How workplace wellbeing boosts performance and reduces liability risks

The focus on employee mental health is increasing on both sides of the Tasman as Australia and New Zealand step up measures to mitigate and manage psychological risks in the workplace. 

In April 2023, Australia introduced changes to workplace laws that require employers to identify and manage hazards and risks to their employees’ psychological health and safety.

In New Zealand, WorkSafe is seeking public feedback on its good-practice guidelines for how employers can manage these risks.

Dr Fiona Crichton, VP and Clinical Lead at workplace science platform Groov says employers must be cognizant of the risks created by their work design, environment and the relationships their employees have at work.

“This is something that more organisations are getting their head around,” says Crichton, who will be among the speakers at the upcoming ANZIIF New Zealand Liability Conference.

“There is a recognition that we don't want people to be burnt out and we don't want to be causing harm, because there are consequences not just for individuals, but also repercussions in terms of legislation.

“This kind of understanding helps my work, which is all about creating positive, healthy environments so people can do their best work.”

A grounding in law

Based in Auckland, Crichton grew up in the Hawkesbury region and began her career as a commercial litigation lawyer in the 1990s. With young children, she says her workload became unsustainable and she moved to a law governing body, where her role involved examining sentencing reports and victim impact statements.

“I looked at the background of offenders and could see that so often they had been victims themselves, not just of their circumstance but also of society,” she says. “I also didn't understand the full implications of the link between dealing with really traumatic material and how you feel.”

Crichton began studying psychology with the initial aim of working in prisons or the probation service, but she says life took another detour.

“A good friend of mine had a child with a serious health condition, and he passed,” she says. “I ended up working in health psychology, because I found it's the hardest time of your life when you have a health trauma, and there’s a more intense need for psychology when you are dealing with overwhelming life stuff. 

“It requires work in the area of resilience,” adds Crichton. “Health psychology is, at its core, about health behaviours. It's about how we motivate people to take action in their lives.”

Crichton began building self-management programs for wellbeing and providing advice about how to communicate changes to the community to avoid creating barriers to behaviour. 

“It was a natural progression to creating the Groov concept, which was all about how we could change wellbeing in the community. We now we focus much more on developing environments where people can thrive and do their best work.”

The science of wellbeing

Groov’s tools and resources are grounded in science. For Crichton, that is “non-negotiable”

“Everything we do has to be about evidence,” she says. “Our work is essentially around neuroscience, organisational psychology and behavioural science.”

When people feel well at work, everyone benefits. Crichton cites a 2019 study from London School of Economics, which examined whether investing in employee wellbeing led to higher productivity and tangible benefits to the business bottom line. 

The researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 339 independent studies accumulated by Gallup, which included the wellbeing and productivity of almost two million employees in 230 independent organisations across 49 industries in 73 countries.

“What they saw was that wellbeing is associated with four key performance indicators — productivity, customer loyalty, profitability and staff turnover, and the direction was from high wellbeing to higher productivity,” says Crichton.

“If you've got employees that are feeling good and functioning well, then you will find that they are more productive and they are much less likely to burn out,” she adds. 

“However, it’s not going to be enough to just have some stuff on your intranet about ‘this is what you should be doing every day to feel good at work’. You have to be leading it.”

Barriers to wellbeing at work

Crichton is seeing obstacles to wellbeing in many workplaces in countries like New Zealand and Australia.

“The challenge is that many organisations are saying, ‘we’re done with wellbeing, we did that during Covid, so let’s move the focus to performance’,” she says. “Fortunately, compliance obligations will shift this attitude.”

Crichton also has experience with clients in the broader Asia Pacific region, where she sees a growing awareness of the connection between wellbeing and performance.

“In my experience with the organisations I've worked with, once wellbeing is framed around getting your people to do their best work, there's much more buy-in.”

Crichton notes other barriers to workplace wellbeing in New Zealand and Australia.

“The biggest barrier is that people don’t see their leaders taking care of their wellbeing,” says Crichton. “If we don't address that, no workplace will ever be able to integrate wellbeing successfully.”

The second barrier, says Crichton, is a lack of understanding about what wellbeing actually means. 

“Many people think wellbeing is having fruit bowls and yoga in the office,” she says. “I also think people confused wellbeing with ‘wellness’, which became a pop psychology term, and so wellness became synonymous with things considered as fluffy. 

“It’s about creating an environment where people can do their best work,” says Crichton. “That's why I like to bring it back to neuroscience — it's about what's going on in your brain.”

For example, Crichton says people cannot sustain working for five continuous hours in front of a computer.

“We can see that stress accumulates in the brain if you do not take five-minute micro breaks,” she says. “This gives you the focus and energy to be able to do your work. 

“When we talk about care, it’s about everyone taking actions to feel good and function better in their day. So, there's a responsibility on everyone in the workplace, and particularly leaders, to be able to say, ‘What can I do to make sure that I'm keeping up energy and focus?’.”

Empowering leaders 

While there's an obligation on individuals to look after themselves at work, Crichton says it needs to be encouraged in the workplace and leaders need to walk the talk. She adds that leaders should be empowered to lead by example.

“We are not training leaders to be leaders,” she says. “We often promote leaders because they're good at something, not because they're good at leading.” 

If we want to create environments where people do their best work, Crichton says we need to empower leaders.

“That's about understanding and elevating for success,” she says. “Leadership burnout and managerial burnout is at an all-time high because leaders themselves don't get the strategies to top up themselves.”

This will be a focus of Crichton’s presentation at the ANZIIF New Zealand Liability Conference. She’ll also discuss the brain’s response to uncertainty and how leaders can help people thrive through uncertainty.

“As organisations, as leaders and as employees, we have to understand what we can do right now to effectively thrive through change,” she says. 

“And if you want to create environments where you are compliant with legislation, where you've got high customer loyalty and your people are productive and want to do their best for you, your focus on wellbeing and care will start increasing.”

Find out more about the NZ Liability Conference