How to avoid "Wellness Washing"

Speaker A: ABC Listen, podcasts, radio news, music and more.

Speaker B: Free lunch Fridays, uh, Pilates class, meditation app. These workplace wellness perks are all the rage, but do they really make a difference to your health and performance at work? Hello, I'm Lisa Leong. Welcome to this Working Life on ABC Radio national helping to make your work life better. You may have heard of greenwashing. Now experts are worried about well being washing, where a company says it cares about the health and wellbeing of its people, but not if it's seemingly inconsistent with putting in the hours towards growth and profit. A, uh, new workforce survey has found a gap in how employers think they're doing on the wellbeing front and what is actually happening in the coalface. Wes o' Donnell is the head of Enterprise Growth at Citation Group Australia who carried out the study. G', Day, Wes.

Speaker A: G'. Day. Good morning, Lisa.

Speaker B: Well, what did you find in your survey of businesses about how they feel about workplace culture?

Speaker A: Yeah, it was really interesting actually. We undertook a survey involving over 500 businesses and surveyed leaders within those organisations on a variety of workplace relations matters. Um, and what was really telling out of our survey was that there was a large proportion of businesses which felt as if they were compliant in regards to their work health safety obligations generally. There was a lesser proportion, however, which felt that they were compliant with regards to their psychosocial obligations in the context of work health safety, and a smaller proportion of managers who actually felt confident in their ability to address psychosocial risk within the workplace. So we looked at it, referring to it more as a compliance and confidence gap in the sense that businesses felt as if they were doing all the right things to comply with their obligations from a work health safety perspective. But when we then broke that down and spoke to line managers and leaders within an organization, there was this lack of confidence and awareness around their ability to effectively address their psychosocial, uh, obligations.

Speaker B: So what's the implication of this?

Speaker A: What this gap is telling us and what has really come out through this survey is that organisations are really well prepared, um, considered organised when it comes to physical risk within a workplace, but their confidence in their systems is lagging when it comes to psychosocial risk. Now, not only did we find that there was a gap between leaders who thought that their organisation was compliant and the confidence of managers to implement solutions. But quite concerningly, the survey also identified that over 30% of businesses were dealing with psychosocial risk on an ad hoc basis and didn't have established systems or processes to really, um, proactively identify and manage that risk within the workplace, which is a concern.

Speaker B: What is wellness washing in your view, then, Wes?

Speaker A: Yeah, it's an interesting one. Wellness washing is one of these new terms which effectively refer to a number of initiatives which you said in your intro, which are great, shouldn't be discounted, they add value to an organisation and increase and improve the business's employer value proposition. But really those types of initiatives can't be a substitute for effective work health safety management.

Speaker B: And so what's your message to employers as a result of your survey?

Speaker A: Well, from a psychosocial perspective, there's a lag. If I'm completely honest, there is a lag in both, I think. One, the capability and confidence of managers to address and I guess manage proactively psychosocial risk within an organization. And there's a lack of substance in the context of the systems around that capability. So I think the real message born out of the survey is one, we need to build capability within management to enable, uh, them to more effectively deal with psychosocial risk in a workplace. And two, um, organisations must, and it's a must in order to comply with a statutory duty, have detailed systems and processes in place to identify the risk and then to mitigate that risk to the extent that's practicable.

Speaker B: Wes o' Donnell from Workforce Compliance Company Citation Group Australia. And if you want to know more about those psychosocial safety issues, you can listen to an episode we did at the end of 2025. It's called restructure and Redundancy with Psychosocial Safety. You can find that on our website or the ABC list. So what do you do if you're tumbling around in the washing Machine of Wellness? Dr. Michelle McQuade is an author, researcher and honorary Fellow at Melbourne University Centre for Wellbeing Science. G', day, Michelle.

Speaker C: G', day, Lisa.

Speaker B: Michelle, what is wellbeing at work, really?

Speaker C: Well, being at work is feeling safe enough that whatever's happening in our day, as we go about trying to get the job done with each other, we can enjoy the things that are working well, savour those, build those capabilities up and we can talk openly and honestly with each other about the things that aren't working so well, so that we're not holding on unnecessarily to stress that leads to risks like burnout.

