From Complexity to Clarity: How Workplace Mental Health Coaching Supports Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

Across NSW (and arguably the rest of the country), small and medium-sized businesses are facing a complex challenge: understanding – and acting on – their psychosocial risk responsibilities.

For many, despite psychosocial risk obligations being in place in NSW since 2022, this is unfamiliar territory.

Coach Kresh Pidial observes that many organisations – particularly those without HR, OHS or risk departments – don’t yet have a strong understanding of psychosocial hazards and how they apply in the workplace. Yet, she adds, their commitment to staff wellbeing and mental health support more broadly, shines through.

Coach Oliver Zwalf explains that one of the key challenges for leaders striving to foster a mentally healthy workplace is helping them understand “where the boundaries of their support start and finish,” particularly in small businesses where relationships can feel close or “family-like.”

Coach Tessa Bailey sees similar themes, noting that leaders often don’t know where to draw the line between being a supportive employer and referring staff to professional support.

 “You’re not here to fix,” she says. “You don’t mend broken legs. If the bandage doesn’t work then get practitioner support … and make sure you’re looking after your own boundaries as well.”

The challenges organisations are facing

Organisations are operating in an environment of continual change and disruption.

 Transitioning Well’s coaches cited common pressures across organisations, such as:

• The economic landscape and cost of living impacts on staff wellbeing
• Role instability and workforce anxiety
• Difficulty navigating performance and mental health together
• Limited capability in having difficult conversations
• Poor or inconsistent communication across teams.

Many organisations are also struggling to interpret what psychosocial legislation actually means in practice.

Tessa notes that a common question from clients is: “Am I fulfilling my obligations?” – with coaching helping to translate codes of practice into something usable and relevant.

How coaching helps

Proudly funded by the NSW Government, the Workplace Mental Health Coaching Program provides free, structured one-on-one support to NSW businesses with up to 200 employees and not-for-profits of any size, helping businesses make sense of these challenges.

“Coaching helps build a framework that can meet compliance requirements,” says coach Anna Kijowska, “But it also anchors practices into day-to-day experiences.”

For Program Lead Gagan Mudhar, one of the defining benefits is access:

“There are very few programs of this quality, this level of rigour… available to small and medium-sized businesses.”

Unlike traditional training, coaching is flexible and tailored.

Gagan explains that the program allows coaches to “walk them through complex challenges, sit with their problems… and not push them down a particular route.”

This adaptability is critical for small and medium sized businesses, where no two workplaces – and no two problems – are the same.

The power of incremental change

Coaching doesn’t rely on big interventions. It works through incremental, practical change.

“It’s almost like coaching bites,” says Kresh. “It’s a little bit every few weeks, and before you know it, they’ve transformed their company.”

That transformation might include:

• Building confidence to have difficult conversations
• Introducing clearer boundaries for leaders
• Identifying psychosocial hazards and responses
• Strengthening communication across teams.

Importantly, coaching helps organisations move beyond documentation.

“We want to help in a really pragmatic way,” says Anna. “Leaders don’t have to feel like they have to do it all themselves.”

As Tessa explains, “It’s not another policy… it’s how the shared language in the organisation puts it into practice.”

Helping leaders be well and lead well

For many small and medium sized business leaders, coaching also provides something they don’t often have: a safe space to think.

Gagan highlights the value of having “someone in their corner… a safe, confidential space to talk about what’s actually going on in their business.”

This is especially important when leaders are managing:

• Complex people issues
• Conflicting demands
• Uncertainty around compliance.

Coaching allows them to build confidence before acting – rather than reacting after something goes wrong.

Tessa notes that for many leaders, a lot of the support comes down to communication.

“There are no healthy relationships without healthy communication,” Tessa says. “If you want good outcomes, you need healthy communication.”

The impact

“For many organisations coaching helps cut through the ‘information overload’,” says Anna. “Many clients say that there’s a lot of information out there, and it can take a lot of time to get through it all. Coaching helps cut through that. Clients can discuss what they’re struggling with, get support and guidance and ultimately be better placed to take action.”

Over time, coaches see a consistent shift in how organisations approach workplace mental health.

Reflecting on the five years Transitioning Well has delivered the program, Gagan notes that more clients are owning their responsibility to build a mentally healthy workplace:

“We’ve started seeing businesses come in saying, ‘I think I do actually have a responsibility… I want to do the right thing – can you help me?’”

And the numbers speak for themselves. Since 2021, more than 3,000 businesses have engaged in Workplace Mental Health Coaching, reaching more than 53,000 employees.

For coaches like Oliver, the impact is most visible when clients return having applied what they’ve learned:

“They say, ‘I tried that thing we spoke about and it worked… what’s next?’”

Tessa sees this play out quickly in small and medium sized businesses, noting that it’s one of the benefits of being a smaller organisation: “You can shift very quickly… day to day, week to week, month to month.”

As Kresh reflects, the most rewarding part is seeing organisations take ownership: “They gain the knowledge… and transform their workplaces to become more psychologically healthy and safe.”