Our Reconciliation Action Plan is an important part of our journey of cultural responsiveness and sensitivity, enabling us to sustainably and strategically take meaningful action to advance reconciliation.

We recognise the need to offer the opportunity to speak with an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Counsellor or a Culturally Sensitive Counsellor. We have an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Dedicated Support Line to facilitate a culturally safe referral for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. We partner with a range of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Organisations and are currently offering EAP services to the staff of an Aboriginal community organisation, working with them to ensure our training is culturally appropriate and is being delivered by either an Indigenous facilitator or co-facilitator.

We are on this path with the guidance of Aunty Gail Daylight, a proud and strong Aboriginal woman from the Kamilaroi Nation.

 Aunty Gail is a proud and strong Aboriginal woman from the Kamilaroi Nation, is married and has 2 children and 2 grandchildren.

Australia is a country of extremes that can challenge us and impact our lives. Right now, parts of Australia are experiencing floods which are causing losses and damage. Natural disasters like the current storms and floods disrupt lives physically and psychologically, creating intense emotional distress for individuals, families and whole communities.

It is important through times such as these to identify those of your people who may have been directly impacted by the storms and floods and provide assistance where possible. Storm and flooding events such as these can be challenging, as the combined uncertainty about the immediate situation as well as fear and concern for what may lie ahead over coming days and weeks as storm waters continue to rise can exacerbate our thoughts and feelings.

As a leader, your organisation plays a vital and valuable role in assisting and supporting your people and their families in the immediate aftermath and moving forward. We encourage you to help your people feel they can focus on their immediate priorities, which is the physical safety of family, friends, loved ones and their homes and possessions. As a leader, take the time to check in with your people, and where appropriate, remind them that their EAP is available and able to help support them through these challenging times. Many people will want to be seen as “coping” so asking how they are going is really important. Being prepared to provide initial and long term support for people will enhance and promote their own personal coping strategies and resilience.

•  Normalise reactions: Accept that people will experience a range of emotions and that it is normal. Once the event is over, it doesn't mean people's feelings go away. Acknowledge their feelings and reassure people that their intense feelings are normal given the disaster.
• Ask how you can help: Ask if there's anything that you can do to assist employees or if there is anything they need? e.g. flexible hours, transport or belongings. Keep talking to gain clarity on what assistance they need.
• Do not catastrophise: It is common to reflect on the "what ifs" or "what might have been". Do not speculate on how much worse it could have been. Avoid comparison of stories as each person has a right to their feelings.

To support those that may have been affected by the event, we have included documents for individual strategies (download pdf here) and tips as well as information for managers and leaders (download pdf here). These tools are also available through the AccessMyEAP App.

If you have any questions or would like to better understand what you can do that will meaningfully support your team, the experienced clinicians on our Manager Support Hotline are able to help you help your people. As manager, your individual needs matter just as much. Reach out for support when and if you need it. We are here to help. Contact AccessEAP on 1800 818 728.

Welcome to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Dedicated Line: part of your EAP, provided by your employer and delivered by AccessEAP.

Working With You:

Our Customer Services Team participate in mandatory ongoing cultural competency training and are available to speak with you to facilitate the referral process to one of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Counsellors, Coaches or Mentors. Please call to make an appointment between EST 8am - 6pm Monday to Friday or outside these hours to make a booking.

At AccessEAP our Cultural Wellbeing Team includesboth Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Counsellors and Culturally Sensitive Counsellors. If appropriate our Cultural Inclusion Co-Ordinator is able to assist any individual circumstances and will work with you to identify the most culturally safe options to support you or your organisation.

Together we find the right way to provide culturally appropriate support that works for you, sharing and caring in a respectful, confidential and safe space. Having a yarn can help with the day to day challenges at home or in the workplace such as;

Get to know your AccessMyEAP App

We’re making it easy for you to access your own EAP and wellbeing services with our intuitive and dynamic app. Download via Google Play and the App Store. 

• Put yourself in control of your mental health and wellbeing.
• Make a booking to speak with one of our counsellors.
• Read tips, strategies and new ways to support your mental health and wellbeing journey.
• Choose your own wellbeing tools and resources based on your preferences, goals and interests.
• Take your Wellbeing Check regularly. The questions are based on the positive psychology PERMAH model. 
• Monitor your results with your personal Wellbeing Tracker.

