The Workplace Wellbeing Initiative has progressed to the second phase at Asmuss Steel & Flow Control (Asmuss) with a core team coming together to design for change.
The second phase of the initiative consists of designing for change, which takes the form of design thinking sessions with a core team from the organization including frontline staff and executive leadership.
At Asmuss, the core team came together to identify workplace issues and create strategies and solutions to help improve their workplace health and wellbeing.
“I really enjoyed the collaborative interaction with the team and learning their unique perspectives about the issues that were raised,” says Jan Charlesworth, Human Resources Business Partner at Asmuss.
“Our core team represent our warehouse and office staff which is a good cross section of the workforce at Asmuss,” she says.
“It was important that we worked together to present our ideas and solutions in a creative and innovative way that can have a positive impact on the wellbeing of our peers.”
Design thinking is one of the three thinking tools (alongside critical thinking and systems thinking) utilized as part of the Workplace Wellbeing Initiative. Essentially it seeks to understand the people in the organisation, challenge assumptions, and redefine problems to identify strategies and solutions to workplace problems.
Jodi Meadows, Designer at The Cause Collective, says the core team play a critical role in designing for change.
“We use design thinking tools to help engage the core team to work together on a problem within their workplace,” she says.
“It’s important they are open to change which involves raising issues and then investigating a viable solution that can be applied in the real world, their workplace.”
Following their first design session, the core team will participate in a second session which will focus on taking one or two solutions which they will implement in the workplace.
“The core team are key to the success of the workplace wellbeing ecology for each organization,” says Nicola Dennison, Lead Systems Innovator at The Cause Collective.
“They provide ideas and suggestions on behalf of the people they work alongside. They are not just there to convey their personal ideas but are encouraged to provide quality input based on what they know will have a positive impact on the wider workplace.”
Watch Asmuss core team design for workplace change