Speaker B: And I think the term, it, um, feels like people are minimising it. It feels like people might be thinking it's a nice to have maybe an add on. What are your reflections on this?

Speaker C: Yeah, so over the last 15 years, the science of wellbeing has tried to define it as this capability to feel good. I think that's a lot of us associate the wellbeing with, hey, it feels good, I'm happy, I'm satisfied, things are going well, but also functioning effectively. Can I learn and grow and figure out the hard things? And that definition, I think, holds well for wellbeing. What Wes was talking to in the research, though, are these additional responsibilities that workplaces have had clarified over the last few years for psycho social safety, which is really diving in more to the emotional and social experiences we're having at work. And this is where, again, that feeling safe enough that whatever's happening at work, we can savour and enjoy the good things, the connections, the learning and growth that we're loving. But when things get hard, we can talk openly and honestly and quickly about that stuff. So it's not creating these psychosocial risks that put us in that category of burnout. If they're left unaddressed.

Speaker B: What is the relationship between psychosocial safety at work and wellbeing at work then?

Speaker C: Yeah, this is where I think it gets confusing. For many leaders and for many workers as well, wellbeing is more the proactive piece. It's that, ah, are we doing things to help promote wellbeing? Are, ah, we having free, um, lunch Fridays so that we can socially come together and connect and have more informal relationships, not just formal ones for each other? Psychosocial safety is more the protective part of wellbeing. Are we not the demands of your job so unreasonable that you're working all hours, you're for going sleep, you're holding a lot of anxiety? Are we dealing with social issues in our teams as they're coming up? So we're not just letting that stuff fester, uh, away in the background, adding to our stress each day?

Speaker B: And so is psychosocial safety at work, Is that ground level stuff? And actually, when you're talking about wellbeing at work, it sounds like advanced level.

Speaker C: Yeah, look, the two are intertwined. I think separating can get a bit hard. You really struggle to have one without the other. But what the law is saying in the psychosocial requirements now for workplaces is, you know what, there is a minimum requirement here, a hygiene factor for mental health of our people. And you can't keep treating them in those ways that were causing so many people to burn out. And then, yes, if you want people who are engaged and productive, you want that value proposition to attract great people to your workplace. Then you want to be promoting wellbeing as well.

Speaker B: What is wellness washing, then?

Speaker C: It's the right intention but poor execution. It's this kind of. We want to do something to support and care for our people, so we'll put in the Pilates class or the meditation app and we've kind of ticked that box right now. They should all be good, but we're not thinking about, do people have role clarity in their jobs? Do they have reasonable workloads? Do they have the supervisor support they need to get things done? Do they have good physical spaces that aren't stressing them out and adding to their workload? So you can have all the Pilates classes in the world, but if I send you back into a work environment that's actually going to undermine any wellbeing impact that Pilates class had, then I in that risk of wellness washing rather than actually doing the work that needs to be done.

Speaker B: How can you tell if you've been laundered?

Speaker C: I think, you know, because it feels like a tick the box exercise. You hear your company saying they prioritise your wellbeing. Um, it looks like perhaps they're doing some things that, um, would support that. But, you know, day to day in your job, you're actually feeling that impact on your mental health that really doesn't feel like it's supporting you to feel good and function effectively.

Speaker B: What can you do as a worker

Speaker C: if that's the case? Yeah. So a couple of things. I think it helps to be conscious of it, to say, hey, my organisation have the right intention here. They're saying they value our wellbeing, but you know what? It's not really being realised on the ground. I appreciate the Pilates class, the meditation app, the free lunch Friday, but I also want a job that I can actually feel good and do well with. So being aware of it, I think, is our first step. The second step, then, is how do we talk about this stuff with each other? We work with employment lawyers and reimbursement researchers all over the world, and the number one thing they will tell us is that the way you support psychosocial safety is to make it safe enough to talk openly and honestly about the things that aren't working so well and negatively impacting our wellbeing at work. Now, ideally, your manager is getting this training and skills so they can talk about these things with you. But if your manager's not there yet, there's nothing to stop you also being able to have a more open and honest conversation about, you know, what these Job demands are not sustainable. I can keep up with this pace of work for a little while, but I'd like to know what we're doing long term or, you know, what, this relationship with a colleague. We seem to keep tangling ourselves in knots with each other. Can we have some help to sort out a better way forward? So at the end of the day, we need to be able to talk about this stuff with each other rather than letting it fester away under the surface and leading to much bigger issues down the track.

