“Don’t try and change the world. Just try and change someone’s day.”

For Robert Boschetti, owner of the regional, family-run electrical business BOSCHETTI, supported by his wife Erica, the decision to engage in Workplace Mental Health Coaching was driven by a desire to build what he describes as a “choice workplace”. The aim is not simply to say the right things about wellbeing, but to listen, learn and create conditions where people felt genuinely supported.

As Robert reflected, if just 1% filters down the team, that is still a world of difference for somebody.

The challenge: growth, responsibility and complexity

“We’ve gone through a lot of growth, growth-rebuild and rebuild cycles,” says Robert. “This is definitely part of a rebuild cycle.”

Robert acknowledges that each cycle allows the business to learn something new. Over time the cycles have helped surface that strong technical capability alone is not enough to sustain the business long‑term. Each cycle revealed gaps in resourcing, capability and psychosocial safety, which were difficult to adequately address while continuing to run projects and grow the business.

“We’ve got some pretty full‑on brains working in the office and some pretty full‑on construction people,” Robert says – a mix that brings both opportunity and complexity.

Erica notes that as the business has expanded, demands have changed. With more staff comes new responsibilities around workplace wellbeing, performance management and difficult conversations.

While both Erica and Robert bring strong but different skills – Robert on the business and operations side, Erica on the people and psychological side – they saw a need for support that could bridge the two.

As Erica put it, “It’s hard to be an expert in everything in business… sometimes it’s better to have a third party in there to bridge that.”

The role of coaching

To support growth, BOSCHETTI engaged in Workplace Mental Health Coaching, delivered by Transitioning Well and proudly supported by the NSW Government. The program is available to NSW businesses with up to 200 employees and not‑for‑profits of any size, making it accessible to a wide range of organisations seeking to strengthen psychological health and safety at work.

From coach Anna Kijowska’s perspective, the focus has not been on introducing entirely new values, but on creating structure and consistency around practices already happening organically. Coaching has helped translate intent into practical systems that could meet psychosocial compliance requirements while remaining authentic to the business.

Anna describes this as building “the skeleton around anchoring these practices into day‑to‑day experiences.” This included developing a clear mental health policy and providing accessible frameworks for navigating conversations about wellbeing at work.

From values to systems

Coaching supported BOSCHETTI to move from good intentions to documented, repeatable practices.

Rather than relying on Robert’s personal skills or informal relationships alone, the business began formalising how psychosocial safety would be embedded across the organisation. This meant:

• Creating simple, easy‑to‑understand mental health policies
• Linking ways of working directly to documented expectations
• Ensuring consistency as delegation increased and new managers were appointed
• Supporting leaders to recognise and respond to psychosocial risk early.

This ensured that positive practices would not be lost as the business grew or as new personalities joined the organisation.

Managing psychosocial risk in practice

Psychosocial risk at BOSCHETTI is most likely to emerge during moments of pressure – particularly around difficult client interactions, performance conversations and the need to balance care for people with the realities of running projects and meeting commitments.

Anna highlighted that while Robert naturally navigates difficult conversations and negotiations with clients, not all staff felt equally confident in these situations. Coaching addressed this risk by helping leaders support team members through challenging interactions that could otherwise expose them – and the business – to psychosocial harm.

Through coaching, leaders strengthened their ability to balance care with boundaries, particularly when performance issues, personal challenges or difficult decisions arose.

As Erica observes, coaching has helped Robert move from handling issues intuitively to being more intentional: defining boundaries, preparing for hard conversations and distinguishing between his role as a supportive colleague and as a business owner.

Impact on culture and leadership

The impact of coaching was evident not only in policies, but in every-day behaviour.

BOSCHETTI’s leaders describe a workplace where conversations about family responsibilities, life events and stress are increasingly normalised. Decisions about parental leave, medical procedures or personal loss are treated as part of doing business responsibly – not as exceptions or inconveniences.

Over time, coaching also changed the way Robert and Erica worked together. Robert noted he was now more likely to bring back reflections and lessons from situations, rather than just problems – a shift that strengthened leadership alignment, role clarity and simplified decision‑making processes.

Growth with intention

Unlike many organisations that introduce wellbeing systems reactively, BOSCHETTI chose a proactive path. While acknowledging mistakes along the way, Robert described the organisation as intentionally using this phase of growth to “do it properly next time.”

Coaching allowed the business to focus on excellence rather than perfection. As Robert explained, “Perfection is an outcome. Excellence is a process.”

This mindset made it easier to engage with coaching meaningfully – focusing on progress, learning and small changes that could still significantly affect someone’s day, year or life.

Reflections and lessons

For BOSCHETTI, Workplace Mental Health Coaching has not been about outsourcing responsibility, but about being resourceful.

Coaching has helped create space, clarity and efficiency – particularly for a regional, family‑run business balancing operations, growth and family life. It also reinforces that psychosocial safety is not separate from productivity or performance, but integral to both.

Erica emphasises the broader ripple effect of this work, noting that healthier workplaces influence families, communities and future generations – especially in male‑dominated industries where mental health is still often difficult to talk about.

By building structure around care, strengthening leadership capability and embedding psychosocial safety early, coaching helped BOSCHETTI move from intention to action — creating a workplace where safety, wellbeing and performance evolve together.

As Robert sums it up, “Don’t try and change the world. Just try and change someone’s day.”