Royal Wolf normalises mental health with everything from training programs to growing a Mo’
Scenario training using real-life situations is helping Royal Wolf managers to support team members with their mental health and to identify when an employee is struggling.
“Knowing what to say when someone asks for help is often the hardest part for a manager,” says HSEQ Advisor, Shar Debney.
“We are working with managers on scenarios that take them through a conversation with an employee who has asked for help and is struggling with their mental health.
“Employees could be suffering from workplace stress or a bigger picture issue with family or financial issues at home,” she says.
The training gives managers skills and useful phrases to enable them to speak to employees with empathy, have the confidence to know what to say, and ensure they can offer helpful advice or point them in the right direction for professional help.
“The focus is to encourage managers to lead with kindness and in turn empower employees to be open and honest about their feelings and needs,” she says.
Support helps drive integration
Equipping managers with skills to support mental health is part of a wider strategy Royal Wolf’s HSEQ team implemented to support the company’s integration with UNITED RENTALS®, the world’s largest rental company.
Debney says adopting UNITED RENTALS® systems – such as Rentalman, URmax, Salesforce, and Total Control – was a significant transition and challenge for the Royal Wolf team across Australia and New Zealand.
“We knew we needed a company-wide mental health strategy in place to support the whole team,” she says.
Key to this was developing programmes such as:
- Contact Officers and Mental Health First Aiders to better support employees with work-related stress.
- Daily Safety Huddles to ensure all employees are connected with the greater team on a daily basis.
- The Psychosocial Risk Register, a legal requirement under the Work Health Safety Act which helps to systematically identify, assess, and manage psychosocial hazards in the workplace.
Alongside these programmes the business also focuses on normalising mental health and making it part of the company’s everyday conversation by encouraging regular check-ins with team members and conducting ongoing professional development.
“We want to ensure our leaders are promoting mental wellness and are approachable to allow our employees the confidence to go to them if they are feeling overwhelmed.
“It’s about our people understanding and trusting that they can go to their manager or a Mental Health First Aider and be open and honest about how they’re feeling without being judged.”
Reducing impact, enhancing productivity
Because work related stress and anxiety can impact performance, reduce productivity, and increase absenteeism, it is critical for both employees and managers to be able to identify red flags when it comes to a person’s mental health.
“Our aim is to enhance managers’ and employees’ skills and awareness so they can recognise if someone is struggling as early as possible and have that proactive approach to get in there to offer support as fast as we can,” says Debney.
Royal Wolf has a range of resources and benefits available to help staff including:
- MyUR intranet which has an emotional wellness checklist and information about how to identify issues
- A paid Wellness Day for all employees
- AIA MyCare in collaboration with Teladoc Health gives you access to expert medical advice and guidance in the comfort of your own home
- Workplace Options Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
- Beating the Blues, a free online Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) programme designed for adults experiencing mild to moderate depression and/or anxiety
Keeping mental health top of mind - and fun
To promote mental health awareness in the workplace, and to reinforce the company’s ongoing focus on reducing the stigma attached to mental health, Royal Wolf supports three key events throughout the year:
- Mental Health Awareness Week in New Zealand
- R U OK Day in Australia
- Movember
“I always look forward to Movember driving the New Zealand team with the annual Royal Wolf Greatest Trans-Tasman Dirty Mo’ competition and the Legendary Mo’ Bro award creating a healthy dose of rivalry between the Kiwi and Aussie teams,” says Debney.
“Something like Movember is a huge amount of fun but it’s also an opportunity for the team to talk openly about men’s mental health. These sorts of events, and the programmes we have in place are helping to empower our people to be open and honest and say, ‘I'm struggling today’.
“It’s our job to help them because we recognise the importance of prioritising mental health and know that a healthy workforce supports staff retention, increased productivity and the overall safety of our team.”
