Beyond awareness week: turning team feedback into practical workplace improvements
An awareness week can open a conversation about wellbeing. The opportunity for employers is to carry that conversation into the everyday decisions that shape work.
That might mean looking at how priorities are communicated, how responsibilities are shared or what happens when several urgent requests arrive together.
For employers across Western Australia, the starting point may already be sitting in meeting notes or staff feedback. Someone has described a recurring difficulty. A colleague has suggested a change. A manager has noticed that the same concern keeps returning.
What happens next deserves attention.
A concern at the end of a busy day
Consider an illustrative example from a community health service in Perth. The people and events below are hypothetical.
During a team discussion, an administrative colleague explains that late appointment changes are becoming difficult to manage. Updates arrive by telephone, email and conversations at reception. Sometimes, two people act on the same request. At other times, each assumes the other has dealt with it.
The busiest period comes towards the end of the afternoon, when staff are also answering enquiries and helping people prepare for their next appointment.
The colleague is asking for a clearer process.
Other team members recognise the problem. One describes checking several places before confirming an appointment. Another explains that it is not always clear who takes responsibility when the person who received the update finishes their shift.
The manager makes time to understand where the confusion begins.
Looking closely at the work
The team walks through a typical afternoon.
They identify how changes arrive, where they are recorded and how the next person finds out about them. They notice that several informal workarounds have developed. Each makes sense to the person using it, but together they leave room for uncertainty.
This is where a wellbeing conversation becomes a practical discussion about work.
For employers, useful questions include:
• At what point does the task become difficult?
• What information is missing?
• Which decisions need a clearer owner?
• What happens when someone is away?
• What would make the process easier to follow?
These questions give people something concrete to discuss. They also help a manager avoid choosing a solution before understanding the concern.
Involving the people who carry out the task is central to that process. A change that appears straightforward from a management perspective may create extra steps for someone working at reception, on a different shift or at another location.
Agreeing on a manageable change
In the illustrative service, the team agrees to trial a shared process for recording appointment changes.
They decide where an update should be recorded, who is responsible for completing it and how an urgent change should reach the right person. They also clarify what happens when responsibility passes between shifts.
The manager checks that everyone affected can access and use the process. A team member takes responsibility for gathering feedback during the trial, with time allocated for that task.
They agree to review the change after two weeks.
The action is specific enough for everyone to understand. There is a named person responsible for progress and a date for returning to the discussion.
This approach can also guide conversations in early learning services, aged care organisations and consulting workplaces. The details will differ. The questions about clarity, responsibility and support remain useful.
Keeping people informed
Once feedback has been gathered, staff need to know what is happening with it.
A short update can explain the concern being addressed, the action agreed and when it will be reviewed. Where an issue needs more investigation, say what remains unresolved and when the next update will come.
Some suggestions will require resources or decisions beyond the immediate team. Others may be unsuitable in their original form. Explain those constraints and explore whether another option could address the underlying difficulty.
Keep shared updates focused on the workplace issue. Personal information and sensitive concerns need an appropriate private process.
Urgent safety concerns require prompt attention. They should not wait for a routine team meeting or a trial review date.
Returning to the conversation
Two weeks later, the hypothetical team meets again.
The manager asks whether staff can now find the latest appointment information more easily. They discuss whether responsibility is clearer and whether the process works during the busiest part of the afternoon.
They also ask whether it has created any new difficulties.
For example, a shared process might be clear to regular staff but unfamiliar to someone providing occasional cover. That would signal a need to improve the handover or induction information.
A review gives the team an opportunity to refine the change. It also makes room for an honest answer if the original idea has not helped.
Employers can use the same approach with other concerns. Agree what improvement would look like before making the change, then check the experience of the people affected.
Making follow through part of everyday leadership
Everyday workplace wellbeing involves paying attention to how work feels and how it functions.
That attention can show up in small but meaningful management practices: clarifying competing priorities, responding to recurring difficulties and making sure unresolved feedback remains visible.
A simple record can help. Note the concern, the agreed action, the person responsible and the next review date. Keep it accessible to the people who need it and update it as decisions are made.
Over time, this gives teams a clear way to raise issues and see how they are being addressed.
Start with something your team has already raised
There may already be a practical starting point in your workplace.
Look back at recent feedback. Identify a recurring concern, check your understanding with the people affected and agree what needs to happen next.
An awareness week can begin the discussion. The work continues when people make time to listen, act and review together.
Contact BB Recruitment
To discuss consulting needs within your organisation, contact BB Recruitment.
📧 enquiries@bbrecruitment.com.au
📞 08 6216 0014
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