In recognition that many small screen businesses want to create a workplace culture that prioritises wellbeing, but are challenged to find the time or resources to stay across legislation, industry priorities and best practice, Screen Well has launched a free ‘Wellbeing for Small Business’ guide.
In developing the guide, the organisation found that 80 per cent of small businesses in Australia’s screen industry do not have any formal mental health or wellbeing strategies, procedures and interventions in place.
“This statistic is alarming and for us, and highlighted the need for the guide,” founder Ben Steel says.
As IF has reported, in July 2022, Safe Work Australia updated the model Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) regulations to significantly increase the duty of employers to protect the mental health of employees.
At the same time, it released a new moral code of practice that provides practical guidance on how to identify, mitigate and control what it calls ‘psychosocial hazards’ in the workplace. States and territories that have so far adopted the regulations into their own WHS laws include NSW, WA, Tasmania, Queensland and the Northern Territory.
Wellbeing for Small Business has been developed by Screen Well in partnership with industry, as well as mental health, human resources, and workplace health and safety professionals, and was financed with support of Screen Australia, VicScreen, and Screen Queensland.
Key sections include:
- Why create a mentally safe and healthy screen workplace?
- Business benefits of improving mental health in the workplace
- Creating a wellbeing strategy for your screen business
- Wellbeing tips when onboarding
- How to conduct a wellbeing check-in
- Looking after your own wellbeing
“The guide contains essential information, and easy to follow step-by-step processes for small business owners in our industry to help improve mental health outcomes for their teams and themselves, while helping to meet their workplace health and safety legislative obligations,” says Steel.
“Today was the perfect day to launch this free resource as it’s World Self Care Day – and we’ve dedicated a whole section in the guide to this topic. We have done a rewrite on the phrase ‘self-care’ though, replacing it with ‘Refuel’, which we think is more relatable to our industry; we all know what happens if the generator on set runs out of fuel – everything grinds to a halt. It’s the same with individuals, if we run on empty and have nothing left in our tank – we burn out.”
To download the full guide, including mini-guides, templates, and accessible versions – go to www.screenwell.com.au/resources-sign-up