Industry Thriving Score: Progress over Time
The Transport industry is the lowest ranked industry in Australia in terms of workplace mental health and wellbeing, with a thriving index score considerably below the national average at 62.3 out of 100. Despite this, nearly half (46.1%) of workers have indicated they feel their workplace is supportive of workers’ mental health and wellbeing, and 70% plan to stay with their employer for the next 12 months.
Optimistically, the overall index for the Transport Industry has marginally increased from last years scores, reflecting a gradual upward trend evident since 2018. Despite this, the industry is growing at a much slower rate when compared to the year-on-year growth of other industries and of the Australian national average.
What’s working well
The capability domain has seen the largest increase across all indicators in the last 12 months, with staff engagement, staff skills, and staff confidence in addressing job-related concerns all increasing relative to last years scores.
Likewise there has been an increase in both the culture and policy domain, with clear information about support services access showing the sharpest increase in that area compared to 2020.
Areas to focus on
Within this industry…
Psychosocial Risk Profile
Inappropriate workload
Low recognition
Poor change management
Poor management support
Low job control
Poor role clarity
Poor workplace relationships
Poor working environment
Traumatic events
Key:
Table – Psychosocial Risk Profile for Transport, Postal and Warehousing industry
Highest Psychosocial Risk
The highest psychosocial risk facing the Transport, Postal and Warehousing Industry is low recognition.
How can you manage this risk?
Recognising workers can be challenging when they’re busy and constantly on the move but it’s not impossible. Here are some ideas you can try:
- Regularly and publicly celebrate successes (e.g., customer satisfaction ratings, % of on-time deliveries)
- Reward star performers with personalised gifts (e.g., gift card for their favourite brand)
- Make sure employees are paid fairly for their work (i.e., shift work, working overtime), and
- Give workers an opportunity to provide feedback on processes and suggest improvements.
Key Insight
Warehousing and storage services are furthest from thriving
It’s encouraging to see that workplaces in the transport and postal sectors have steadily become healthier places to work, despite the challenges posed by record demand for consumer goods. Compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019, the transport sector’s overall thriving workplace score has improved substantially (up 4.3 points to 63.9 out of 100), followed closely by the postal sector (+3.6 points to 61.8).
However, workplaces in the warehousing and storage services sector have shown minimal improvement (+1.1 points to 58.1), and are falling further behind each year. Leadership and connectedness in the sector has suffered recently, which is reflected in workers’ intentions to stay with their employer: only 32.4% of warehousing and storage services workers definitely plan to stay another 12 months, whereas planned retention is higher in the transport (43.2%) and postal (35.3%) sectors.
Key Insight
There are dramatic differences in the rewards and recognition given to these essential workers
Within the transport, postal and warehousing industry, only 1 in 8 workers strongly agree that they receive appropriate rewards and recognition for doing a great job. Given the increased workloads, and more pressure on these essential workers than ever before, it’s no real surprise that many (23.9%) are considering exiting the industry and working elsewhere.
Benefits of rewarding and recognising workers
The workers who felt they were rewarded and recognised appropriately often referred to how their mental health and wellbeing also benefited:
Key Insight
Flexibility is vital to keeping workers healthy in this schedule-driven industry
Workers who were able to access flexible working hours less commonly experienced mental health conditions in the last 12 months (45.5%) than those who couldn’t access the flexibility they needed (65.2%). It’s important to remember that flexible working arrangements that work for one person might not suit another, so it’s better to offer a variety of options such as those outlined by industry workers:
Workers who were able to access flexible working hours less commonly experienced mental health conditions in the last 12 months (45.5%) than those who couldn’t access the flexibility they needed (65.2%). It’s important to remember that flexible working arrangements that work for one person might not suit another, so it’s better to offer a variety of options such as those outlined by industry workers:
Learn More
Watch this Heads Up case study to learn how Linfox uses leader training and a value-oriented approach to build mentally health workplaces across all their sites.
We’d also encourage to check out the resources on the Healthy Heads Trucks and Sheds website and read over the National Mental Health and Wellbeing Roadmap the developed for the transport industry.
SuperFriend recognises that every workplace is different – if you want to improve mental health and wellbeing at your workplace using the industry framework above but aren’t sure where to start, you can sign up to get an obligation-free call from of our Workplace Wellbeing Consultants.
