The survey will allow employers to to survey their employees and collect data that will allow them to compare their workplaces against the industry average using data collected by SuperFriend.
The data comes from the Indicators of Thriving Workplace 2017 report produced by SuperFriend that sampled 5,000 Australians in a range of industries and organisations in the country.
CEO Margo Lydon said that SuperFriend would continue to run and capture the data that reflects the national results, but an employer could now give the survey to his employers.
“The survey will be available for a business to roll out to their people and they will be able to compare against the national average, as well as compare against other similar organisations,” she said.
Ms Lydon said that businesses could now see how they stacked against, not only the nation, but also their peers in industry.
“Businesses will be able to say ‘how do we stack up against our peers’ and that benchmarking is really exciting for a lot of businesses, but also in of itself those indicators can give the business some prompts about what they can be doing to improve,” she said.
Many of the indicators were not rocket science and were just simple everyday things, said Ms Lydon.
“One example of an indicator is people say hello in the mornings and use pleases and thank yous and those things. It’s some fundamentals but they are all indicators and evidence of a mentally healthy workplace,” she said.
The indicators offer the employer a unique insight into the mental health of their organisation and presents opportunities to them too, Ms Lydon said.
“If they score low that’s a flag and they can go, ‘how do we start to address that inside our business?’. So, that’s some innovative work,” she said.
The Indicators of a Thriving Workplace 2017 report gave the financial services industry a score of 57 out of 100, when the national average was just 55.
“In the industry, there are some concerning statistics, particularly the high levels of chronic stress and that’s not a surprise.
“The royal commission, long hours, regulatory changes, budget announcements — they all have an impact,” she said.
However, many in the industry were already working towards a better workplace, with the availability of employee assistance programs (EAPs) in organisations was 19 per cent above the national average.
“We know organisations set KPIs to use EAPs and we love that. I would encourage organisations in financial services to really promote the EAP, getting them in and making them visible and encouraging people to use them,” she said.