Speaker B: You're with Lisa Leong, ABC Radio National's this Working Life. And I'm um, with Michelle McQuaid talking about wellness washing. We asked listeners how prevalent wellness washing is in their workplaces and Dara is worried that it's all about the individual. Here's Dara.

Speaker D: The issue with wellbeing washing is that it looks at the individual as the problem and not as the system or conditions. People are not given environments where they are made to flourish. They're overworked, they are not appreciated, they are not given permission or space or time to think creatively, to be divergent, to connect, to collaborate. The antidote to this is play. Not axe throwing, not bowling alleys, but intentional, serious play. Where work is designed with play in mind, people have more chance to collaborate, to prototype, to explore and to think of possibility.

Speaker B: Michelle, play, uh, as Daro's a woman

Speaker C: after my own heart. Look, play is how our brains are wired to not just learn at their best, but to also perform at their best. So that intentional play, really, we need far more of it in workplaces. Again, she's speaking to the fact that while free lunch Friday can be great to hang out, catch up with your colleagues, you need chances in the work that you're doing every day to use those strengths, the things you're good at and enjoy doing, put them to challenges, have learning and support and feedback around them. That is what really supports our wellbeing in the long term.

Speaker B: And here's Amy.

Speaker C: So when we're talking about workplace wellbeing and saying be more resilient, I honestly think we also need to be talking about how do we shape better conditions for the workplaces that we're in.

Speaker B: Alright, so another issue here, this idea of individual over systemic thoughts.

Speaker C: Yeah, we need a, uh, systems approach for wellbeing and we often help organisations think about this. At the US uh, level, the organisational level, have we got the processes and policies in place to be able to help people do good work, to have those opportunities, opportunities for serious play designed into the job at the team and leader level. So the we level, like, what is going on? Supervisors have a massive impact on our wellbeing. They are highly contagious themselves, um, because they're in positions of power and we spend a lot of time, um, interacting with them in our roles. But also they set a tone and culture within our team and then at the individual, the US level. And you actually need all three layers of that system to be able to thrive at work.

Speaker B: Um, so we've got a listener, Sally, who says, as a term, wellbeing has the same challenge as burnout. It refers to an individual experience in an inherently organisational context and makes talking about systemic prevention challenging. So let's talk about terms then. Is there an alternative to the term wellbeing?

Speaker C: I love this question because language is so important, uh, around our ability to talk to each other about these things in meaningful ways. One of the terms that we've found organisations starting to use more than wellbeing is care. Are we showing care for each other? And I love that term care, because it's simple, we all kind of get a sense to it, but also it encompasses not just wellbeing, but are we treating each other with respect, Are we showing up with kindness for each other? And I think all of that weaves together to create something that can't just be washed over, but is a genuine felt experience that we have day to day as we work together.

Speaker B: Should organisations care for us, Michelle?

Speaker C: Yeah, so the data is really clear on this. Um, so studies that we've done with more than 1,000 workers over, um, different years will say to us that I can have a safe workplace, but I feel it's relatively uncaring. The impact on performance, wellbeing, burnout. There you'll get a little bit of a bump versus if you're not safe at all, but not a lot, um, versus if your workplace is seen at safe and caring, then we see wellbeing and performance at a much higher level and burnout as a much lower level.

Speaker B: Okay, so you've convinced us that we need to show more care at work and certainly have some more focus on wellbeing in a genuine way. So I want to go deeper on the things that we can actually do. Let's start first at the individual level, because that's kind of the easiest, isn't it? How much agency do we have over our wellbeing at work?

