Murrin Murrin health and wellbeing

Murrin Murrin is a remote site that employs a 'fly-in, fly-out' workforce of around 1,100 permanent employees and contractors.

Health and wellbeing has been an integral part of our culture for many years and a wide range of programs, initiatives and support services are utilised.

Health and wellbeing initiatives can improve not only the health and wellbeing of employees, but also have positive effects on the underlying culture within the organisation, complementing and reinforcing our safety strategy.

The site offers a range of sporting facilities to promote healthy after-work activities. This includes a high quality commercial grade gymnasium; a 23m swimming pool; eco-friendly mountain bike trails, tennis, basketball, cricket, soccer, volleyball and hockey courts. There are also grassed areas and gardens to promote games and relaxation.

Fitness classes conducted in the evenings include yoga, circuit training, boxing, and fitness test challenges. To provide additional motivation and engage the support and participation of family members, we promote a number of community and recreational fitness events with Minara covering registration costs for employees and their family members. For some larger events, we provide marquees and refreshments to encourage employees and their families to come together as a group.

We also support major regional events in our local communities, such as the Goldfields Cyclassic and the Leonora Golden Gift running carnival to promote tourism, participation in sports and healthy lifestyle choices in regional and remote communities. Events and workshops for children form a large part of these regional events and we continue our support of sporting activities for children in our local communities on a regular basis.

Health assessments help employees keep on the right track. The Annual 'Health Pitstop' is a comprehensive health and lifestyle assessment that assists employees to identify areas that need attention. It covers a range of health measures including blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol, body composition, diet, exercise, sleep, stress, strength and flexibility. The personalised reports help employees make positive changes to their lifestyle to achieve health and fitness goals based on sound physiological advice.

We also promote the use of a range of services such as a qualified Dermoscopist who visits the site to conduct skin cancer checks.

Mental health is supported by our Employee Assistance Program which provides free, professional and confidential counselling to employees and their dependants to help resolve both personal and work-related problems. In 2018 the Red Cross engaged our employees in Mental Health Matters one-day workshops. The workshops were specifically tailored to our requirements to improve mental health awareness and were targeted towards individuals in leadership roles.

Health and lifestyle promotion is important to keep the focus on health and wellbeing initiatives and the positive impact to mental and physical wellbeing. We promote health and lifestyle initiatives with flyers and posters as well as the popular Murrin Health eNews, a health and lifestyle newsletter sent directly to employees and contractors. This keeps employees informed of upcoming initiatives and events and provides interesting articles on a wide range of health and lifestyle topics backed by current scientific research.

In 2019 our new initiative 'Murrin’s Healthiest Work Group', focussed on maximising participation of the workforce in health initiatives by using a fun and light-hearted competition format to engage workgroups in a series of 12-monthly health initiatives. A monthly report with prizes and giveaways aims to reinforce positive health behaviours and generate competition between workgroups who compete for the title of 'Murrin’s Healthiest Workgroup'.

Maintaining a positive social culture on site is important. The comedy nights, quiz nights, competitions and live entertainment provided through the Murrin Murrin Social Club contribute to a well-balanced, inclusive community and promotes positive social connections.