As Fraser Coast Regional Council emerged from the disruption of the COVID-19 crisis, it faced critical workforce challenges — most notably a workforce that was fatigued and experiencing increased stress, affecting wellbeing, engagement and performance and increasing the risk of psychosocial injury in the workplace.
Psychosocial injury claims are estimated to cost the Australian economy upwards of $39.9 billion annually, according to the June 2020 Australian Government Productivity Commission Inquiry Report on Mental Health. Toxic workplace environments that foster higher levels of psychosocial hazards are damaging to colleague relationships and lead to harmful behaviours that undermine employee mental health and wellbeing.
According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace: 2025 Report, employee wellbeing in Australia has declined while workplace stress has increased. The share of Australian employees rating their lives as “thriving” declined from 60 per cent in 2023 to 56 per cent in 2024, and nearly half reported experiencing stress during a lot of the previous day — up two percentage points from 2023. These trends indicate a growing risk of psychosocial hazards in Australian workplaces.
Fraser Coast confronts psychosocial hazards
Psychosocial injuries affect private- and public-sector organisations in Australia, including the country’s 537 local government councils and their workforce of over 190,000. In Queensland, Fraser Coast Regional Council serves 115,000 residents, delivering essential services including public transport, healthcare, town planning, road, water and sewer infrastructure maintenance, and the operation of libraries, parks and other community facilities.
In 2022, Fraser Coast partnered with Gallup to measure and manage employee engagement, improve its culture, address workplace challenges, and prepare the organisation for future success. The council had not surveyed its employees since 2019 due to the pandemic. According to Holly McBride, Executive Manager People, Safety & Wellbeing, there was a pressing need for accurate insights. While there was a clear sense that employees were experiencing high levels of stress due to increased workloads, it was important to get a precise assessment of how they were feeling and identify priorities for action.
The 2022 engagement survey was a baseline measure and informed the development of Fraser Coast’s people strategy. The strategy’s objective is to foster leadership and management behaviours that result in a positive workplace culture, enhance workplace engagement and wellbeing, encourage the right employee behaviours and drive performance.
Fraser Coast’s people strategy is built around three key priorities:
- Inclusive and capable workforce: Create and support confident and effective leaders, meaningful performance development, and an inclusive, values-based culture.
- Agile future ways of working: Implement flexible ways of working, plan for the workforce of the future and support champions for change.
- Inspiring employee value proposition: Attract and retain top talent, deploy meaningful rewards and recognition, and deliver a holistic wellbeing experience.
Leadership commitment in action
Leadership plays a vital role in bringing Fraser Coast’s people strategy to life and making sure it stays connected to its mission to build better communities together. According to Fraser Coast CEO Ken Diehm, it’s about creating a positive workplace culture where people feel supported and respected and know their work matters. “Great leaders lead by example,” says Diehm. “They build trust through open and honest communication, show respect in every interaction, and take accountability for their actions and decisions. They encourage initiative by giving people the confidence to share ideas and try new things, and they foster teamwork by bringing people together to achieve common goals.”
Fraser Coast emphasises the importance of its core values — Trust, Respect, Accountability, Initiative, Teamwork and Service (TRAITS) — in achieving its mission. “When our leaders live these values, they help create an environment where people feel valued, connected and proud to contribute,” says Diehm. “It’s through this kind of leadership that we build stronger teams, support our people to grow and ultimately deliver better outcomes for our community — together.”
One way that Diehm reinforces this connection is through a weekly newsletter in which he shares updates on executive leadership team (ELT) decisions to ensure all employees are informed and feel included. The ELT develops an engagement action plan to focus on the team’s own engagement and demonstrate commitment to making improvements based on organisational feedback.
Diehm also meets weekly with teams across the council. These visits foster meaningful conversations that enable him to hear firsthand what’s working, what’s getting in the way and how they can create a better working environment together.
Empowering people managers
A central part of Fraser Coast’s strategy is developing confident, capable people managers. With Gallup’s support, the council launched a two-tiered people manager program tailored to executive leaders and those in manager and team coordinator roles. The program uses a strengths-based approach that helps managers understand and apply their natural talents to improve team engagement and performance.
Managers receive support in crafting action plans based on specific survey feedback, such as ensuring team members have the resources they need or receive regular recognition. These actions not only boost engagement but also contribute to psychosocial safety. Fraser Coast also aligned its psychosocial safety training with engagement planning to give managers tools to address both simultaneously.
Lee Gordes, Wastewater Network Coordinator, says the program fundamentally changed his management style. “I’ve moved from telling the team what to do to coaching and working with them.” After completing the training, he began holding one meaningful conversation each week with each team member, allowing him to catch potential issues early and better understand individual growth goals.
The council also created a manager community that meets every two weeks for “refocus and connect” sessions. These forums enable managers to share best practices and collaboratively address challenges, including those related to psychosocial health.
Simple, sustainable change and big impact
In just under three years, Fraser Coast has doubled employee engagement — from 24 per cent in 2022 to 48 per cent in 2024. This outpaces the 37 per cent average among local councils partnering with Gallup and far exceeds Australia’s general workforce engagement of 23 per cent.
The council also saw a reduction in psychosocial hazards. A Gallup analysis revealed that no psychological injuries were reported among engaged employees in 2023, compared with an incidence rate of 16 injuries per 1,000 employees among those who were actively disengaged. Engaged employees also took fewer sick leave absences, on average, in 2023 (11) than did their actively disengaged coworkers (15).
Talent retention improved as well. Fraser Coast’s turnover rate, which peaked at 15 per cent in 2022, declined to 10.5 per cent by the end of 2024. At the same time, the cost and duration of workers’ compensation claims decreased, and sick leave rates stabilised.
“If we can create engaged teams, we create a culture that is more respectful,” says McBride. “You don’t necessarily need to do big things. Keep it simple, impactful and sustainable — and based on what you know your team needs. That’s how you can make real change happen.”