Speaker C: Yeah, a reasonable degree, because at the end of the day, as individuals, we get to process all those experiences we're having. And make sense of them and choose where we're going to invest our energy and effort as next steps. What are we going to care enough about? And what perhaps should we care a little less about so that we're not all caught up in knots unnecessarily? Um, some of the best work we find around this is understanding how to care for our own nervous systems as individuals so that we feel safe enough, no matter what we're experiencing in the world, to know that we can stay present. We won't abandon ourselves. Um, we'll set healthy boundaries where we need them. We'll ask for help where it's required.

Speaker B: Um, and do you have an intervention that you can share with us? Uh, at this level?

Speaker C: Yeah. So we love these three simple steps of being able to see. When is your nervous system and your brain feeling safe enough? That helps the blood and oxygen hang out around the thinking part of our brain so we can be present and clear and calm and sort hard things out, um, to then soothe the body. If you're noticing that, oh, it's not there, actually, I'm feeling not safe enough right now. My nervous system has sent more of the blood and oxygen out to my hands and feet in my stress responses. So just being able to see that kind of what's going on inside my brain and body, do I feel safe enough or not safe enough? How am I processing it if the blood and oxygen is feeling like, no, I'm in my fight flight, freeze, fawn or flop. Stress responses. The thing is, you can't think your way out of that. You gotta soothe the body. So just like every wise dog does, after it gets a fright and it barks, it shakes itself off. So you want some little things to soothe the body. And then lastly, you want to be able to settle the brain, come back and figure out, okay, what upset me about that, what doesn't feel aligned about that, what might I need to ask for help with? Where might I need to set the boundaries? So we, like, see, soothe and settle as, uh, three really little steps that we can take to be able to help our brain feel safe enough in most situations.

Speaker B: And let's go now to the manager level, where you can have some influence. And it's such an important role. And very often we don't help people who might feel like they're in a bit of a sandwich between, you know, upper level management and then their teams. Um, so what sort of things can managers do to help?

Speaker C: Yeah, so in addition to looking after their own nervous systems, managers need to Be able to have these open and honest conversations quickly when they can see things aren't quite right in their team. Uh, I can see somebody stressed. I can see they're on the emails at all hours. I can see they're coming to work when they're sick and they really should be resting or, uh, things like that. I can see they're snapping at people. So when managers are seeing those signs that perhaps somebody's wellbeing is struggling a little bit, we don't want to ignore those. We want to engage in a conversation. And to do that safely, we have a little tool we teach called the Safety Check Chat for managers. And it's four really simple questions. And the first one's a bit counterintuitive when you can see someone struggling, but it's what's working well. And the reason we start with what's working well is it helps our brains feel safe enough to go, oh, okay, what is working well gets me a bit curious. And more blood and oxygen back up to the top of my head. But also it helps us figure out the strengths. Because if we're still there at work, something's working that we're still there, and we want to know how to build on those strengths. That's where we're most likely to see things get better fast. The second question then is, where are we struggling? And to not veer away from that without shame or embarrassment or blame, to know that struggle is just our brain's way of saying, hey, there's an opportunity for learning and growth here to happen. So let's figure that out. The third question, what are we learning from the strength and the struggle? And the fourth question, what will we try next? And so these four questions we find, teaching to leaders, whether it's around a psychosocial safety issue or a, uh, wellbeing opportunity, are really practical ways that do a lot of neurological and nervous system work to help us stay present and compassionate and curious with each other while we do the stuff that we need to do to move towards more care.

Speaker B: We have a really common question that keeps on coming up, Michelle, about how to ask these questions as a manager but not be, uh, uh, turning into a bit of a therapist or having it turn into a therapy session. What would you say to that?

