Organisation
Elevator pitch: Tell us about your role and the work your organisation does
LeapForward is an award-winning, innovative 6-week program harnessing the powers of psycho-education, technology and coaching to support people in getting back to health, life and work following injury or illness.
What’s the current focus for you and your organisation in workplace health and wellbeing?
LeapForward has a vision to see recovery done differently – to see equity in access irrespective of geography, socio-economic status, and/or injury or illness severity; to see modernism in how health-and-recovery services are delivered; and to deliver a person-centric, empowering experience to assist people in their journey back to health and life, and to flourishing.
What aspect of workplace health and wellbeing does your organisation do well in?
LeapForward has been developed through significant personal injury expertise and built on the foundational trinity of accessibility, person-centricity and efficacy. LeapForward is distinctly fit-for-purpose – interrupting the intertwining cascade of psychosocial barriers and ill-health, of often low-value interventions and poor outcomes, of unnecessarily long, costly claims, and of grossly impacted lives within Australia’s Personal Injury schemes.
What’s your biggest challenge working in workplace health and wellbeing?
Individuals and organisations know that change and innovation is (desperately) needed but, as is human nature, there is still a deep-seated hesitancy to embrace change to the full, and – in particular, there remains a wariness around digitised health services. So, to that end, the biggest challenge is impressing change and showing that there’s a different (better) way to do things; add to that the dynamic of operating within a highly-regulated industry with countless frameworks and endless legacy.
What do you feel are the key issues and considerations for people working in this sector?
Devising programs, interventions and services that truly establish the harmony between being utterly person-centric – designed by people that care, for people that need care (and assistance) whilst always ensuring pragmatism with demonstrable return-on-investment (with resources, with costs).
What do you think the future of workplace health and wellbeing looks like?
A lot more digital than it does currently! We need to complement human-delivered services and initiatives with advancements in technology that deliver efficient and equitable access, limitless scale, and modernistic, enjoyable service-delivery where end-users have control and optionality.
What are your key practices and priorities for your own wellbeing at work? What about your team’s?
We practice what we preach at LeapForward. Our people come from diverse backgrounds – and at ends of very different spectrums . . . we have Health Professionals on one end, Software Engineers on the other! What is consistent for all, however – is that it is a fundamental necessity to have a connection with our Vision, our Mission and our Purpose . . . we simply wouldn’t survive in the Tech Start-Up community without this as a mainstay across our team. Alas, whilst being deeply connected with what we’re doing to assist the wider community in their journey to (better) health-and-wellness, we are always sure to look after our own, too. We are keen believers that prevention is better than cure – and that amenable job-design, strong and attentive leadership, and a supportive and joyous culture – where we enjoy what we’re doing, and enjoy doing it together, is paramount.
How does WayAhead Workplaces bring value to your organisation’s work, and to yourself as a professional?
WayAhead Workplaces provides incredibly educative sessions and highly valuable networking opportunities – facilitating an environment for us to connect-in with like-minded professionals who share our view/s on how this complex world of workplace health-and-wellbeing best works . . . leading to often very enjoyable conversations with peers providing re-affirmation, inspiration, ideas and everything in between.
