Supporting Leaders
Leading and Managing people means creating an environment that supports and maintains a culture of wellbeing. Managing wellbeing is everyone’s responsibility, and the role of Leaders is to:
- support your own wellbeing
- resource staff to support their wellbeing,
- comply with the SafeWork NSW workplace Psychosocial Code of Practice
- resource and refer staff using the resources below when needed.
- engage services and reporting mechanisms where required.
- cultivate a culture of wellbeing
The Wellbeing and Belonging Team draws on expertise, evidence-based frameworks, and specialised knowledge to equip Leaders, staff, and students with best practice strategies for creating a culture of wellbeing.
We acknowledge that Leaders and Managers face unique and increased expectations to be supporting the wellbeing of staff and teams.
Explore our Leaders Wellbeing Toolkit below.
SUPPORTING YOURSELF
Leading a team requires skillful management of time, achieving outcomes, identifying priorities and supporting innovation. This complex work can create challenges for wellbeing and looking after yourself is a priority. Leaders and managers who prioritise their own wellbeing play a pivotal role in shaping a healthy, productive, and sustainable workplace. Your wellbeing directly influences not only your own performance but also the culture, morale, and overall success of the organisation. Modelling this to team members also creates a culture of permission for staff to, in turn, support their wellbeing.
Personal Wellbeing Practices
As a Leader your wellbeing matters too! Having a set of strategies that help you restore, rest, and regroup during and after times of intensity at work is important. Staff Wellbeing Plans can be utilised for yourself, along with ensuring taking leave, having breaks, and engaging in activities that you enjoy.
Explore the 5 Ways to Wellbeing
The People Services Team
As a Leader, you can access the People Services Team to ask questions and plan for your own workload design, leave, and access to a range of supports, tools and resources at WSU.
Contact the People Services Team
The EAP Manager Support Service
Manager Support is an advisory service for managers; team leaders and other members of staff charged with managing employees. Manager Support assists with situations that involve difficulties or problems in workplace communication, behaviour, or performance. Manager Support is provided by senior ACCESS counsellors in telephone or face-to-face consultations.
Leaders Tool: The Manager Support Service
Training and Education
The Wellbeing and Belonging Team designs and delivers a range of customised training for leaders, staff, and students at WSU. Focus areas include Cultural Wellbeing, Managing Challenging Presentations of Staff and/or Students, Managing Workplace Stress and Burnout, Trauma Informed Practice in Education. Please get in touch to discuss further.
Wellbeing and Belonging Team Training
SUPPORTING INDIVIDUAL STAFF
Recognising staff as individuals first and professionals second honours the reality that personal experiences inevitably influence workplace performance, engagement, and contribution. Managers who demonstrate authentic concern for their team members' overall wellbeing foster trust and commitment, cultivating an environment where resilience, creativity, and productivity naturally flourish.
If you have any questions, contact our People Services Team and submit an enquiry HERE
Workload architecture and role design
Collaborating with individual team members to negotiate adjustments in workload, reducing capacity and output for periods of time, and reviewing workplans is a useful process in supporting the wellbeing of staff during difficult times. SafeWork NSW have developed a tool to assist Managers in this co-design.
SafeWork tool: Designing Work to Manage Psychosocial Risks
Individual Pulse Checks
Regularly checking in with individual staff is part of the leadership process. There are lots of ways this can occur, and finding the process that works for you, and your team is important. WSU’s EAP service has this resource as a guide.
Leader Tool: Strategies for Checking in with your People
Return to Work Planning
If a staff member takes a significant period of leave due to wellbeing challenges, major life events and/or workplace events, planning a supportive return to work is proven to be critical in ensuring the ongoing positive wellbeing of employees.
This planning can be done in collaboration with the Office of Safety, Health and Wellbeing, following the guide below.
Injury and Return to Work Management Plan
Leave Entitlements
Negotiating arrangements for personal leave or reduced hours is one of the ways leaders can support staff wellbeing in times of challenge. Utilising leave entitlements as a wellbeing support is a case-by-case approach and preferably agreed upon and reviewed between yourself and the staff member.
