Two years ago, the CEIH issued a call to action to strength­en col­lab­o­ra­tive efforts to advance work­place well­be­ing in South Australia’s health­care sec­tor. We pub­lished a dis­cus­sion paper and organ­i­sa­tion­al guide aimed at build­ing a cul­ture that pri­ori­tis­es, pro­tects, and pro­motes work­place health, well­be­ing and safe­ty. These resources were the result of a deep dive into and syn­the­ses of nation­al and inter­na­tion­al lit­er­a­ture and data, sig­nif­i­cant stake­hold­er engage­ment, and the appli­ca­tion of knowl­edge to the South Aus­tralian health­care context.

Since then, we’ve seen sig­nif­i­cant progress in sev­er­al key areas, lay­ing a strong foun­da­tion for future efforts. Whilst there is still much work to be done, here’s a snap­shot of what’s changed:

Strength­ened lead­er­ship and gov­er­nance to dri­ve the change

SA Health has estab­lished a robust gov­er­nance struc­ture to advance work­place well­be­ing, led by the CEIH and senior exec­u­tives across dis­ci­plines includ­ing peo­ple and cul­ture, pub­lic health, clin­i­cal lead­er­ship, Abo­rig­i­nal health and health­care admin­is­tra­tion. The Health­care Work­force Well­be­ing sub-com­mit­tee of the SA Health Chief Exec­u­tives’ Coun­cil (HCEC) was formed to pro­vide strate­gic guid­ance to the devel­op­ment and imple­men­ta­tion of a SA Health-wide plan and esca­la­tion path­way for address­ing sys­tem-lev­el issues. Projects are under­way across a range of areas such as work­place well­be­ing data mea­sure­ment and mon­i­tor­ing, med­ical ros­ter­ing, com­mu­ni­ca­tion, lead­er­ship devel­op­ment, and psy­choso­cial risk management.

Invest­ment in ded­i­cat­ed staff resourc­ing for Work­place Wellbeing

In 2022, organ­i­sa­tion­al efforts to address work­place well­be­ing lacked suf­fi­cient resources. Today, many of the Local Health Net­works (LHNs) have embed­ded ded­i­cat­ed work­place well­be­ing roles, includ­ing Direc­tors of Staff Well­be­ing with­in some met­ro­pol­i­tan LHNs. These roles, paired with new key per­for­mance indi­ca­tors, sup­port a con­sis­tent focus and account­abil­i­ty for work­place wellbeing.

Enhanced lead­er­ship capa­bil­i­ty to man­age psy­cho­log­i­cal risks

New psy­choso­cial health and safe­ty leg­is­la­tion which came into force in late 2023 spurred lead­ers to ensure proac­tive approach­es to work­place health, well­be­ing and safe­ty were in place. CEIH facil­i­tat­ed the deliv­ery of ses­sions for LHN board mem­bers and exec­u­tives to build con­fi­dence in man­ag­ing psy­choso­cial risks, result­ing in sys­tem-wide improve­ments in lead­er­ship aware­ness and knowledge.

Stan­dard­ised data col­lec­tion across the sys­tem to mea­sure what matters

With­out con­sis­tent work­er and work­place well­be­ing met­rics in 2022, track­ing progress was a chal­lenge. By the end of 2025, SA Health will have embed­ded renewed sys­tems for mea­sur­ing, mon­i­tor­ing, and report­ing on work­force well­be­ing, ensur­ing mean­ing­ful insights dri­ve action.

Redesign­ing the future of work

The CEIH’s frame­work for build­ing sus­tain­able work­place well­be­ing in health­care organ­i­sa­tions out­lines a dual approach — address­ing and rem­e­dy­ing work-relat­ed fac­tors that impact on job stress, risk of burnout and prac­tice inef­fi­cien­cies from both the top down and the ground up. We are excit­ed to be work­ing in part­ner­ship with the Women’s and Children’s Health Net­work to imple­ment this frame­work with­in two clin­i­cal divi­sions through­out 2025 and under­tak­ing a rig­or­ous research project to mea­sure the impact and effec­tive­ness on work­force and organ­i­sa­tion­al outcomes.

Look­ing ahead

The CEIH Strate­gic Direc­tion 2024 – 27 pri­ori­tis­es work­force sus­tain­abil­i­ty, empha­sis­ing the need to make work­place health, well­be­ing and safe­ty a cen­tral focus. While much work remains, the progress achieved has been piv­otal in set­ting the foun­da­tions for shift­ing the cul­ture across our health­care system.

By con­tin­u­ing to col­lab­o­rate and inno­vate, the CEIH is com­mit­ted to cre­at­ing healthy, safe, and thriv­ing work­places — because with­out a thriv­ing work­force, there is no healthcare.

Togeth­er, we can pri­ori­tise the well­be­ing of those who care for South Australians.

For more infor­ma­tion on our work to strength­en health­care work­place well­be­ing, vis­it Strength­en­ing Work­place Well­be­ing or con­tact us at ceih.​workplacewellbeing@​sa.​gov.​au.