What Impacts Mental Health in any Environment?
Our social interactions have a fundamental and profound connection to our mental health. If we feel threatened, our bodies react at a physiological level, reducing our capacity to stay calm, and increasing our experience of stress and limiting our capacity to function effectively. Positive interactions create completely different internal bodily responses and leave us feeling open, innovative and collaborative.
Various social domains at work tend to be at the heart of how we respond, often based on our perceived level of influence around these. The SCARF model helps us understand these social domains in our social experience:
Status - Relative importance to others, position in the pecking order, feeling included
Certainty - being able to predict or manage the future to achieve desirable outcomes and expectations
Autonomy - sense of control over the environment, having choice
Relatedness - having a sense of safety around others, feeling connected, being able to relate with others
Fairness - fair exchanges, clear ground rules, equity
If we perceive a lack of influence in these areas, particularly over a long period of time, it can significantly impact our core need as human beings to connect with others and ultimately flows on to mental health outcomes.
Work-Related Factors
Systemic change cannot be achieved without first understanding the core issues and contributing factors that impact mental health and wellness.
Work Related factors are anything in the design or management of work that can positively or negatively impact an employee’s mental health. By law, employers must provide and maintain a workplace that is safe from harm and without risk to health - including mental health. By identifying and managing the risks to psychological safety, employers can seek to provide a workplace that addresses work related factors before they impact a person’s mental health.
The Work-Related Factors identified for any organisation by WorkSafe are:
More information is available in this short video:
SEE HOW YOU’RE ADDRESSING THE WORK RELATED FACTORS
Relevant Work Related Factor Badges appear at the top of each page in Constructive and Committed Leadership, Culture and Connection, and Communication and Participation.
These badges let you know which Work Related Factors you can address by undertaking the recommendations on that page. The badges you will see are shown here.
ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS
People working in poor quality and hazardous working environments are at risk of injury to their physical and mental health.
Poor environmental conditions include: poor air quality, high noise levels, extreme temperatures, and working near unsafe machinery.
JOB CONTROL
Low job control is when an employee has little control over aspects of their work, including how and when a job is done.
It is also when decisions that affect an employee are made without telling the employee or asking for their opinion.
JOB DEMANDS
When job demands are too high or low, people may be at risk of physical or mental injury.
This could include: higher risk of fatigue, feeling anxious or underappreciated.
ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE
When organisational change (large or small) is poorly managed or not communicated well, it can cause stress or anxiety.
Change can include people’s job descriptions changing, downsizing, recolating, and introducing new technology or production processes.
REMOTE & ISOLATED WORK
People who have to work in remote areas may not have easy access to resources and communication. Travel times may be long.
Isolated work is where there are no or few other people around and so it’s hard to get help from others, especially in an emergency.
When people are working alone, remotely or in isolation, they are at a higher risk of not only physical injury but also mental injury.
ORGANISATIONAL JUSTICE
Poor organisational justice is when people are not treated fairly, or there is inconsistency or bias in the workplace.
It’s important to be open about how decisions are made — if employees can’t see what’s happening, they can’t know whether or not people are being treated fairly.
ROLE CLARITY
Low role clarity means that poeple are not sure what their responsibilities are or what is expected of them.
It can also mean there are conflicting roles — when people are told to do different things by different managers, and they are not sure who to listen to.
VIOLENT OR TRAUMATIC EVENTS
Workplace incidents which expose people to abuse, or the threat of harm, or actual harm, can cause fear and distress which can lead to stress and injury.
Different people find different events traumatic, so all people are at risk of experiencing workplace trauma. Trauma doesn’t just affect the people who are there at the time. Hearing stories about distressing incidents can result in second-hand trauma (‘vicarious trauma’) for some people.
WORKPLACE RELATIONSHIPS
Unresolved conflict or strained relationships between co-workers or with managers lead to mental ill-health.
Incivility is one of the biggest causes of problems in workplace relationships. Incivility is inappropriate behaviour such as rudeness, sarcasm, and belittling or excluding people. This can be spoken or written.
RECOGNITION & REWARD
When people’s efforts and achievements are not recognised or rewarded at work, they can feel underappreciated.
They may feel it doesn’t matter if they work hard or not. This increases the risk of work-related stress and mental injury.
SUPPORT
When people don’t get the support they need from leaders and colleagues, it can harm their health and wellness. Support can be both emotional and practical.
For more information on WorkSafe’s Work Related Factors, visit the WorkWell webpage Create a mentally healthy workplace.
Construction Specific Hazards
Phase Two of the 2018 research that was conducted into the mental health and stress of Victoria white-collar construction professionals, saw a group of approximately 120 of the representative group come together over two sessions to explore in depth the drivers of workplace stress and the identification of the workplace processes that contribute to compromised mental health.
The outcome of these focus groups was the identification of the following Six Hazards and Contributing Factors.
Pressure
Hours Worked - A culture and expectation around more leadership expectations for long hours
Inadequate resourcing – Does org structure meet needs?
Inflexible working arrangements
Team effectiveness / ineffectiveness and behaviours
Task fatigue from limited job rotation
Poor workspace environment (i.e. office setup, suitability)
Influence
Uncertain future – Where’s my next project?
Dictatorial leadership vs empowerment and trust
Feeling like a number instead of a member
Not being heard - limited feedback loop / communication
Promotion
Inconsistency of training and development
Hindered investment in development (time, programs, capital)
Limited feedback loop / communication with staff
Poor identification of staff career development wants/needs
Ineffective support of employee wellness
Ineffective leadership development
Relationships
Fear-based culture – feeling unable to say no or stand up
Perceptions – perceptions of self vs others
Leadership – driving instead of promoting
Positive reinforcement / lack of recognition
Leadership availability – leaders having time to build relations
Role
Role clarity and understanding – what’s expected
Answerable to many – clear lines of reporting
Changing requirements and expectations (i.e. added admin)
Performance feedback that is consistent and meaningful
Additional tasks and expectations added without training
Change
Lack of alignment through organisation
Senior Management commitment and leadership
Constant change in project team arrangements, expectations
Consistency of change – fluctuates depending on situation
Lack of employee consultation or involvement
In early 2020, further research was undertaken with the Wellness in Infrastructure Working Group members to identify how these hazards were currently being addressed in the industry and the effectiveness of these activities. This not only allowed the collection of what was working, it also enabled deeper research into what was not working and why.
By taking a multi-pronged approach to addressing these factors, the Integrated Framework is designed to deliver positive workplace culture based on psychological safety, effective leadership, strong workplace relationships and clear purpose. Put simply, it seeks to prevent mental injury by taking the guesswork out of how to address the factors that create stress and impact positive mental health.
Visit the Analysis and Research section in this Introduction to see how each of these sets of core issues are interlinked and examples of what can help to address them.