D3 D3 (60 min symposium)
Tracks
Track D (Wattle Level 2)
Saturday, October 26, 2024 |
3:00 PM - 3:15 PM |
Stream D | Wattle Room (level 2) |
Overview
The Thrive at Work initiative: Integrating theory, data, and practice.
(Belinda Cham | Karina Jorritsma, Judy Chi)
Presenter
Dr Belinda Cham
Research Fellow
Curtin University
The Thrive at Work initiative: Integrating theory, data, and practice.
3:00 PM - 4:00 PMAbstract
Aim: Discourse around workplace mental health is changing. Legislative changes, new guidance from regulatory bodies and increasing labour market competition indicate that a singular focus on managing mental ill-health at work, while important, is too narrow. There is now increasing awareness that well-designed work and working environments can not only protect against ill-health, but they can also promote performance and wellbeing (Parker et al., 2017). The Future of Work Institute’s Thrive at Work initiative was established to help employees, organisations, and industry navigate the challenge of creating a work environment that supports the full spectrum of mental health – from negative ill-health to positive wellbeing (Parker et al., 2022). The aim of this symposium is to introduce the Thrive at Work initiative and discuss how the initiative brings together research theory, data insights, and practical interventions to enhance workplace practices and generate new scientific knowledge on mental health and wellbeing.
Content: The three presentations in this symposium will discuss applied research conducted under the Thrive at Work initiative. The first presentation will introduce the Thrive at Work initiative and its underpinning theory and integrative framework that helps to tackle the full spectrum of mental health. The second presentation will present novel insights from the organisational data that has been collected from the Thrive at Work Initiative to-date. This data will provide a "zoomed out" lens on workplace mental health and wellbeing challenges across Australian workplaces, with a focus on sustainable wellbeing. The third presentation will provide a "zoomed in" lens by walking through a case study from an Australian organisation. This case study will illustrate how the Thrive at Work process is applied in practice to co-design fit-for-purpose interventions with a workforce by drawing on both theory and data.
Goals: The goals of this symposium are to introduce the Thrive at Work initiative and explore how the initiative integrates theory, data insights, and practical interventions to improve workplace practices and contribute back to the research evidence-base. The symposium will emphasise a shared problem space between academics, practitioners, and business leaders – helping to build connections and further bridge the academic-practitioner divide.
Content: The three presentations in this symposium will discuss applied research conducted under the Thrive at Work initiative. The first presentation will introduce the Thrive at Work initiative and its underpinning theory and integrative framework that helps to tackle the full spectrum of mental health. The second presentation will present novel insights from the organisational data that has been collected from the Thrive at Work Initiative to-date. This data will provide a "zoomed out" lens on workplace mental health and wellbeing challenges across Australian workplaces, with a focus on sustainable wellbeing. The third presentation will provide a "zoomed in" lens by walking through a case study from an Australian organisation. This case study will illustrate how the Thrive at Work process is applied in practice to co-design fit-for-purpose interventions with a workforce by drawing on both theory and data.
Goals: The goals of this symposium are to introduce the Thrive at Work initiative and explore how the initiative integrates theory, data insights, and practical interventions to improve workplace practices and contribute back to the research evidence-base. The symposium will emphasise a shared problem space between academics, practitioners, and business leaders – helping to build connections and further bridge the academic-practitioner divide.
Learning outcomes
At the conclusion of the event, attendees will be able to:
- Gain an understanding of the theoretical lenses from different research disciplines that are important to consider when trying to address workplace mental health and wellbeing.
- Gain an understanding of the state of mental health and wellbeing, and organisational practices to support mental health and wellbeing across several Australian organisations.
- Gain knowledge of how to integrate theories and employee perception data to co-design fit-for-purpose interventions with a workforce to improve mental health and wellbeing.
- Evaluate and prioritise psychosocial risks to be addressed for a specific workforce.
- Gain an understanding of the theoretical lenses from different research disciplines that are important to consider when trying to address workplace mental health and wellbeing.
- Gain an understanding of the state of mental health and wellbeing, and organisational practices to support mental health and wellbeing across several Australian organisations.
- Gain knowledge of how to integrate theories and employee perception data to co-design fit-for-purpose interventions with a workforce to improve mental health and wellbeing.
- Evaluate and prioritise psychosocial risks to be addressed for a specific workforce.
.....
Dr. Belinda Cham is a research fellow at Curtin University's Future of Work Institute. Belinda conducts applied research that aims to connect the dots between scholarly and practical domains; her work has spanned several safety critical settings including the military, emergency services and aviation. Her research to date has focused on individual and system level work design to support performance and wellbeing, and the design of bespoke measurement protocols. She has special interests in research translation and data visualisation.
Professor Karina Jorritsma
Professor
Curtin University
The Thrive at Work initiative: Integrating theory, data, and practice.
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM.....
Karina Jorritsma is the Professor of Practice at Curtin University’s Future of Work Institute, a recently established Research Institute which promotes productive and meaningful work as essential foundations of a healthy economy and society. Her main objective in this role is to foster new ways for academia and industry to interact, aligning both with the University’s focus on balancing researcher-led and industry demand-driven research and an increased focus on non-academic impact.
Karina’s background is as an applied organisational psychology researcher working in non-traditional academic roles. She holds over 20 years of experience in successfully bringing together academic thinking across disciplines and working with industry stakeholders to address critical workplace challenges. In her career to date, she has successfully contributed to, or led, more than 100 multidisciplinary projects with many high-profile clients in both the public and private sectors and across a wide range of industries, including health care, mining, aviation, fire and emergency services, law enforcement, and the Royal Australian Navy, including more than 80 industry-funded University research projects totalling more than $15 million.
In recent years, Karina’s applied research has had a particular focus on employee well-being. Karina currently leads the Future of Work Institute’s Thrive at Work initiative, an award-winning, partially WA State-funded employee well-being initiative centred on providing organisations with the knowledge and tools to design, implement and sustain healthy, high-performing work environments. She also leads the Future of Work Institute’s Work Systems Design research stream. This stream seeks to optimise the performance and wellbeing of humans in complex human-machine systems, and includes amongst other projects, a long-term research partnership with the Australian Defence Force to optimise crew endurance on Australia’s future submarine platform.
Ms Judy Chi
Applied Organisational Research Leader
Curtin University - Future of Work Institute
The Thrive at Work initiative: Integrating theory, data, and practice.
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM.....
Judy is an Applied Organisational Research Leader at the Future of Work Institute at Curtin University. Judy has a background in organisational psychology, with a keen focus on work design and workplace wellbeing. Judy has worked extensively with both private and public sectors on the implementation of evidence-based strategies and interventions to support worker mental health and wellbeing.