A Wellness Action Plan is…
A confidential document agreed between you and your employer or manager. It identifies things that protect your mental health and well-being at work.
Whether or not you’re experiencing poor mental health, every employee should have a Wellness Action Plan. It’s important that it’s person-centred and tailored to you specifically.
A person-centred approach to mental health is important as it concentrates on the needs of individuals – not just the needs arising from mental ill health. It ensures that plans are developed in a bespoke way to meet our unique needs. Legally, it is compliant with professional guidance and legislation, which requires person-centred approaches to ensure society’s care needs are properly identified and met. More about person-centred plans here.
Key components of a Wellness Action Plan
Wellness Action Plans at work are personalised practical tools that help to prevent stress and mental ill health in the workplace. In accordance with legislation, these plans help to evidence your employer’s commitment to workplace mental well-being. Your plan also ensures your care needs are captured and met.
This document is therefore important to you, as an employee and individual, and your employer.
A Wellness Action Plan at work should comprise the following key components:
GOALS
For example “my goals for this Wellness Action Plan are to identify the triggers that make me stressed and anxious at work, how they impact my performance, and signs I’m experiencing poor health and well-being at work”.
- Triggers in the workplace that tend to cause you to feel stressed or anxious – e.g. feeling undervalued or isolated from lack of contact or communication in-person, loss of control over workload, lack of support from line manager or team members, irregular or absence of one-to-one and/or team meetings, or overbearing line management styles like micromanagement.
- Potential impacts of stress or anxiety on your performance – e.g. feeling demotivated and unable to manage workloads effectively, tiredness and lack of concentration resulting in frequent errors and missed deadlines, or increased impatience leading to snappiness and workplace confrontations.
- Signs and symptoms of stress or mental ill health to look out for, which alerts you and your employer that there may be an issue – e.g. feelings of anxiety, changes in mood and behaviour, increased tiredness or sickness absence, or absentmindedness leading to frequent work errors or deadlines being missed.
PLAN
For example “I plan to identify the things that I, my manager, and company can do to support my health and well-being at work”.
- Things you can do and approaches to follow to support your mental wellbeing – e.g. taking designated breaks throughout the day; joining a staff network, support group, or social committee; or booking regular days off every month alongside longer planned holidays to ensure that annual leave is used and regular time off work is scheduled in advance.
- Actions that you and your employer can take if there are signs of stress or mental ill health – e.g. meet in a private quiet space to discuss workloads, re-prioritise and reschedule tasks, adjust work portfolio / scope of work / responsibilities, look at what other support, provisions, networks or groups could help, agree a flexible working plan, or some time off while staying in contact so workplace support is ongoing.
ACTION
For example “I will actively use my Wellness Action Plan and make sure to keep it under review”.
- A review date for the plan to assess if amendments or additions are required. It is crucial to keep things agile to ensure that your plan is updated in accordance with your changing circumstances. Mental health comes and goes, and can be mild or severe. Sometimes we need more support, other times we need less.
- Any other actions or support that could support mental well-being at work – e.g. team building exercises, away days, corporate volunteering days, regular team lunches and socials, support groups like a Carers & Parents Network, Art for Wellness lunchtime session, or a walking or running club. Taking action in your personal life to reduce stress and anxiety and boost Autumn/Winter wellness also helps to improve things at work.
How to actively use my Wellness Action Plan
Integrate your Wellness Action Plan into your performance management appraisal and regular one-to-one meetings with your manager. This ensures that any amendments are accounted for and that the support you need is updated and tailored in a live document to suit your evolving circumstances. Mental health comes and goes – and can be mild or severe, so what you need in the care plan will change.
At your performance management appraisal, discuss your general health & well-being at work and thoughts on how your Wellness Action Plan is working for you. During this, you and your manager should review the specific actions and tangible measures that were agreed on previously – not just your objectives and performance against your job description.
At your one-to-one meetings with your manager, talk about your health and well-being, how you are feeling, how well the plan is working for you, and any updates or new actions you’d like to add.
Doing this will keep you, as an employee and individual, and your plan top-of-mind and ensure your health and well-being requirements at work are identified and met.
Why a Wellness Action Plan at work is important
A Wellness Action Plan at work is important because it starts the conversation about mental health. Whether or not you have an existing mental health problem, it sets out your expectations and those of your employer about mental health and well-being in the workplace.
A proactive, over a reactive, approach to managing mental health is preferable. By anticipating what could go wrong, safeguards can be placed to prevent or reduce the risk(s) of poor mental health from developing. This is far more effective than dealing with the impact of a mental health issue after it arises.
A proactive approach ensures that you and your employer adopt a preventative, early intervention approach, helping everyone to deal with mental health effectively and efficiently to achieve the best outcomes.
