Employing people who have “been there, experienced that” to inform innovative HRM responses to workforce mental health issues: practice insights from industry

PurposeThis case documents an innovative human resource management (HRM) practice adopted by an Australian organization in the energy sector, purposefully introducing lived experience informed “mental health advocate” (MHA) roles into the organization, to address pressing mental health workforce iss...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Personnel review 2024-06, Vol.53 (5), p.1176-1187
Main Authors: Wang, Ying, Chapman, Melissa, Byrne, Louise, Hill, James, Bartram, Timothy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Corporate culture
Electricity
Employees
Energy industry
Fatalities
Health services
Help seeking behavior
Human resource management
Innovations
Leadership
Managers
Mental health care
Stigma
Suicides & suicide attempts
Traffic accidents & safety
Workforce
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Summary:PurposeThis case documents an innovative human resource management (HRM) practice adopted by an Australian organization in the energy sector, purposefully introducing lived experience informed “mental health advocate” (MHA) roles into the organization, to address pressing mental health workforce issues. MHA roles provide experiential, first-hand knowledge of experiencing mental health issues, offering a novel, common-sense and impactful perspective on supporting employees with mental health challenges.ApproachData that informed this case came from desktop research using publicly available resources, as well as a series of conversations with four key stakeholders in the organization. This approach allowed insights into Energy Queensland’s journey towards establishing novel MHA roles to delineate the day-to-day work practice of these roles.Contribution to PracticeThis is a novel HRM practice that has only recently emerged outside of the mental health sector. We discuss key considerations that enabled the success of the roles, including taking an evolutionary perspective, obtaining support from senior executives and relevant stakeholders, making a long-term financial commitment, and providing autonomy and flexibility in role design. This is the first article that documents this innovative practice to offer new insights to HRM scholars, as well as practical guidelines to other organizations in addressing workforce mental health issues.
ISSN:0048-3486
1758-6933
DOI:10.1108/PR-03-2023-0174