Harnessing human-centred, integrated solutions to benefit workers, create mentally healthy workplaces and improve productivity.
Harnessing human-centred, integrated solutions to create mentally healthy workplaces and improve productivity
Healthy workplaces support mental and physical wellbeing of workers while also delivering on organisational goals.
In the last 20 years in Australia, the costs of workplace mental health injury claims have doubled and the Productivity Commission estimates costs of up to $40 billion per year due to loss of productivity and participation due to mental illness.
The Well and Productive CRC was convened in response to a rising demand from business and their employees, government and unions for policies, products and practices that promote mental health and productivity in the workplace.
This means:
- Constructing a health and safety ecosystem that eliminates and mitigates psychosocial hazards
- Equipping leaders with the skills and knowledge to support and empower their teams and to intervene when necessary
- Designing work and workplaces that protect and enhance worker wellbeing
- Supporting individuals to make informed choices about their own health
- Providing businesses with guidance about what will work best for their people and operations
- Using data and information ethically and for the benefit of workers
The Well and Productive CRC is committed to working with partners to co-design and deliver practical and scalable solutions for improved mental health. We will do this across four integrated and complementary research programs and an education and training program.
In addition, the program of work will create more than 4000 jobs in industries such as health technology and advanced manufacturing within 15 years.
The unsustainable burden of mental ill-health impacts individuals, employers, and the whole community. Clearly, we don’t have the right solutions to prevent and manage this.
The human and economic impacts of workplace mental ill-health are significant.
The Productivity Commission reveals approximately $200 billion of costs result to the Australian economy from mental ill health alone. $17 billion is costed to absenteeism and presenteeism. With 45% of Australians facing a mental wellbeing challenge in their lifetimes, and around 13 million of us in some form of work, this problem is too big to ignore.
At this intersection of unmet needs and the opportunity to make a real difference, a preventative approach can be taken to manage and reduce the risks of psychological injuries and maximise workplace mental wellbeing.
The Well and Productive CRC will deliver tangible, workplace wellbeing and productivity outcomes in the form of new products and services for workers, workplaces and other key stakeholders. The Well and Productive CRC will focus on commercialising new exportable technologies for maximising workplace mental wellbeing, establishing us as a national centre for research and innovation excellence with an international impact in commercial settings.
Our partners, including workplaces, workers, regulators, technology providers and researchers have joined forces to focus on protecting and improving the mental wellbeing of workers. This is one of the most important and complex challenges for individuals, workplaces and our communities.
This committed consortium is focused on the co-design of customised and targeted innovations that factor the broad unmet needs of workers and workplaces. Together, the consortium is committed to realising practical, implementable and scalable solutions through four complementary and integrated research programs focusing on the translation of impactful research into user-friendly and commercially adoptable products and services.
Our foundational strengths in research, development and innovation provide a strong basis for the world-class work proposed by the Well and Productive CRC.
In addition, as a consortium we are committed to driving significant positive economic outcomes such as the creation over 4000 jobs in industries such as health technology and advanced manufacturing within 15 years, and translation of the outputs of these new jobs to international markets in the form of commercially attractive products and services.