Skip to main content

Summarising your activities using the Thrive at Work Framework

Identifying how your current mental health and well-being activities align with the Thrive at Work Framework will help you take a more strategic and integrated approach moving forward. The evaluation process will enable you to highlight areas of strength and identify opportunities for future development.

Start the evaluation process by brainstorming activities that may be relevant to each key strategy, by listing the activities in the Activity Description column for each strategy.

The assessment tool provides example activities that your organisation may be undertaking within each Building Block of the Thrive at Work Framework. You can use this list as a prompt for your own initial brainstorming. Remember that the list is not exhaustive. We find organisations are often doing a lot more in each Building Block than they initially realise and it is also likely that you will be undertaking activities that are not listed.

Tip!

Some organisations find it useful to conduct an initial brainstorm in their first meeting, then reconvene to review the activities and inclusions and add activities that were missed the first time.

Levels of implementation

When taking stock of your activities, you can include activities regardless of whether they are currently in place, planned or are being considered. Some organisations find action planning easier when the initial assessment differentiates between activities based on their level of implementation.

  • Implemented: activities your organisations already has in place (e.g. yearly performance reviews, Employee Assistance Programs).
  • Planned: activities your organisation has in the pipeline, with concrete timelines in place and resources allocated (e.g. the wellness branch have committed time and resources to introducing a new cognitive-behavioural therapy based resilience program next year).
  • Considered/future activities: activities your organisation may have discussed, or ideas you find useful – but have not put in place any firm plans/timelines to undertake (e.g. Organisational Development is considering bringing in external career coaches).

If you find that there are Building Blocks in which you currently have few or no strategies in place, don’t be discouraged or hastily add activities. Remember that the evaluation is designed to establish a baseline that will enable you to build upon and strategically target areas for development.

What counts as an activity?

A huge variety of workplace activities can impact employee mental health and can therefore be included in the Thrive at Work assessment. Canadian workplace mental health experts, Guarding Minds at Work, categorise activities into the groups below:

  • Work and environment, norms, values, practices: is there something about the work or work environment that contributes to the strategy?
  • Training and development opportunities: are there training and development programs that staff and leaders can access that contribute to the strategy?
  • Communication: is information relevant to the strategy communicated to staff and leaders in a clear and respectful manner?
  • Formal policies and procedures: how do your organisational policies and procedure enable the strategy to be effective?

You can use these categories to prompt your thinking around what activities you are undertaking in your organisation, remembering that not all may be relevant to each strategy within a building block.

Next step

Step 3: Assess maturity

Understanding how mature your mental health and well-being activities are will help when it comes time to prioritise your next steps.