This free service is provided to you by your employer as part of your EAP services. 

We’re here to help you be your best at life and work. Get started today. 

Shari Walton, Organisational Development Consultant

Emotional intelligence is a key component of effective leadership. Being in tune with your emotions and having sound situational awareness is a powerful tool for leading yourself and teams. Understanding emotional triggers, the power of gratitude, emotional agility, and empathy, are essential ingredients to strong leadership.

Social psychologist Dr Barbara Frederiksen indicates that positive emotions lead to novel, expansive or exploratory behaviours that over time manifest to meaningful long-term social and relationship benefits. Harvard Medical school psychologist Dr Susan David offers unique expertise on cultivating more agile, healthy, resilient, and authentically happy people, families, workplaces, and communities.

To live a rich and purposeful life we need to paint with the full palette of human emotions. Having emotional agility allows us to recognise and understand what emotions we are feeling and be conscious about them rather than being driven by them. It allows you to be more intentional as a leader and to encourage individuals to recognise and feel their emotions. Engagement, creativity, and innovation will flourish under this emotionally agile leadership approach.

How can you lead with emotional agility for yourself and your team? 

Natural disasters like floods, bushfires, droughts and cyclones, disrupt lives physically and psychologically, creating intense emotional distress for individuals, families and whole communities. Organisations play a vital and valuable role in assisting and supporting their employees in the immediate aftermath and in the days, weeks and months following a disaster. It’s important to be aware that everyone will respond differently and everyone’s needs will be different, initially and over time. Being prepared to provide initial and long term support for your employees will enhance and promote their own personal coping strategies and resilience. The following information may also be of assistance:

For individuals, see our tips and strategies (download pdf here).

As a manager, there are a few things you can do to support your employees (download pdf here):

1. Normalise reactions: Accept that people will experience a range of emotions and that it is normal. Once the event is over it doesn't mean people's feelings go away. Acknowledge their feelings and reassure people that their intense feelings are normal given the disaster.

2. Try to keep calm and lift spirits through community involvement: Provide reassurance that "we will get through this together" and focus on the things that were managed well, e.g. the brave responses of emergency services. People feel united in the shared experience and can support and comfort each other. This connection and sense of helping is critical to coping.

Shari Walton, Organisational Development Consultant

Professor Martin Seligman, one of the world’s leading researchers in positive psychology identified that leaders who role-model positive psychology encourage a flourishing workplace, where scientific research is translated into improved leadership, better mental health, increased wellbeing and higher performance and satisfaction for individuals, improved employee engagement and retention and higher overall organisational effectiveness.

The way we work has shifted dramatically recently with hybrid working, remote teams and virtual interactions making positive workplaces more important than ever before. The ability of leaders to focus on strengths is crucial to achieving wellbeing.

Humans are hardwired to pay attention to negative experiences, and we have a propensity to learn from and use negative information more than positive information. Individuals may be unaware of what influences happiness in their life from one day to the next. At the heart of positive psychology lies the belief that people can lead happier, more meaningful, and fulfilling lives by moving their focus away from the negatives toward a more balanced perspective.

Many positive psychology exercises, such as gratitude journaling, lead to positive outcomes and the below exercise will help leaders find meaning and value from their own experiences by exploring their strengths and how they can utilise them to achieve desired goals and develop a sense of meaning and fulfilment.

Shari Walton, Organisational Development Consultant

Conflict is a continuum. Not enough can lead to apathy, artificial harmony, individuals suppressing their wants and needs and too much can lead to loss of self-confidence, disengagement, depression, break-down of work relationships or lack of productivity.

As a leader, how you manage smaller conflicts will impact how many escalate into serious conflicts such as severe employee relations issues, staff turnover, low employee engagement, and even legal claims.

Conflict may arise due to a range of factors including miscommunication, lack of information, conflicting goals, different values or unequal power and access to resources. Whilst conflict is a natural workplace phenomenon, if managed well it can be beneficial for an organization as it can stimulate diversity of thought, development of more mature and meaningful interpersonal relationships and contribute to innovation.

Consider a recent conflict you may have found yourself in and self-evaluate your response using this checklist:

Australia is a country of extremes which can challenge us and impact our lives in profound ways. Right now, parts of the country are experiencing floods which are causing losses and damage across the State. Natural disasters like the current storms and floods disrupt lives physically and psychologically, creating intense emotional distress for individuals, families and whole communities.

