Phase 1 – BEFORE: Preparing for change and disruption

Preparation before a change happens

The BEFORE phase is an opportunity to put the foundations in place so your organisation is not thinking about mental health for the first time when a crisis occurs.

There are things you can do at organisational and at a team level. 

What to do at an organisational level

Anticipate and plan

You can start by regularly assessing your organisation’s risk of change and disruption to determine:

• what disruptions are possible and the likelihood of them occurring
• the potential impact of the disruption on the organisation and workers
• how severe the risk is to mental health if it occurs
• whether any existing control measures address psychosocial hazards, and therefore mitigate the risks to mental health 
• what action you need to take to improve existing control measures
• how urgently action needs to be taken.

You can then use the outcomes of the risk assessment to create change management plans and mitigation activities to protect the health and safety of people during change and disruption. There are 3 types of change management plan:

1. A plan for anticipated disruptions – These are the plans you create when your organisation initiates change. 
2. A crisis or emergency plan – These plans detail activities during significant disruption or disaster. 
3. A plan for unanticipated disruptions – These plans outline general processes and activities that are implemented if an unexpected change or disruption occurs. 

Each plan should consider the following elements:

• risks for individual role types (e.g. full-time workers, part-time workers and volunteers)
• surveys or pulse checks to establish a baseline of people’s mental health 
• training needs so people have skills to lead through and cope with change
• legal considerations (e.g. work health and safety, discrimination, privacy, bullying and harassment, workers’ compensation, workers’ obligations).

By planning for mental health effects before an event occurs, you can shape internal sources of change, and create plans to manage external sources of change.

Align policies

Workplace policies help workers understand what is expected of them, provide guidelines for decision making, enable consistency across the organisation and protect the organisation. It is important to align these policies with your change plans. Some common examples are:

• disruption-specific policies for events that are more likely (e.g. a cyberattack policy)
• a mental health policy that identifies resources that support workers’ mental health during change
• referencing disruption events in other policies (e.g. flexible work policies).

Throughout this process, it is important to consult and communicate with workers. 

Build the capabilities of leaders and workers

Successfully navigating change and disruption requires skills in problem solving, self-management, working with people, and technology use and development. It is also important to develop mental health literacy along with skills to provide psychological first aid. 

What to do at a team level

Get to know your people

How do you know if someone is struggling? You need a baseline, so make the time to get to know people—colleagues, team members and leaders—and get a sense of where their ‘usual’ sits. 

As part of getting to know people, you also need to consider the needs of people who may require additional supports during and after a change or disruption. These people may include:

• young workers (18–24 years)
• casual workers
• workers with long-term mental or physical health conditions
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
• workers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Nurture a culture of open communication

Open communication provides a sense of safety and nurtures supportive relationships. It involves leaders and managers:

• modelling and reinforcing the supportive conversations and behaviours 
• ensuring your behaviours align with your organisation’s shared values
• demonstrating inclusiveness and actively consulting all team members to understand what is and is not working
• encouraging people to raise concerns and ideas, and listening to what people say 
• promoting constructive debate and creating accepted norms about how to resolve conflict 
• being consistent, transparent and respectful in all communications and following through on commitments
• noticing how individuals behave and communicate, not just the overall team dynamic, and showing support for all team members.

Embedding open communication practices in the BEFORE phase means they are second nature during a crisis. 

Facilitate access to supports

During change, it is important that leaders and workers have easy access to mental health resources. Providing resources before an event is one less action required during change, when capacity may be limited.

Many mental health resources are available. The Mentally Healthy Workplaces site has a list of helplines, as well as resources for workers. Other supports include Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), many of which offer more than simply in-person crisis support. If your organisation has an EAP, you should:

• communicate regularly with workers about your EAP, and ask managers to talk about it
• work with your EAP to tailor your program to your workforce 
• make yourself aware of all the services included, including resources on prevention
• use on-site support for individuals and teams during significant disruptions
• monitor and analyse trends in EAP use, including identifying any barriers to access, and workers’ perceptions of effectiveness.

As a leader, it is not your role to replace health professionals or other mental health supports. Rather, your role is to raise awareness about, and facilitate access to, these supports.