University of Waikato

The goal of the Thriving in Manufacturing project was to support manufacturing businesses to build capability to use the Mental Wellbeing by Design process. The process enables businesses to engage with workers to identify psychosocial risks, and to redesign work to prevent harm to people. The project was run in 2023 and 2024 and was supported by ACC, the Mental Health Foundation an the Business Leaders’ Health and Safety Forum. From a pool of 38 organisations that attended initial workshops about the project, 9 went on to run it within their businesses. Champions for this work came from both HR and HSE roles.

The Thriving in Manufacturing project is an ACC-supported pilot helping manufacturing businesses to identify work-related risks to their employees’ mental health, and to work with employees to redesign work to eliminate or minimise those risks. It also helps businesses identify factors at work that support employees’ mental health so these factors can be maintained and enhanced.

• The Mental Wellbeing by Design project helps businesses identify, and mitigate, work-related risks to their workers’ mental health. It also helps them identify and promote aspects of work that protect workers’ mental health.