Mind Your Health Challenge: Business SA 

Business SA is a not-for-profit, membership-based organisation supporting South Australian businesses. The organisation represents over 3,000 members and engages with over 8,000 clients across the state. In 2019, the organisation collaborated with the state government department, Wellbeing SA, on an initiative to engage a full-time person at Business SA who could offer mental health and wellbeing advice to South Australian business owners. The initiative focused on consulting with business owners to improve workplace wellbeing within their business.   

This initiative was very successful; but, given the number of businesses involved, both Business SA and Wellbeing SA recognised the need for an initiative that focused on wellbeing on a large scale with which numerous businesses could interact. Business SA implemented the Mind Your Health Challenge: a month-long challenge in October designed to share information and provide easy-to-activate steps for businesses to support their staff's mental health and wellbeing.  

 The challenge has 2 parts. Part one has individual challenges, which any worker can do. For example, day one might be taking 15 minutes between 10:30 am and 10:45 am to walk around the block or grab a coffee with a colleague they have not spoken with in a while. Part 2 has employer challenges, encouraging business owners to implement wellbeing strategies for their whole business. Examples include implementing a mental health policy, adding mental health and wellbeing to regular meeting agendas, reviewing workplace psychosocial risks and acting on them. Businesses can register for the challenge through Business SA; the information is also publicly available so interstate businesses can also participate.   

The challenge ends with a significant event, usually a breakfast, that celebrates the month-long initiative and is an opportunity for feedback (e.g. identifying gaps or areas for improvement).  

An issue for Business SA was businesses not wanting to share their experience at the end of the challenge. This reluctance was mainly due to unexpected results or feedback from the workers participating in the initiative. To combat this, Business SA conducts quarterly surveys with businesses on needs and wants for workplace wellbeing; this data helps shape the next generation of challenges.   

The timing of the initiative in October is strategic. It comes at a time of year just before the sprint to Christmas when staff are working hard and are beginning to tire.   

“We’ve timed it in October to be a valuable pause for many people. We’re not encouraging businesses to shut down for days at a time or encouraging staff to start late. These challenges are things that businesses can implement quite simply within their team to encourage better practices in workplace wellbeing and mental health.” Anthony Caldwell, Marketing, Media and Communications Manager