6 May 2021

CEOs must protect workers' mental wellbeing report

From Nine To Noon, 9:39 am on 6 May 2021
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Chief Executives and senior managers have a legal duty to protect the mental wellbeing of workers and eliminate toxic work environments, according to Dr Hillary Bennett, a registered psychologist specialising in the leadership of safety and wellbeing. She's been consulting for decades here and overseas in the private and public sectors.

She recently authored a guide for the Business Leaders' Health and Safety Forum on protecting mental wellbeing at work. Forum members are CEOs, Managing Directors and other senior leaders of most large organisations in the country.

Dr Bennett says a range of surveys suggest mental harm is increasing due to modern work practices and while many organisations offer wellbeing programmes such as free fruit on Fridays - if it's the workplace that is harming an employee - it's up to the leaders to fix that, not try to fix the individual.