CULTIVATING TEAM CULTURE
Building a positive team culture is vital for wellbeing as it establishes psychological safety and connection, reducing stress while strengthening the support networks essential for human flourishing. Teams that nurture relationships, shared purpose, and healthy practices enable individuals to build resilience and achieve improved mental and physical health that extends from workplace to personal life.
Staff Wellbeing Plans
A Staff Wellbeing Plan is a personalised tool to support staff members to cope, promote and maintain overall wellbeing when facing challenges. Everyone should have their own individualised wellbeing plan, as what affects and benefits one person, based on their unique strengths and circumstances, may not necessarily have the same impact or effectiveness for others. Everyone has the resilience and ability to cope with difficult situations, and it is important to recognise your own strength to overcome challenges.
The Wellbeing and Belonging Team can deliver short information sessions on how to use Staff Wellbeing Plans, in conjunction with Staff Wellbeing Cafes.
Download a Staff Wellbeing Plan
Staff Wellbeing Cafes
Wellbeing Cafes support positive wellbeing through connection, belonging, and creativity. Research shows that engaging teams in simple recreational and creative activity together, creates a setting that enables wellbeing conversations, peer connection, and increase sense of belonging. Wellbeing Cafes include, Pet Therapy, Art, Yoga, Mindfulness, Crochet, Terrariums, and more.
Request a Staff Wellbeing Cafe
Foundational Wellbeing Staff Training – The 5 Rs
The 5 Rs staff workshop is core skills training for all staff on the framework to support the wellbeing of others, and themselves. The 5 Rs – Relate, Recognise, Respond, Remind, Reflect, is an evidence-based framework, accessible to all, that when applied, fosters best practice prompts that promote a culture of wellbeing. The Wellbeing and Belonging Team offer open online workshops through MyCareer, or get in touch to request a session for your team, face-to-face or online.
Learn more about the 5 Rs for Wellbeing training and resources
Informal Team Practices
Regular team connections, gatherings and points of contact is vital for fostering a productive, healthy team. Whether you schedule a regular lunch catch up, teambuilding activity or online chat sharing, these practices help foster a culture of support.
An examples is that practice of Quick Connect by asking three powerful questions: How are you? How’s your job? What do you need?
Read more about building psychological safety and using the Quick Connect practice
SERVICES AND REPORTING
Western Sydney University, along with regulatory bodies, have a range of services and reporting mechanisms designed to support Leaders in managing people and workplace wellbeing. These services are free and intended to be engaged to work collaboratively with you.
Employee Assistance Program
EAP is a free, professional, confidential coaching service for employees and their immediate family members, paid for by the University.
EAP is a short-term, solution focused program aimed at assisting with personal or work-related issues that may be impacting on quality of life or sense of well-being. It can be accessed 24/7, and includes face-to-face sessions, or telephone assistance. Reminding your team that they can always access this service is part of building a culture that supports wellbeing.
Referral to the Office of Work Health Safety and Wellbeing
The Work Health Safety and Wellbeing (WHS&W) Unit brings together a team of professionals with many years of industry experience in health safety, risk management, return to work and staff wellbeing.
The team aims to empower and enable WHS&W communication and consultation between managers and staff, to foster a positive culture and promote proactive measures or programs to enhance the safety and wellbeing of the Western community.
The Complaints Resolution Unit
The Complaints Resolution Unit provides a free, accessible, timely, objective, and fair process to have student and staff concerns reviewed. Any staff member or student can make a complaint, report a sexual offence, or other harmful behaviour, or provide feedback.
Contact the Complaints Resolution Unit
SafeWork Code of Practice: Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work
Recent legislation requires every workplace to comply with this Code of Practice. It is important that you are familiar with this code if you have functions or responsibilities that involve managing exposure to psychosocial hazards and risks to psychological and physical health and safety. Psychosocial hazards at work are aspects of work and situations that may cause a stress response which in turn can lead to psychological or physical harm.
Learn more about the SafeWork Code of Practice
Download a copy of the Leadership Wellbeing Toolkit
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