Identify what you need to measure

What your organisation could measure

Data can help you understand a lot about your organisation:

• industry profile
• workplace profile
• labour force profile
• business size
• leadership, management and culture
• financial resources
• outputs and outcomes.

However, measurement must also have a purpose. You need to think about what you need to know, what data is best suited to meet that need and how you intend to use the data.

The number of things to measure, and those you monitor over time, will be a judgement call:

• If the scope is too narrow, you may miss critical issues.
• If it is too broad, the most important things can be lost in the noise.

What to measure will be different for every organisation. A good place to start is finding out what your organisation currently does to support mental health and wellbeing in the workplace. 

Here are some ideas to help you decide what your organisation needs to measure.

Understanding your context

Two types of factors influence your current work state or context:

Internal (or organisational) factors

These are the risks and resources your organisation has and the activities you do (e.g. financial and other resources, workforce profile, employment characteristics and risks to mental health associated with the nature of work).

Consider which factors are key to making your workplace a mentally healthy workplace:

• What are your internal strengths, capacity and capability? e.g. What financial and human resources and infrastructure are available in your workplace?
• What are your internal weaknesses, risks and gaps? e.g. Do leaders or other staff lack interpersonal skills or training?

Measures of internal factors may include:

• excess leave balances
• hours worked above what is budgeted
• number of psychological injury compensation claims
• areas of concern identified in staff surveys
• number of cases of bullying, harassment or discrimination.

External (or environmental) factors

These are factors outside your business that affect how you operate (e.g. technological advances, economic conditions, legal and regulatory requirements, supply chains and  interactions with the public). Again, consider which factors are key to making your workplace a mentally healthy workplace:

• What external opportunities can affect the mental health of your workers? e.g. Are there opportunities to offer workers better physical or mental health supports or work adjustments?
• What external pressures, threats or risks can affect the mental health of your workers? e.g. Do workers routinely face traumatic events?

Measures of external factors can include:

• number of physical or verbal disputes with customers
• number of staff affected by disasters or restrictions
• number of staff impacted by external concerns such as domestic violence or financial distress.

Understand if interventions are working

Data can help you identify if initiatives are working well and as intended, if there are any unexpected issues, and where improvements and adjustments are needed. Evaluating both the implementation process and outcomes can give you useful insights.

Identify any knowledge gaps

Identifying and prioritising your most important knowledge gaps can help focus your attention. For example, can you answer the following questions?

• Is your workplace a ‘mentally healthy workplace’? How do you know?
• What is your organisation doing well? Where are workplace opportunities for improvement?
• What are the things that support, or harm, mental health in your organisation?
• How, and how well, are you managing psychological hazards and resources?
• How engaged are your managers and workers in helping create a mentally healthy workplace?

Prioritise areas to focus on

You can use data to help you identify which activities to focus on. In short, you should focus on activities that will deliver the greatest benefit. Some of these activities may be easy to achieve, but others will be more difficult. Avoid easy-to-do activities that do not bring meaningful change until you have addressed more urgent and important challenges.

Don’t try to fix everything at once. It’s better to start with one or 2 important areas. Once they have been addressed or are being managed, you can expand your activities. 

Starting with the 'Protect' pillar

If you are still unsure about where to start, you could be guided by the 3 pillars of a mentally healthy workplace:

• Protect – identify and manage work-related risks to mental health
• Respond – build capability to identify and respond to support people experiencing mental ill-health or distress
• Promote – recognise and enhance the positive aspects of work that contribute to good mental health.

The Protect pillar is a good place to start because all workplaces have legal obligations related to work health and safety that include psychological health.