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The COVID pandemic has affected our learning communities in many ways.
As a leader, you have probably noticed that your educators may be having increased difficulty engaging in the workplace, are taking more days of personal leave or leaving the workforce entirely.
Staff shortages are affecting services and schools throughout Australia; retaining staff is a major consideration for learning communities. As the impacts of the COVID evolve, it’s becoming more evident that educator wellbeing is key to staff retention.
The Be You Staff Wellbeing Fact Sheet has some useful information on this topic, it reads:
“When services and schools support staff wellbeing, it has a positive impact on staff retention, job satisfaction and productivity as well as on children and young people’s outcomes. The responsibility for staff wellbeing, like the benefits it brings, is shared between the learning community and individual staff.”
Be You and staff wellbeing
Engaging with the Planning for Wellbeing: mine, yours, ours and the Wellbeing Plan for Educators is one way to create an environment where educators feel respected, valued and considered. These factors increase job satisfaction and in turn staff retention.
External support providers
Providing access to external mental health services and support helplines allows individuals to seek help when they need to.
Be You has compiled a snapshot of the mental health and community support services available for children, young people, families, carers and educators.
You can also download the Mental Health Services and Support poster, which can be displayed around your service or school.
An Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is another way of supporting the staff at your service.
What is an employee assistance program?
An EAP is a work-based intervention program designed to enhance the emotional, mental and general psychological wellbeing of all employees and includes services for immediate family members.
The aim is to provide preventive and proactive interventions for the early identification and/or resolution of both work and personal issues that may be affecting performance and wellbeing.
An EAP allows your educators to engage with a counsellor in a discrete, conflict-free environment.
Find out more about EAPs and providers here eapaa.org.au/site/
Next steps
If you would like to discuss EAPs and your learning communities’ approach to supporting staff wellbeing, connect with a Be You Consultant in one of our Be You Conversation sessions.
They are free to join and we have many times available, book your session here.
Correct at time of publication.