Arc Infrastructure marked the annual Rail R U OK? Day today, a joint initiative of national harm prevention charities – the TrackSAFE Foundation and R U OK? A staff event was held at Arc’s Head Office, with regional areas holding similar get togethers over the coming week.
In its tenth year, this year’s Rail R U OK? Day theme is ‘R U OK?, I’m here, to hear’. This comes in response to research that found more than four in five people who engaged in a meaningful conversation felt better about managing their situation having talked it through and felt supported, heard, and safe during the conversation.
Arc employees took the opportunity on Rail R U OK? Day to get together, share lunch and reflect on how to approach R U OK? conversations with their colleagues.
As our industry’s National Day of Action, Arc was proud to use this year’s Rail R U OK? Day as an opportunity to launch its internal peer support program, Track Mates.
The program, developed within Arc’s Mentally Healthy Workplace Initiative, aims to provide a peer led support program to encourage people to seek help if they are struggling. The first of Arc’s Track Mates have completed training with Lifeline and will also attend a series of upskilling sessions across the year.
General Manager People, Governance and Risk, Jessica Tiwade said today’s launch of Arc’s first group of peer supporters was an exciting milestone for the business.
“Research tells us that employees are more likely to seek support from a work colleague than from formal support pathways. With this in mind, our Mentally Healthy Workplace Initiative embarked on a process to develop our own peer support program,” Ms Tiwade said.
“The goal of Track Mates is to build on our mental wellbeing support base and provide employees with an additional way to have an important conversation with a safe person who can direct them to critical services that provide longer term support.”
In addition to launching its peer support program, Arc’s Head Office also held a minute’s silence at today’s event and where possible, Arc’s regional teams will also be stopping to pay their respects. This was in response to a request from Pacific National and was to recognise the recent tragic deaths of their drivers, Kevin Baker and Mick Warren on New Year’s Eve 2023 and other members of the industry who have not been able to go home safely.
Chief Executive Officer Murray Cook said it was important for Arc to be supporting one of its rail counterparts through paying our respects as a business.
“Collisions and near misses have a huge impact on the mental health of our workforce. Rail can be a challenging industry and the traumatic events and significant incidents that our workforce encounter is one reason why we must continue to check in on our people and ask if they are OK,” Mr Cook said.
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