Setting up a successful working group

The role of working groups in change

Research shows the meaningful participation of the target audience is essential for a successful health and safety initiative.

Depending on the size of your organisation, a working group may be a small informal group or a larger structured committee. Working groups may be attached to existing governance structures, such as a health and safety, or wellbeing committee. This allows the working group to add activities to existing strategies or plans. Alternatively, working groups may bring together a new group with a special interest in workplace mental health.

Setting up a working group that will design, implement and evaluate a strategy or action plan is an important first step towards creating a mentally healthy workplace.

Creating the right mix of members

Because mentally healthy workplace initiatives reach across entire organisations, the working group should include members from a range of stakeholders (e.g. supervisors, worker representatives, unions, professional bodies). Members should also have a variety of expertise, skills and experience including mental health, human resources, health and safety, occupational health, operations, communications and lived experience of mental ill-health or being a carer. It is important to consider any adjustments so everyone can be involved, particularly for people with lived experience of mental ill-health or suicide or individuals from diverse groups.  

Where possible, your organisation’s working group should include supervisors, workers, human resources and people with living experience. 

If your organisation is large and complex, you may need to carefully choose which groups should be represented, how you will consult with them and who should have a role in the working group. This will help you capture the issues and risk factors across diverse locations, business units or job types.

You should also consider the interpersonal and teamwork skills of group members. Strong people skills will maximise the group’s effectiveness and its ability to respond to some of the inherent challenges in creating a mentally healthy workplace. Members should be comfortable with the potential for exposure to distressing material and understand the supports available to them if this occurs.

Here are some important questions to consider when deciding on committee membership:

• What are the major organisational units/parts of the business (e.g. operational, structural, professional etc.)?
• What are some of the characteristics of these stakeholder groups (e.g. motivations, skills, resources)?
• Are there any existing influencers/champions or committees already working on mental health issues? These might include mental health first aiders, occupational health and safety reps, union delegates, or people in designated lived experience roles such as peer workers.

Having authority and support

The working group will be most effective if it is authorised and supported by an executive sponsor. The group’s terms of reference and key objectives should be clear, and the roles, responsibilities and time commitments of those involved should be documented. These time commitments should be factored into any existing commitments and tasks. Senior management should provide the group with the education, training and resources.

At the beginning of a project or meeting, members can discuss and set principles for working safely, such as how they will work together, how conflict will be addressed, how power imbalances will be managed, and supports in case the work causes distress.

Once a cycle of continuous improvement is established, which can take up to 3 years, membership may change according to emerging priorities and/or challenges.

Here are some questions to consider when setting up a working group:

• Which senior leaders could champion the working group by bringing attention, resources and credibility to these issues?
• Who is well respected by staff and known to contribute positively to workplace culture?
• How will the group make decisions (e.g. by consensus, majority opinion/voting)?
• What resources will be made available to support the working group?

Including the voice of lived experience and diverse groups

It is important to consider people who may not be immediately visible in the workplace, or feel they lack a ‘voice’ about significant workplace issues such as operational pressures or employment conditions. Finding ways to understand the experience of these people can help design better initiatives and meet legal obligations.

Think about how you engage and determine which people may be best to share their stories, and how they are supported before and after sharing. Importantly, one person with lived experience of mental ill-health or suicide may not be best placed to ‘represent’ all those with lived experience. So, they need support to engage with others and share collective feedback or stories on their behalf.  

As you plan your working group, consider how these groups are represented:

• people who are not employed on an ongoing basis, such as fixed-term contractors, casual staff, work experience students, interns, volunteers and contractors providing services to the organisation such as maintenance staff
• people from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds
• people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds
• people with a lived experience of mental ill-health or workplace psychological injuries
• staff who are carers of people living with mental ill-health
• people from the LGBTQIA+ community.

This representation may come from people within the workplace, or it may come from subject matter experts, partnerships or community representatives.