Building relationships with people I work with, is a natural strength I have honed over the years. My name is Lauren Hazelwood. I'm a Safety Professional with 12 years' experience. I believe that wellbeing and resilience are deeply interconnected to our working lives. And I have spent large parts of my working life training workers how to improve their sleep, become more resilient and understand how important workplace wellbeing is.
I worked for the Navy in my younger years, and I quickly learnt that if you knew the right person, and you had a packet of Tim Tams, you could achieve almost anything. I firmly believe that if we connect, if we understand one anotherâs motivations and values, we can achieve safe workplaces where everybody thrives.
I am a passionate advocate for managing psychosocial risks in the workplace. I specialise in risk assessment and implementation of effective controls. However, if I take off my safety hat, at my core, I am people centric. I believe in building connections, in getting work done together, at accepting our differences as gifts to be explored, and treating each other with kindness.
Happy reading!
Workplace Wellbeing - Integration from Life to Work
'The greatest asset of a company, is it's people'
Jorge Paulo Lemann
In a world still scarred by the effects of a global pandemic, retaining personnel in the workplace has been a struggle. In the US an estimated 20 million people resigned from their jobs in 2021, colloquially known as The Great Resignation (Green, 2024). Poor conditions, dissatisfaction, and a desire for more work-life balance were common features amongst Australia's quitting community which peaked in 2021 at 21.4% turnover (SBS.com).
Workplace Wellbeing is a hot topic. The WHS Act of 2012 was amended in 2023 to include psychosocial safety at work. A recognition that the mental, as well as the physical, must be considered in the design of work, ensuring employees are kept safe from harm.
Making this a reality isn't easy. Rapid technological change, diversity, relationships (Jain et al., 2022), and burnout are providing grounds for flailing policies, ill-aligned to the seemingly endless possibilities of the human condition. As an employee at a 110+ year old manufacturing plant with an average demographic of Caucasian males in their 40's, figuring out how to integrate Workplace Wellbeing (WW), whilst meeting legal requirements, is challenging.
What is Workplace Wellbeing?
The World Health Organisation defines Wellbeing: ...a positive state experienced by individuals and societies. Well-being encompasses quality of life ... A societyâs well-being can be observed by the extent to which they are resilient, build capacity for action, and are prepared to transcend challenges.
How do we achieve WW at Work?
How can we train our workers to thrive so that WW is a two-way street between organisational vision and individual life satisfaction? Can we improve resilience, recognise symptoms of burnout before crisis hits, and foster thriving, flourishing environments?
Boundaries, Resilience, Writing, Banishing:
At a business level, developing policies and procedures around workplace wellbeing that align with the WHS Act, can be dichotomous to an organisations vision, and therefore fraught with risks. However, human-centric ergonomics, reward and recognition, learning, shortening periods of exposure, are all important factors in psychosocial risk management (Boyle et al., 2025) and by extension WW.
We must accept that WW is multi-layered and considers the holistic wellbeing of an individual (Costello. 2020, p. 19). It is not simply the absence of stress or anxiety; work is a place where individuals can, and should, thrive. Workers must be resilient, with capacity for change. Happy, engaged workforces are more profitable, more energised, more connected, more creative, and incur less sickness and workplace harassment than those that aren't (Rath et al., 2010).
At an individual level, and at the core of building resilience, is understanding there must be clear boundaries between work and life. The spillover of work to life and life to work has been well documented (Grzywacz & Marks, 2000). Being grumpy at home because you haven't allowed yourself enough downtime, isn't sustainable. Neglecting aspects of your life like rest, physical activity, healthy eating, participating in leisure activities and social interactions, lead to poor health outcomes (Hasson et al., 2020, p. 90). Including anxiety, depression, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. These are the antithesis of resilience. Building space and boundaries between work and home is crucial to maintaining wellbeing.
To build resilience you must consider what makes you happy, where do you find joy, what makes you smile, what creates harmony within your body? Do the things that bring you joy; they create space for coping when life/work gets hard.
You can write! Seems simple, but multiple studies have shown the physiological benefits of writing down what's been irking you the most lately (Smyth et al., 1999).
Banishing negative thoughts and reducing stress and anxiety can be administered in the comfort of your own space, through a computer or phone. The WHO has created short audio excerpts: Unhooking from Unkind Thoughts, Being kind to yourself, Grounding Exercises. They are short duration which you can apply during a lunch or crib break.
In closing
The beauty of keeping it basic is that these interventions can be consumed through multiple levels across a diverse range of people. Individual techniques don't dim the responsibilities of the workplace to provide safe working environments. They do encourage deeper growth and understanding throughout the workforce and act as an accompaniment to policies and procedures which will assist in the alignment of WW and psychosocial risk management.
References:
Boyle, T., & Charlton, F. (2025). Well-being and Wellness: Psychosocial Risk Management (1st ed., Vol. 1). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003490555
Costello, J. (2020). Introduction. In Workplace Wellbeing. Taylor & Francis Group. (p.10)
Grzywacz, J. G., & Marks, N. F. (2000). Reconceptualizing the Work-Family Interface: An ecological perspective on the correlates of positive and negative Spillover between work and family. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 5(1), 111â126. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.5.1.111
Harter, J., & Rath, T. (2010). The Economics of wellbeing. Gallup Consulting. https://www.gallup.com/services/177050/economics-wellbeing.aspx
Hasson, G., & Butler, D. (2020). Mental health and wellbeing in the workplace: A practical guide for employers and employees. (p. 90). Capstone.
Jain, A., Torres, L. D., Teoh, K., & Leka, S. (2022). The impact of national legislation on psychosocial risks on organisational action plans, psychosocial working conditions, and employee work-related stress in Europe. Social Science & Medicine (1982), 302, Article 114987. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114987
Smyth, J. M., Stone, A. A., Hurewitz, A., & Kaell, A. (1999). Effects of writing about stressful experiences on symptom reduction in patients with Asthma or Rheumatoid Arthritis: A randomized trial. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 281(14), 1304â1309. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.281.14.1304
World Health Organisation - Health Promotion Glossary. (2021, p. 10). contehttps://iris.who.int/server/api/core/bitstreams/96da8799-4938-4d66-b171-04770ed4b243/contentnt
World Health Organisation - Mental well-being: resources for the public