Case Study: Self-Care in the Workplace

Client: Nathan Soulsby from Southern Cross Austereo

Nathan Soulsby from Southern Cross Austereo shares his experience of implementing a successful self-care initiative in his workplace.

Background 

Nathan is the head of sales for Southern Cross Austereo, Australia’s largest media organisation. He manages a team of 25 people and supports 3 managers who work under him. Nathan loves his job but it’s a demanding role and at times can be stressful. With such a busy life and long working hours, Nathan is very conscious about his own mental health and the wellbeing of others.

Challenge 

Nathan was introduced to the valuable concept of self-care when he was training with Debbie at one of her workshops. Feeling so inspired by what he had learnt, Nathan hoped to adopt self-care in his own life and motivate his team too. Nathan wanted to educate his team about the benefits of self-care and implement a self-care initiative within his company. The challenge was, Nathan needed to create a self-care program that was flexible and suited the needs of his whole team.

Action

Using the skills he had learnt working with Debbie, Nathan created a self-care initiative which involved giving his team members back an hour a week to participate in self-care activities. They can come in an hour later or leave one hour earlier each week. In addition to this, every month Nathan and his team nominate one self-care activity they can all do together for that month. At their weekly sales meeting on a Thursday, the whole team participate in the agreed self-care activity (it’s even on the agenda!). A team member will then go around the room to ensure everyone is committing to their self-care activity.

Results                       

The commitment shown by Nathan’s team blew him away and his self-care initiative has gone from strength to strength. It’s boosted morale and bonded them together as a team. Everyone feels happier and more connected with a better sense of wellbeing. The team keep each other accountable and people are enjoying doing things they haven’t done before such as pottery, online gardening, tap dancing and Italian lessons. Word soon got around about Nathan’s fantastic self-care initiative and he was asked by the COO to present it to the whole company, resulting in rollouts across other departments. This was a huge achievement for Nathan and the seal of approval from the top down has allowed him to grow the initiative further. Nathan has just launched Self-Care 2.0 for his team which is a variation of his original initiative.

Do you need some help with self-care in the workplace? Visit our Mental Health Response Workshop page for more information, and our Resources page for some free resources available to you.

Testimonial from Nathan Soulsby                       

“I lead a team of 25 staff for Southern Cross Austereo, the largest media organisation in Australia. The mental health of my team has always been my priority but after being trained by Debbie, my team has never been more focussed, motivated and most importantly, happy.

 Debbie not only taught me about the importance of self-care for myself but she provided me with the tools to implement initiatives that I was able to share with my team.

 After the success of this within my team, my company has now given me the task of rolling it out nationally. It has made my company a better place to work. The impact of the learnings I gained from Debbie not only helped myself and my team but has now created a movement within my company across many other departments.

 Debbie’s passion, kindness and smarts have made an incredible impact on the way I now lead and how my team respond to me as a leader.”