At least 1 in 5 Australian workers currently experience a mental health condition.
[Beyond Blue]
Australian businesses lose over $6.5 billion each year by failing to provide early intervention/treatment.
[MHCA]
Stress-related workers’ compensation claims have doubled in recent years, costing over $10 billion each year.
[Medibank Private]
In collaboration with lead research partner, Ipsos Australia, Our State of Mind is a revolutionary, validated approach to understand the drivers of mental wellbeing in the workplace.
As businesses increasingly focus on programs, tools, and initiatives to support mental wellbeing in the workplace, it’s critical to understand the environments in which these programs are implemented—what Our State of Mind uncovers.
Creating mentally healthier workplaces is not only a net good for business, but can save lives.
Mental wellbeing culture covers the broader contextual and environmental factors within a workplace that influence people’s mental health and mental wellbeing. A positive mental wellbeing workplace culture is where you feel the organisation understands, cares about, and behaves in a way that supports the mental wellbeing of its employees.
There are three key domains of mental wellbeing culture drivers: Leadership, Connection and Fulfillment. The research identifies the areas that workplaces should prioritise to drive positive mental wellbeing culture.
Although Our State of Mind does not aim to specifically be a diagnostic for psychosocial risk, psychosocial safety, or psychosocial hazard identification, it may be used as a tool to help uncover areas for further investigation.
· Almost two-thirds of Australian employees perceive a positive mental wellbeing culture in their workplace, compared to 14% who experience poor mental wellbeing culture.
·While encouraging overall, diverse employees, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees, tend to experience poorer mental wellbeing culture in the workplace. This is also true for employees who: are female, identify as LGBTIQA+ or have a physical or mental disability. There is work needed to improve the experiences of these cohorts of Australian employees.
· Those who have less control over their working environment also report a poorer mental wellbeing culture, particularly employees in non-management roles, larger organisations, or the public sector—of note, those in health and community services.
Effective leadership is the strongest driver of mental wellbeing culture in the workplace while employees’ personal fulfillment is less influential.
Leaders in the organisation, at all levels, following through on promises, managing conflict effectively, encouraging new ideas, and role modelling have the greatest impact in forming positive mental wellbeing. Inclusion, diversity, and input into decision making are the strongest drivers to make an individual feel connected to the organisation. Only one personal fulfillment factor falls in the top 10 drivers.
Our State of Mind returns in 2025 in two key phases:
Phase 1 is an independent, national panel study with a sample of up to N=5,000 people. Participation is specifically weighted to be representative of the Australian workforce.
The 2025 study will include greater granularity on industry and sector. This phase culminates in a public, national report that also tracks shifts in wellbeing culture between years.
If you'e a passionate organisation focussed on mental wellbeing, sponsorship is the ultimate way to support Our State of Mind.
After the national study, Phase 2 allows organisations to participate in their own private survey with results benchmarked against the national study.
With privacy and anonymity of participants baked into the study, organisations can expect robust, highly detailed insights.
High-performing organisations are subsequently invited to share their best-practice initiatives as both a celebration of achievement and as an opportunity for other organisations to learn from.
PARTICIPATION
Our State of Mind 2025 aims to increase participation across the country—more than doubling in participation from 2023.
ROBUST DATA AND INSIGHTS
Increased participation generates a greater data-set—maximising insights and usability for all businesses.
INCREASED COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE
Thousands of users around the country from myriad organisations and industries.
MENTAL WELLBEING
Armed with greater actionable insights, organisations can demonstrably improve the mental wellbeing of their people.
BUSINESS OUTCOMES
By improving the mental wellbeing of its people, organisations can expect increased productivity and profitability.
In addition to positive outcomes for people and community, organisations that wish to sponsor Our State of Mind will also benefit from:
INCREASED EXPOSURE
Tens-of-thousands of Australians will engage with Our State of Mind through the survey, organisation reports, national report and associated media.
BRAND ALIGNMENT
Values alignment with world-leading thought leaders including Richard Branson’s B Team, Virgin Unite, The B Team Australasia and more.
FIRST ACCESS
Sponsoring organisations have early access to the data and insights of the national report.
included Benchmarking
Sponsoring organisations have automotic access to organisational benchmarking.