HSA May 2021

Podcasts to Help Hospitality
Workers with Mental Health
The AHA|SA and Employers Mutual Limited have
developed a series of six podcasts dealing with mental
health and wellbeing for managers and workers in
hospitality.
This series of podcasts provides hands-on advice
you can put into practice straight away.
As well as working with the broader business
community for more than 15 years, organisational
psychologist Hayley Lokan has worked closely with
hospitality owners and managers, to understand the
issues they face.
She’s a practical person and she offers a wealth
of practical advice on mental health and wellbeing
strategies for hospitality workers and managers.
A help sheet is provided with each podcast.
BUILDING INDIVIDUAL RESILIENCE
What does Resilience mean and why is it so
important?
Resilience refers to our capacity to manage the
everyday stress of work and yet remain healthy,
rebound and learn from setbacks and prepare for
“future challenges proactively.
This was an important skill before COVID-19, but since
the pandemic – our ability to be resilient has become
even more crucial.
We know from the research that resilience is not a
personality characteristic; it’s not a trait that we are
born with. We can develop our levels of resilience; like
building any skill, it requires focus, perseverance and
commitment.
The Resilience @ Work© framework, developed by
Working with Resilience, outlines the seven factors that
determine our levels of resilience. By understanding
these factors, we can reflect on which of these aspects
we do well, and where we may need to improve. It is
important to remember that there is no ‘one size fits all’
solution when it comes to building our resilience.
WELLBEING
What does Wellbeing actually mean?
Wellbeing is a widely used term and can therefore be
misleading or misunderstood. It is not just the absence
of illness or disease, but it refers to how you feel about
yourself and your quality of life. Our wellbeing is a
complex combination of our physical, mental, emotional
and social health factors – including having good
mental health, general life satisfaction and a sense of
meaning or purpose.
How can we improve our wellbeing?
A framework developed by Royal Melbourne Hospital
and Northwestern Mental Health Service provides a
useful overview of the key components of wellbeing.
By understanding the factors that impact our wellbeing,
we are able to consider where our attention and focus is
best spent.
MANAGING STRESS
What are the different types of stress? What are the
sources of stress? How can you manage feelings of
stress? This episode is full of helpful strategies you
can put in place to deal with the stress in your life in
hospitality – and life in general.
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
What is emotional intelligence?
Emotional intelligence refers to our ability to recognise
the feelings in ourselves and others. It also refers to our
ability to manage emotions well in ourselves and in our
relationships.
Is it important?
Whereas the idea of emotional intelligence has
previously been considered ‘fluffy’, we now have science
and data to support its importance – particularly in
the workplace. We know that emotional intelligence is
a key success factor for strong leadership, customer
service and sales, and provides the foundation for
our relationships with one another. We also know that
emotional intelligence is an important determinant in
the mental health of young people.
Can we improve our emotional intelligence?
We can absolutely develop our emotional intelligence,
but we need to understand what it actually involves.
One of the most widely researched frameworks in
this area has been developed by a company called
RocheMartin. This framework breaks down emotional
intelligence into 10 specific areas – or competencies
– categorised into three areas: inner focus, outer focus
and other focus.
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