It is important through times such as these to identify those of your people who may have been directly impacted by the storms and floods and provide assistance where possible. Storm and flooding events such as these can be challenging, as the combined uncertainty about the immediate situation as well as fear and concern for what may lie ahead over coming days and weeks as storm waters continue to rise can exacerbate our thoughts and feelings.

As a leader, your organisation plays a vital and valuable role in assisting and supporting your people and their families in the immediate aftermath and moving forward. We encourage you to help your people feel they can focus on their immediate priorities, which is the physical safety of family, friends, loved ones and their homes and possessions. As a leader, take the time to check in with your people, and where appropriate, remind them that their EAP is available and able to help support them through these challenging times. Many people will want to be seen as “coping” so asking how they are going is really important. Being prepared to provide initial and long term support for people will enhance and promote their own personal coping strategies and resilience.

•  Normalise reactions: Accept that people will experience a range of emotions and that it is normal. Once the event is over, it doesn't mean people's feelings go away. Acknowledge their feelings and reassure people that their intense feelings are normal given the disaster.
• Ask how you can help: Ask if there's anything that you can do to assist employees or if there is anything they need? e.g. flexible hours, transport or belongings. Keep talking to gain clarity on what assistance they need.
• Do not catastrophise: It is common to reflect on the "what ifs" or "what might have been". Do not speculate on how much worse it could have been. Avoid comparison of stories as each person has a right to their feelings.

To support those that may have been affected by the event, we have included documents for individual strategies (download pdf here) and tips as well as information for managers and leaders (download pdf here). These tools are also available through the AccessMyEAP App.

If you have any questions or would like to better understand what you can do that will meaningfully support your team, the experienced clinicians on our Manager Support Hotline are able to help you help your people. As manager, your individual needs matter just as much. Reach out for support when and if you need it. We are here to help. Contact AccessEAP on 1800 818 728.

It’s another NAIDOC week celebration. The theme for this year – 2022 is as depicted in the above poster. It is a fitting theme as it encourages everyone that believes in what NAIDOC stands for to embrace just that, to GET UP! STAND UP! AND SHOW UP! on all that we have decided to achieve for our people and our communities. The fact is we cannot afford to rely on others to bring about much needed changes we so desire. Any desired achievements lie squarely on our shoulders, both old, and young emerging leaders of our Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander people. As the theme calls us to do, Let us all - Get Up, Stand Up and Show Up where and when it matters most.

Now is the time to consult with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders, organisations and community on the services and resources that best meet the needs of our people.

The tides are slowly moving and as the slogan says, we must be prepared to Get UP! Stand Up, and Show Up for without a united front we will remain standing where we find ourselves today.

 Lydia Gah, Holistic Counsellor and Coach

Jenny Kahn, Learning & Development Consultant

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So sail away from the safe harbour. Explore. Dream. Discover” Mark Twain

A mindset is much like a mental lens through which we view the world, which drives what we do and why. Mindsets are patterns of thoughts and behaviour, shaped and influenced by several factors such as our past experiences, temperament, learned behaviours and beliefs. Whilst mindsets help us identify opportunities, they might also trap us in self-destructive cycles. The good news is that they can be transformed.

When we have a fixed mindset, our lens can become very narrow. When we adopt a growth mindset our lens becomes wider, enabling us to have a more open, expansive perspective.

Renowned psychologist, Carol Dweck¹ coined the concept of fixed and growth mindsets. She says that success comes from mindset– or the way people approach life’s challenges, rather than talent, education, and intelligence. People with a ‘fixed mindset’ believe they have innate and unchangeable intelligence, skills and abilities. People with a ‘growth mindset’ embrace challenges because they believe they can learn from experiences, develop skills, and improve if they practice and persevere – which can lead to greater achievement.

Presented by: Heaven Campbell & Anthony Bui
Duration: 4 minutes 40 seconds

Samantha Dounis, Learning and Development Advisor

“There is nothing permanent except change.” - Heraclitus, Greek philosopher

In the workplace and indeed in life, change is a constant! Change interrupts the flow, up-ends the status quo and very often leads to conflicts. Effective leaders embrace change, recognise diversity, and manage it well by encouraging inclusion and helping the individual, team, and organisation to thrive. 

