Where Trust and Wellbeing Intersect
Over the past few months, we’ve been facilitating The Mind Games Leading Minds program, featuring conversations with corporate sponsors and special guests about health and wellbeing in the workplace.
During our preparation and research for the program, we uncovered that post-pandemic, organisations have struggled to adapt to new ways of working, which is contributing significantly to the growing stress of employees nationally.
In response, and with a focus on improving the health and wellbeing of our people, we decided to share our findings and three simple tips to grow wellbeing in your workplace.
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In 2024, we work more flexibly than ever - but workplaces are not adapting well to the change
We have been using technology to increase employee autonomy for a while now. For example, mobile phone usage has enabled individuals to be contacted outside the office; emails have enabled instantaneous sharing of large amounts of information direct to our personal computers; and wifi has meant we can go ‘online’ from almost anywhere. However, it wasn’t until COVID-19 caused widespread lock-down, that led to workplaces adopting truly flexible work arrangements.
Since this time, the number of people working from home in Australia has reached all-time highs, with twice as many people working flexibly in 2023, compared with 2019. Furthermore, research by Gartner indicates that many organisations intend to maintain remote work options into the future, with more and more employees adopting flexible work practices.
As we emerge on the other side of these new ways of working, it is evident that leaders are struggling to adapt:
Research has shown that despite increases to freedom enabled by mobile technology, people are feeling pressure and stress to be ‘always on’;
There is growing evidence that managers believe their staff are not productive when they work from home; and
In the past two years major firms have been pushing hard to bring back old ways of working, despite employee reluctance. For example, the Commonwealth Bank recently came under fire following an attempt to introduce mandatory days in the office.
At the heart of poor adaptation is a lack of trust
A new phenomena known as ‘Productivity Paranoia’ has seen Leaders question if their employees are being productive despite evidence of productivity increases. This perception gap has resulted in perverse behaviour from leaders. For example, workplaces have increasingly adopted surveillance technology to monitor the location and busy-ness of staff. While, in response to a lack of visibility, managers have been scheduling more meetings than ever before, putting pressure on people to be more seen.
Mounting performance pressure is making our people stressed
All of this added pressure lands with our people. They are increasingly being asked to do more, communicate more and to be more visible, to combat manager perceptions and manager anxiety.
We know employee stress is at record-high levels – a trend that has continued upwards for over a decade in Australia despite declining work-related injuries. These trends reinforce growing evidence that despite workplaces getting safer for our physical health, they are contributing more and more to our poor mental health[1][2].
The case for wellness
There are significant economic advantages to happy people.
It is widely reported that mentally unhealthy workplaces cost the Australian business community up to $39b annually due to lost participation and productivity. In 2020-21 across Australia, almost half a million people had a work-related injury or illness where over two thirds of people required time off.
Trust is a critical feature of thriving in the workplace, with research on trust at work identifying “employees in high-trust organisations are more productive, have more energy at work, collaborate better with their colleagues, and stay with their employers longer than people working at low-trust companies. They also suffer less chronic stress and are happier with their lives, fuelling stronger performance.”
So what should be done?
The Simple Nimble Thriving Framework recognises that, to achieve transformational performance from your people an organisation must embed key features so that a workplace is built for thriving, and to enable thriving in the workplace.
A workplace built for thriving maintains tangible characteristics such as a deep purposeful strategy, supportive enabling systems, clear operating rhythms, and a deliberately developmental culture with high psychological safety.
Thriving in the workplace promotes intangible elements in its people such as capability building, commitment to a growth mindset, and a purposeful strategy that speaks to one’s intrinsic motivation.
A workplace built for thriving is a high-trust organisation, with high psychological safety.
If leaders are serious about reaching transformational performance and productivity, then they must commit to building and maintaining psychological safety, as one of many tangible characteristics that create a supportive environment for people to thrive within.
To create a high-trust, psychologically safe environment, start with these three steps:
1. Acknowledge your own fallibility
Are you feeling anxious that your staff productivity is no longer ‘visible’ – that feeling is on you. Acknowledge it, accept it, and adjust your ways of working to combat your feelings.
2. Promote self-awareness in your people
Are others surfacing disgruntled feelings in your team? Coach them to understand the driver of that feeling. Ask questions to help them reveal and work through their reactions so they can take greater ownership of their behaviour. For example, coaching questions could be:
“Why do you think you’re feeling this way?”
“If XYZ didn’t happen, what would that mean for you?”
“With this in mind, how could you cultivate that outcome irrespective of XYZ?”
3. Invest in creating psychological safety
High trust teams have high psychological safety, where members feel safe to be themselves. This can lead to higher admission of mistakes, quicker recovery time, and heightened innovation – all the features of an agile, high performing team. If you want your team to perform, invest your time in a supportive work environment where they are trusted to be productive and to grow from their mistakes.
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We work with leaders to lift their organisational performance. If you want to chat about how we could help you, get in touch today.
[1] Harvey, S. B, Modini, M, Joyce, S, Milligan-Saville, J. S, Tan, L, Mykletun, A, Bryant, R.A, Christensen, H, & Mitchell, P. B. (2017). Can work make you mentally ill? A systematic meta-review of work-related risk factors for common mental health problems. Occup Environ Med, 74(4), 301-310.
[2] Mazmanian, M., Orlikowski, W., & Yates, J. (2013). The autonomy paradox: The implications of mobile email devices for knowledge professionals. Organization Science, 24(5), 1337- 1357. doi:10.1287/orsc.1120.0806