In February, the Corporate Mental Health Alliance Australia held its annual gathering, to review progress to date, and craft an action plan for the year ahead. We’ve pulled together highlights from the day and an outline of our priorities for 2021. Mental health must be a priority for every organisation and individual in Australia – please join us on this critically important journey to wellbeing.

-Steven Worrall, chair CMHAA and managing director, Microsoft Australia

Every employer in Australia must adhere to the Work Health and Safety Act and associated regulations which encompass mental health issues; this is not discretionary, rather a legislated requirement.

The Corporate Mental Health Alliance Australia (CMHAA) was formed by some of the nation’s leading employers in 2020 to support mental health in the workplace. With a combined employment base of 400,000+ people the Alliance shares information and insights and is working toward crafting evidence based best practices that foster mentally healthy workplaces.

In February 2021 Alliance members came together to discuss progress to date and to shape the agenda for the coming year.

Alliance members were presented with the results of several important reports released during the last year (key points detailed below) while Commonwealth Bank shared its approach to promoting the mental health and wellbeing of its people.

Key themes explored during the day included:

• The critical role of data as an evidence base for developing processes and practices, and also to shape metrics for measuring progress;
• The need to boost the mental health literacy of employees, managers, and particularly hiring teams in order to structure jobs so that they are stimulating without being onerous; and
• The journey that leaders are undertaking to helm mentally healthy workplaces in organisations stretching from large geographically distributed enterprises to sole traders which exist within broader supply chains.

Delegates also determined the action agenda for 2021 – details below.

Australian employers wishing to join the Alliance are encouraged to contact CHMAA directly to get involved in this important initiative.