In the vibrant and demanding world of hospitality, employees play a crucial role in creating memorable experiences, working in a fast-paced environment that often involves long and unsociable hours, physical labour and close-up contact with the public.
Raising the Bar Foundation collaborated with the University of Wollongong to undertake research with 800 hospitality workers and it painted a concerning picture of their mental well-being and workplace experiences. It was found that 80% of these workers reported below-average mental health in their jobs, citing long and irregular hours, mistreatment and a lack of support from management as contributing factors. Additionally, the study revealed that bullying within the workplace still exists, with a large percentage of workers reporting they witnessed such behaviour.
Behind the cheerful demeanour that is required for customer-facing roles, these challenges can take their toll, leading to burnout, anxiety, depression, and other mental health concerns.
These results fueled the passion of the charity to help create a healthier hospitality workforce.
And with R U OK? day fast approaching, taking place on Thursday 12 September, there’s never been a better time to assess the support in place for your workforce and learn more about the resources available to you and your employees.
Creating a healthier hospitality industry
Born from a desire for safer and healthier work environments, Raising the Bar Foundation was formed in 2019 with a mission to eradicate the stigma around mental health and foster better workplace culture, within hospitality.
Having a psychologically safe work environment means that staff feel supported in their roles, and along with the right education and learning opportunities, creates an environment where they can thrive. Achieving this, however, relies on a change of culture driven by senior leaders.
Hoping to facilitate a better understanding of mental health needs and workplace support, Raising the Bar Foundation worked with Nic Lewis from Resilience Health & Safety, a psychologist who specialises in workplace risks, to launch its Healthier Hospitality program.
Healthier Hospitality has been designed to improve employee wellbeing and workplace culture by providing staff with the knowledge and resources to identify signs of mental illness, better communicate about these issues and better manage stress.
Speaking about a pilot study conducted with 2000 hospitality workers to measure the effectiveness of the program, Daniel Chin, general manager of Raising the Bar Foundation, says: “The two biggest outcomes that we saw across the board were increased confidence and competency in mental health communication.”
“We also saw an increase in identifying or increasing competency in being able to identify psychosocial hazards in the workplace, which was also really important.”
Now delivering its third pilot, Raising the Bar Foundation will provide 90-minute face-to-face training programs at an affordable rate, to ensure that all businesses, including small business, can access the training,
A grant of $250,000 received from the New South Wales State Government and New South Wales Health is currently supporting the delivery of this program to 10,000 hospitality staff, with the charity also undertaking one of the hospitality industry’s biggest surveys, of 8000 people, into mental health and workplace conditions.
Accessible to all
To complement the face-to-face training provided by Raising the Bar Foundation, they’ve partnered with leading online hospitality training provider Allara Global, who can offer additional training through their extensive suite of online health and wellbeing courses.
Andrew Lewis, CEO and founder of Allara Global, says: “Our partnership with Raising the Bar Foundation underscores our commitment to education as a catalyst for individual success and industry growth. Through initiatives like Healthier Hospitality, which emphasises mental health, our goal is to create supportive work environments and foster sustainable, fulfilling careers in the hospitality industry.”
Developed by subject matter experts, the online courses equip learners with a deeper understanding of health and wellbeing in the workplace, with courses about psychological safety, mindful leadership, drug and alcohol awareness, and a short course developed in conjunction with R U OK?.
Chin added: “We are really pleased to have recently partnered Allara Global, who strongly align to our core values, which is important to us, and who have a great online training offering, tailored to the hospitality industry, that complements our training, for continued learning that is easy to access anytime.”
To access support and address these challenges head-on, you can find out more about Raising the Bar’s Healthier Hospitality program here, and Allara Global’s online Health & Wellbeing courses here.