Speaker C: So I think being really clear, as a manager, you are not a therapist, and being nice and, um, uh, to be consistent on that boundary, yeah, I think is really important, because otherwise we can get into places that are dangerous for us and our team members. So if something's Coming up through those types of questions or others where you feel like, oh, I feel like I'm being veering here into therapist territory to just call that and say, hey, thank you for sharing that. I'm not a therapist, but I want to make sure that you've got all the support that you need and you have someone you can talk to. Is there somebody already that you have for that? And if not, can we connect you with somebody that is. So we don't have to be therapists as managers. It's not expected in and of itself. It can be a psychosocial risk. Um, so knowing where that boundary lies is really important. But we can be compassionate human beings showing up with each other and we can be curious and show care around what we can impact. Sometimes I think too, as managers, we underestimate just the value of listening to our people and witnessing what somebody else is going through. We don't necessarily have to fix everything.

Speaker B: Okay, let's go to the organisational, systemic level. What would you advise here?

Speaker C: Yeah, so at the organisational level, there are now the legal requirements of psychosocial safety. And organisations have to be assessing psychosocial. So that means they need something in place around how do they know where these risks are? And they have to be keeping a risk register. Um, and so if you have a claim for a psychosocial injury, one of your team members gets burned out, a worksafe inspector is going to come and say, hey, how are you assessing your risk? Can you show me your register? You want to have that in place? You also have a legal responsibility to be doing everything reasonably practicable to control, to minimise or eliminate those risks. So the other thing they're going to want to ask is, well, what are you doing to help reduce that? And so they'll look at that and go, yep, okay, tic, we think you've done everything you can. This just is what it is. Or they'll look at it and go, you know what, there's some gaps there. Here are some other things we would recommend you do. You've got a time period to put that in place. Let's come back and we'll check in with you. And so again, we have some legal requirements here as workplaces. The last thing workplaces must be doing now in Australia is talking to their people about psychosocial safety and educating them. And I think the good news here is the expectation for workplaces and leaders is they're not expected to have all of the answers. They're expected to be talking to their people about these things and figuring stuff out together.

Speaker B: Um, and in your experience, dealing with organisations as well, how, how good do you think we are, uh, in terms of, um, how we're going in this space?

Speaker C: Look, I think we're getting better and I think it's still early days. Only 2022 since the code nationally was changed and then different states have brought the legislation at different times. So Victoria only got that in December 2025. So it's still early days. I think the fact that we're even talking about this in a more holistic, systemic way gets us out of the risk of the wellness washing that has go. Um, and then I think, you know, we're seeing some organisations still doing it as a bit of a tick and flick exercise, others realising that actually this is a really great opportunity for cultural change, for leadership skills uplift, um, for individuals taking some more responsibility as well for how we interact with each other around these psychosocial opportunities at work.

Speaker B: The way I'm looking at it is that it is a performance issue. So I think that, you know, think I, uh, when I used to be a lawyer we used to say, look, we're not brains on sticks, even though we behave like that. So our bodies just carry around our brains to do the work. But then we realise that if our bodies aren't functioning, if we're not functioning emotionally and mentally and health wise, then we have no use to anyone. So it is a performance issue. Um, so I feel like it is a bottom line issue. Do you think that organisations realise this, that we are dealing with high performance here?

Speaker C: I think some do and some still mistake us as brains on sticks. I love that phrase, Lisa. I think organisations who are understanding the competitive edge that their people provide, even in this age of AI tools are, uh, already doing the work that needs to be done. And again, using this legislation actually is an opportunity to keep creating common language and two, as a performer and sometimes a performance management requirement, uplift the skills of leaders who might have gone, well, I'm old school in the past, I don't do that stuff. You know, toughen up buttercup. Uh, why should we have to worry about the emotional and social stuff of our people? And so the legislation I think is giving organisations some different leverage around changing some of those mindsets and behaviours.

Speaker B: Dr. Michelle McQuaid is an author, researcher and honorary fellow at Melbourne University Centre for Wellbeing Science. Thank you, Michelle.

Speaker C: Thanks, Lisa.

Speaker B: Thanks for listening to this Working Life. It was produced by Rob Kelly and engineered by Riley Mellus on the lands of the Wurundjeri people in Ngar, um, Melbourne. If you'd like to hear more from us, you can like or subscribe to our show on ABC Listen or anywhere you get your podcasts. And please rate and review us while you're there. I'm Lisa Leong, and until next time, love your work.

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