In July 2023 Professionals Engineers Australia released their annual Employment and Remunerable report which highlighted that gender equity continues to be the main challenge for Australia’s engineering sector.  The report key areas of concern were major barriers to career progression and experiencing gender-based discrimination and sexual harassment to a much greater extent than their male counterparts.  It notes that a high proportion of engineers “reported that workplace stress, poor management, unreasonable workloads, and long hours were negatively impacting their mental health and wellbeing”.  It goes on to say that many people reported a very unhealthy workplace culture.

Unfortunately, there is nothing in the report that is new to the industry and the negative impacts are clearly a problem.  These are deep seeded cultural issues which need to be systemically addressed.

Looking at this from a holistic lens, there are a couple of positives that come to mind;

• Mental health and wellbeing are topics that are more openly discussed post-Covid, which is helping breakdown the stigma of not feeling ok. “It is okay to not be okay” is a key tagline openly used regularly.
• Workplace culture is in our control. A strong leader/leadership team can shift the workplace culture starting today…if intentional effort is put into it.

Additionally, a key compliance shift is at hand coming out of the ISO 45003 and the new psychological health and safety at work guidelines which mandate that psychosocial hazard management plans need to be developed, which includes the topics of bullying and sexual harassment.

Referring to the first point, many teams now have as a part of their safety team, a workplace Mental Health First Aider or Responder.  The more we openly address mental health and wellbeing, the more we lessen the stigma.  There is still a long way to go, however it is trending in the right direction!

To the second point regarding changing the workplace culture, addressing the psychosocial hazards is a great place to start.  However, it is important to highlight that given all that we know about the constant workplace stressors, it is important to note that NONE of us work well when we don’t do something about it.  Meaning that if we don’t exercise, eat the right foods, get enough sleep, and stay under constant stress we tend to not have the capacity to be our thriving selves.

“Those who have no time for healthy eating will sooner or later have to find the time for illness.’’         – Edward Stanley

Further to this point, if our body systems are in a constant state of stress (“fight or flight” mode) our sympathetic nervous system goes into high gear which results in an increase of heart rate, blood pressure and breathing rate.   Research shows that when we are in that mode, our behaviours do not serve us well and we unintentionally take it out on each other and don’t feel well within ourselves.  In summary, It becomes very challenging to be at our best thriving selves when we are in constant stress and not looking after our health and wellbeing.  Additionally, a recent workplace study completed by the Wellbeing Lab, AHRI, and Minter Ellison shows that the biggest difference between those who reported high levels or low levels of thriving was the practice of self-compassion (being kind to ourselves).  This highlights the need for a cultural shift that includes health and wellbeing tools in our toolboxes.

It’s clear that we have systemic issues that continue to impact the people that work in the industry.  If we collectively work on the culture and health and wellbeing, research has shown that people will feel better and more likely to thrive, and we treat ourselves and each other better.  By having compliance in place to help us recognise, measure, and call out behaviours that do not contribute to people thriving is a good first start, backed by having the tools to complement a healthy workforce.

It is widely known that most engineering and construction organisations have not done a very good job of tackling these issues or leaned into the challenges.  It’s also well recognised that systemic and cultural changes take long periods of time (5-10 years) from the point of discovery, to then acknowledging the problems, doing something about it, and holding people accountable (including at an executive level to ensure both systemic and cultural changes are committed to), to making a real difference.  This highlights that it takes a long-term view and strategy is required.  Change is challenging.  It must be intentional, have senior leaders in the government, industry and organisations help overtly drive the changes and not accept a lesser standard.

“The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second-best time is now” Chinese Proverb

To those industry bodies, government agencies, organisations, and change champions who are currently leaning in and leading the way in these areas – your efforts are applauded and making a difference.  Now let’s drive a systemic cultural change that brings tears down the noted barriers that supports everyone to thrive.  Today is the best day to start!