How Managers Can Address RUOK Day at Work

"Getting connected and staying connected is the best thing anyone can do for themselves and for those who may be at risk."

- RUOK Day Co-Founder Gavin Larkin.

RUOK Day may seem like an uncomfortable campaign to champion in the workplace. While you might envisage yourself checking in with friends and family, there is a stigma about acknowledging mental health issues in the workplace. Should there be?

Family and friends make a deeper impact on our lives, but colleagues make a broader impact. That’s because the majority of our waking hours are spent working; we have dozens of relationships that affect our well-being and often make the difference between a good day and a bad day.

As managers, anyone on your team having a bad day can influence the performance of everyone else. In fact, one of the most important rules of engaging employees is for managers to “get inside their heads.” While this doesn’t mean in-depth psychoanalysis by any means, it does mean making personal connections with your team so that you can better communicate, motivate and evaluate on an individual basis.

Asking “RUOK?” can be difficult because it could begin a conversation most managers aren’t ready to have. Most of us aren’t qualified to fix the personal problems of others, much less mental health issues. However, our job isn’t to solve these problems, but to ask and to listen to the individuals on our team. And as Mr Larkin said, being connected is the best thing anyone can do.

So what should you do if someone says, “No, I’m not OK”? Before you start the conversation, check in with your Human Resources team about your organisation’s benefits and resources for people who are struggling. If your organisation doesn’t have a formal plan, check out https://www.ruok.org.au/findhelp and be prepared to share the resources listed there with your team member.

Asking RUOK is a very simple action with potentially life-changing affects. It takes courage to ask the question sincerely and courage to answer the question honestly. However, people who manage others are in a unique position to impact each individual which builds better relationships, better teams and better rates of success. It’s one of the differences between being a manager and becoming a leader.

RUOK Day is Thursday, September 14. For more information, please visit https://www.ruok.org.au