"Mental Health awareness in the workplace has been a topic gaining more and more exposure over the past few years and something that I feel passionate writing about."

Bradley Steinbach, People and Culture Manager

While we still have a long way to go, sharing our challenging experiences, vulnerability and awareness of the difficulties of balancing work and life is embedded into our culture at AssuranceLab.

“We are human, and vulnerability is the key to success at our business”

One of my favourite values and one we consistently promote daily in our 1 on 1s, team meetings and performance cycles. Vulnerability is the key to unlocking challenges and moving forward. It helps us understand what makes each member of the team “tick” and be flexible about the best ways of working and communicating with one another.

As a bit of fun and team building centred around this value, we are rolling out a very intuitive personality assessment to understand better how each of us works. The test we are using leverages the Myers & Briggs teachings around personality profiling, and it has been staggering how accurate it has been! Not only has it been fun, but the accuracy has been very close. It helps us understand one another and how best to interact and communicate. It also helps our leaders use the best approach to growth and development with their diverse team members.

Being vulnerable is often the hardest thing to do, but we often see team members across the business discussing what is challenging them personally and professionally so that we create a culture of caring for one another. This all starts with vulnerability in our leadership teams and stems through the rest of the company. Our Co-Founder, Nick Lew Ton is a mental health advocate and leads from the front with vulnerability. He shares his struggles with the team in public forums to normalise and spread the word to get help when you need it!

Team AssuranceLab: The Push-Up Challenge

To reinforce our awareness of Mental Health, many team members are participating in a Push Up Challenge to raise money and awareness for Men’s Mental Health. There has been a stigma with men not discussing their mental health and “suffering in silence” for too long, and we are doing our part to shed some light on the topic. 

Nearly 1 in 10 men experience some form of depression or anxiety, but less than half seek treatment - (Anxiety & Depression Association of America, 2024)

The team has been incredibly supportive of the participants, broken some barriers down across the business, and brought some team members together for a common and important purpose. Participating in this great cause alone has encouraged conversations about mental health across the business in a healthy way.

One of our team members, Tom Faithfull has been leading the charge on the push-up challenge and he had this to share: “The initiative is to raise awareness for mental health, as that number represents the amount of lives lost to suicide in 2022. It can be a tough topic to talk about, especially when we're so focused on making a good impression as someone who's got their life under control, being resilient, happy, etc. but the reality is that we all have ups and downs, and this challenge helps us open up to those conversations through good ole exercise.

"This is something dear to me, as I've battled with mental health for most of my life, as well as many dear friends and family. It took me years to realise just how much a bit of exercise can help with mental health too, so doing push-ups to raise awareness for mental health really put the cherry on top!

"It's been a tough month, sticking to over a hundred reps per day, and I'm super proud of the team at AssuranceLab who've contributed to our stunning effort of over 5000 reps completed in June! Every rep counts.

"I'm very grateful to have the physical health and time to be able to stick to the full challenge, but I really want to encourage everyone to try incorporating a bit of movement into their daily routine; whether it's push-ups, squats, dancing, walking, or a full weightlifting gym session, every bit helps! Thanks everyone, and I wish you all good health and wellness!”

Cracking the code

We humans can have trouble speaking up when we are having trouble, and sometimes, we “expect” someone to understand the language we are using when we cry out for it, but they can miss the signs if it is unclear!

Simon Sinek made a great video (1 min approx) on using helpful, inclusive language to say “I need you” or “I need help”. Have a watch! 

What’s next?

There is no start or finish to raising awareness on our battles with mental health. So continuous improvement, vulnerability and dedication to causes like The Push Up challenge and others will continue to build our culture of support.

I am thrilled to report that we are forming a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion team at AssuranceLab. Given the upcoming RU Okay Day, which is a day that raises mental health awareness in the workplace, we are planning an event as a starting point for our DE&I initiatives in the business. This is a small start and step in the right direction, but it takes a ton of effort and we have a lot of work to do!

People exposed to the R U OK campaign are up to 6x more likely to reach out to someone who might be experiencing personal difficulties. (R U OK org, 2024)

We are incredibly fortunate to live in a country with so many amazing and free services for mental health. While I am no professional, I highly encourage anyone struggling not to do it alone and to speak with their GP about a mental health plan or reach out to Lifeline.