Organisations are impacted by changes from various sources - external factors we have no control over, including globalisation, changes in legislation or the economy, as well as internal factors like technological improvements, operational efficiencies or changes in products and services. Resistance to change is natural and should not be discouraged, but rather discussed and understood, bringing in diverse voices to work through the issues.

There are various models that can be successful for managing change in the workplace. John Kotter, a professor at Harvard Business School and world-renowned change expert, laid out an eight-step change process.

The Great Resignation is a label first coined in the United States to describe the way that people were reassessing their priorities and looking for purpose after the new experience of working from home and being faced with the challenges of the global pandemic. This reassessment often resulted in people leaving their current job for another one or choosing a completely different path. Although we may not be seeing the same trend in Australia, there are certainly indications that workplaces are facing pressure from their people to provide more in terms of flexibility, benefits and remuneration.  This pressure is due to three main reasons:

1. Burnout and Languishing. Burnout is characterised by chronic depletion, and energy depletion resulting in the inability to function. Languishing is characterised by “feeling less”. Less motivated, less productive, less engaged, less enjoyable overall. A general absence of wellbeing.
2. What is referred to as mortality reality. When faced with a global health crisis we question what is important and why we do what we do. Most often we look for purpose and meaning.
3. Flexibility and agency. A taste of greater control over the workday was achieved due to the work from home experience and consequently people want more flexibility.

Not all workplaces have the same challenges

Some industries are comprised of a mix of essential workers who have remained in their workplaces while other roles have moved to work from home or a hybrid of the two. Back in 2018, there was a buzz around “flexible work”. However, there was a fear amongst managers and leaders that productivity would decline, and people may take advantage. The worldwide pandemic put the theory to the test with overwhelmingly positive experiences. People were trusted to work from home and by and large rose to the task, exceeding expectations and maintaining productive working remotely. Of course, over time variations in productivity based on several factors may emerge.

Hybrid is now the buzzword

 Almost 75% of people want to be in the workplace some of the time but most wanted a hybrid of work from home and work in the workplace.

Kristen Carroll, Organisational and Learning & Development Consultant

In a world that seems to uphold “multitasking” as a virtue, it can feel uncomfortable or downright rebellious to work counter to this. However, bouncing between your phone, inbox, instant messaging, and meetings is not the way to get ahead! Explore the concept of Deep Work as a means of tapping into your full potential.

What is Deep Work?

Cal Newport, an author and computer science professor at Georgetown University, defined Deep Work as: “Professional activity performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.” He explained that if you are not intentional about how you spend your time, you risk wasting hours of your day to what he describes as “shallow work”: “Non-cognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted. These efforts tend to not create new value in the world and are easy to replicate.”

Build a Deep Work Routine

AccessEAP In The Moment Video Series: Burnout - The Butterfly Hug

Presented by: Julie Chalmers & Annie Panow
Duration: 4 mins 50 secs

Embedding Link: https://vimeo.com/692036908

Shari Walton, Organisational Development Consultant

During 2021 we identified the value in organisations investing in building and nurturing strong, resilient leaders to enable their workplace to prosper.

Our Wellbeing Model is specifically designed to build positive mental health and a psychologically safe environment. Focusing on the leadership sector of the model, transformational leadership consistently encourages the relational components of leadership resulting in employees feeling valued and empowered.  

Transformational leadership is invariably associated with a greater sense of general wellbeing impacting a range of metrics including stress, burnout, sick leave, absenteeism, employee engagement and overall productivity.  

To support our customers, we will be publishing a monthly Leadership series blog covering each of the main transformational leadership capabilities. This series will include a snapshot of the relevant theoretical framework along with practical tips to apply the skill.

AccessEAP Video Series: Manager & Leader Hotline

• Presented by: James Austen
• Duration: 3 mins 11 secs

Embedding Link: https://vimeo.com/672172696

As we reach the end of 2021 there has been an increase in cases in some parts of Australia. We appreciate that for many people this may be a time of heightened emotions, particularly as festive celebrations commence and for some, plans will need to change. We, as always, are here to support you through this. Tools and resources can be accessed via our website to support your mental health and wellbeing through the Employee and Employer login areas. Additional resources, including our Wellbeing Check, are also available on our app, AccessMyEAP.