Christmas 2020 message from Philip Paysden

People will say many things about 2020, they certainly won’t say it was dull!

This year we have been delighted to welcome the Konekt Group, including Communicorp, bringing an expanded workplace health and employment offering, along with FBG, who are a boutique organisational consulting business with a unique approach to wellbeing, leadership, and organisational consulting.

APM also recently acquired CIC in the UK which significantly expands the EAP offering.

There has been no doubt that the pandemic will have lasting impact on the workplace and in this edition we talk with Simon Brown-Greaves, CEO of FBG, about the psychological impacts of ‘living at work’ and what some businesses have done to mitigate the risk.

In March and April, we shifted 100% of work to telehealth and our allied health team worked tirelessly to ensure that all clients got the best of care during a very uncertain time. This was a scenario that the industry and most of our customers had not planned for.

Faced with a vacuum of guidance the team set about building a telehealth model that focused on client support and designing an approach which would continue to support return to work and capacity building in a unique environment. We go deeper into what steps were taken and how they worked practically in this edition.

Included in this jam-packed issue is an overview of the changed labour market with insights on shifts of employment type and industry, we include a Welcome Back Article on returning to the office and what we can do to support you’re business.

In the Workplace Health and Technology forum we explore new anti-fatigue tech along with some insights into the good and bad of virtual learning.

We're proud to have partnered with Fortem Australia providing sponsored workshops for Australia's law enforcement, national security and first responder communities.

We are also delighted to highlight the significant WorkCare win of the National RTW Innovation Award from ARPA for the APMiQ Life index which has also now been rolled out in New Zealand.

We showcase a number of customer events and also include the popular Around the States update.

A focus on mental health is more important than ever as 2020 wraps up and we look towards 2021. Nearly a year on from the devastating Australian bushfires, we look at how the APM Assure Community Support Line has supported those affected by these tragedies.

There's a couple of great studies released by the Institute Work and Health on the impact of psychosocial factors on employee mental health and how improving communication can better support injured workers.

Thank you as always for continuing to support APM WorkCare, we work hard to being you relevant and informative content and we welcome your feedback.