sort of weighing
56:14
down um and sort of draining draining people's cups so you know have a think about you know what are we doing in our
56:19
workplace to kind of offset uh the demands um and and change or going through a period of change as one of
56:25
those as well um yeah I raced through the content to get us here uh to 12 so I guess the time
56:34
now is for any um questions that people might have um yeah and I guess a bit of
56:40
an offer out there sorry before we kind of move into Q&A that um you know each of those 13 protective factors will have
56:47
a series of sort of things that we can do um to sort of increase um the
56:52
presence of that factor in the workplace and so there'll be a range of strategies or solutions that will fit uh you know
56:58
any workplace really um to help promote or generate that concept being seen so um absolutely happy to engage or um
57:06
discuss with anyone um offline or or through communication about you know how do I go about building that or how do I
57:12
go about sort of implementing that in my workplace yeah so I'll leave it I'll leave it at that um I know I talked
57:19
really fast thanks thanks very much Alana um I thought your point uh was very very
57:26
important one that the manager the leader has such an important role to play in ensuring there's time available
57:35
that they encourage people to um utilize the resources um we have heads space
57:41
until April um let's make use of it if people haven't already accessed it there
57:46
is a lot of resources available if if it just as a as a quick
57:52
question a leader obviously will notice when morale is low what what which of those factors do you
57:58
think they should be looking to first to try and maybe rebuild the well-being of
58:04
the team just try and boost it a little bit where would you go first so that's a
58:09
pretty good question and um I I'll draw on um maybe the first part of what youve
58:17
said um sometimes I think uh you know we'd like to assume or expect that most
58:23
leaders would have a good finger on the pulse and and be astute to picking up what's going on around around them and
58:30
and for a number of reasons that might not be the case maybe the leaders slammed doing you know several jobs or
58:35
or their demands are exceeding resources to cope and manage um or or maybe they're just not clued in or or um you
58:42
know could do some development and kind of picking up um on things around them um so I I do genuinely feel like one of
58:50
the best places to start is around that sort of um uh clear communication so
58:56
um whether that be through um psychological and social support so that people and
59:02
teams understand and know um what support resources are available and that
59:07
someone is there uh listening supportive willing welcome um you know to to engage
59:14
in um in in in Solutions or strategies or change um to kind of make the
59:20
workplace or the interaction between workplace job demands and resources kind of better aligned or balance so I I
59:26
really think that um to be honest that yeah for me it would probably be around that um that first one I think if you've
59:33
got that establishment of trust um and open communication with your team checking in and actually asking and and
59:40
and being really purposeful about doing that and and I think in in times of change like particularly with you know
59:46
what's going on if I can put it in the context of what's going on at the moment the defense you know when the when the
59:52
workforce um Savings Program was first sort of announced um you know most leaders should have had some kind of
59:58
discussion about what that meant for their teams and and and how people were going but doing that just the one time
1:00:04
isn't a fabulous strategy so you know people's to change in the background um
1:00:10
you know the resources get depleted so I really think kind of starting there and and doing that regularly um and also
1:00:17
making sure that there's um you know active promotion encouragement to seek help building that that kind of
1:00:23
established relationship then maybe the pathway for the other ones to be kind of done within a workplace so so that's my
1:00:31
opinion sorry longwinded answer to that no great great answer alen and I think it it talks to uh you know the trusting
1:00:38
relationship between a leader and and members ofd who report to them elen I'd like to
1:00:45
take the opportunity also to thank you very much for all of the work that you have put in you have done quite a lot of
1:00:51
heavy lifting to help us with the um with the wellbeing well-being series uh no fewer than three of these um
1:00:58
presentations to us so very grateful um on behalf of uh this this workstream of
1:01:04
supporting people through the through the changes that are coming with Workforce savings um it's it's not the
1:01:11
end of the webinars there will be uh webinars and other uh mechanisms of
1:01:16
support which are still being discussed at the moment um that will emerge in 2025 um we do have tentatively planned a
1:01:25
uh session running through careers hub for example for people but again Alana thank you very much for all of your
1:01:32
efforts uh and supporting us so thank you very much and I hope that you have some um some time set aside to uh refill
1:01:40
your cup over the Christmas New Year and and the same for everyone else as well so thank you very much thanks Elana J
1:01:48
thanks Frank and thank you everyone for tuning in and please feel free to reach out or touch base I know I whizzed
1:01:53
through a lot of that um a lot of that stuff so happy um yeah to help give pointers too for people that might want
1:01:59
to kind of run a little workshop with their teams um around kind of you know presence of those 13s protective factors
1:02:06
as well so thank you everyone and enjoy the rest of your day thanks Alana