Workplace Mental Wellness for Performance and Retention

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MQA Approved
HRDC Refundable

WHY THIS COURSE MATTERS FOR YOUR ORGANISATION

Mental wellness is now a performance issue, not a soft one. The evidence has changed.

In 2015, Google completed Project Aristotle — a multi-year, $millions internal study of 180+ of its own teams, trying to identify the single biggest predictor of high performance. The answer surprised them. It was not who was on the team. It was not how senior they were. It was not technical skill. It was psychological safety: the belief that the team is safe for people to take interpersonal risks, speak up, ask for help, and admit when they are struggling.

Harvard professor Amy Edmondson, who coined the term, has shown across two decades of research that psychologically safe teams consistently outperform their peers on innovation, learning velocity, and retention. The World Health Organisation calculates that depression and anxiety alone cost the global economy USD 1 trillion per year in lost productivity — and that every USD 1 invested in workplace mental wellness returns USD 4 in improved health and productivity.

Translated to a Mauritian boardroom: organisations that build a mentally well, psychologically safe workforce do not just retain their people better — they outperform organisations that do not. Mental wellness is the under-leveraged operating capability of the next decade.

This 1-day intensive equips a nominated cohort within your organisation with the practical capability to spot, support, and respond early — protecting your people and your performance. By the end of the day, you have a trained group of Workplace Wellness Champions who can intervene before issues become crises, support managers in handling sensitive conversations, and embed wellness as a daily operating capability rather than an HR policy on a slide.

MQA-approved and HRDC-refundable — companies can claim back up to 75% of training costs through the HRDC training levy refund scheme.

THE BUSINESS CASE — WHAT THIS DELIVERS

Trained Workplace Wellness Champions create measurable value across four dimensions:

• Retention. Early intervention catches the disengagement signals that precede most resignations. Companies investing in workplace mental wellness see talent retention improve materially within the first 12 months. Replacement cost of a senior employee in Mauritius typically runs 6–9 months of their salary — before counting lost institutional knowledge.
• Productivity. Reduce presenteeism (people physically at work but mentally absent — the silent productivity drain that costs 2–3× more than absenteeism). Restore focus, energy and engagement for individuals who were quietly struggling.
• Culture & engagement scores. Project Aristotle’s core finding — psychological safety is the single biggest predictor of team performance — only translates into reality when individuals know how to notice distress and respond to it. Wellness Champions are how psychological safety becomes operational, not aspirational.
• Risk and duty of care. Regulators, investors, and senior talent now expect organisations to demonstrate a structured approach to mental wellness. This course gives you that structure — with an MQA-approved certificate to back it up.

COURSE MODULES

Module 1: Workplace Mental Wellness — The Performance Connection (90 minutes)

Set the foundation. Why mental wellness has become the most under-leveraged performance factor in modern organisations. Walk through the evidence base — from Google’s Project Aristotle (psychological safety as the #1 team performance factor), to Amy Edmondson’s Harvard research, to the WHO’s data on productivity loss and ROI. Build a shared vocabulary your Wellness Champions can use with HR, line managers, and senior leadership.

• Project Aristotle: why Google’s top performers were not who anyone expected
• Psychological safety: what it is, why it predicts performance, and how it breaks
• Stress, burnout, anxiety, depression — what they cost your business when ignored
• The Mauritian workplace context: cultural, generational, and sector-specific factors
• The language that opens conversations vs. the language that shuts them down

Module 2: Spotting the Early Signs — Disengagement Before It Becomes Departure (90 minutes)

The hardest mental wellness issues to solve are the ones we noticed late. This module trains you to read the early behavioural, performance, and communication signals — the “quiet shifts” that precede most resignations, breakdowns, and team breakdowns. Catch problems while they are still cheap and solvable.

• The 12 early warning signs every Workplace Wellness Champion should know
• The cost difference: catching issues at week 2 vs. week 20
• How to tell the difference between normal stress, burnout, and a clinical condition
• The behavioural patterns specific to high-performers who are quietly disengaging
• The link between disengagement signals and Edmondson’s four behavioural markers of low psychological safety

Module 3: The Action Plan — Mental Wellness First Aid Skills (90 minutes)

The core practical skill of the day. A structured 5-step framework you can use within 24 hours of returning to your team. Approach. Listen. Reassure. Encourage support. Encourage self-care. Practised through role-plays drawn from real workplace scenarios — office, factory floor, field, and remote settings.

• The 5-step Mental Wellness First Aid action plan
• How to start the hardest conversation of your week — without making it weird or clinical
• Listening techniques that work when you do not have answers
• How a single skilled conversation can reinforce psychological safety across an entire team
• Role-play scenarios specific to corporate Mauritian workplaces

Module 4: Crisis Response — Protecting People and Reputation (90 minutes)

The most serious end of the spectrum. Suicide, self-harm, acute distress — events that, handled badly, become organisational reputational events; handled well, become moments of trust that retain people for years. This module teaches the conversation, the escalation pathway, and the boundary between first aid and professional intervention. Sensitive, structured, practical.

• How to ask the difficult question directly and safely
• Self-harm and acute anxiety: first response and de-escalation
• Where the Workplace Wellness Champion’s role ends and professional support begins
• Mauritius-specific referral pathways, crisis resources, and the company’s duty of care

Module 5: Embedding Wellness in Your Workplace — The 90-Day Plan (60 minutes)

One trained Champion creates small wins. A networked group of trained Champions transforms the culture — and the productivity numbers that follow. Translate the day into a structured 90-day action plan: how you integrate with HR and management, build sustainable wellness rituals, and track the engagement and retention impact for your senior team.

• How to build psychological safety into existing team rituals (1:1s, stand-ups, performance reviews)
• Working with HR, line managers, and senior leadership to legitimise the role
• Self-care for Workplace Wellness Champions — protecting the people who protect others
• Building a 90-day rollout plan tied to your organisation’s engagement and retention KPIs
• Assessment and Certificate of Completion

LEARNING METHODOLOGY

Evidence-Based: Every concept anchored in peer-reviewed research — Google’s Project Aristotle, Edmondson’s psychological safety work, WHO data on productivity ROI — so your participants can confidently defend the approach to senior management.

Practical Skills, Practised Live: Every module includes role-play and live practice. You leave with skills you can apply on Monday morning, not theory.

Business-Linked, Not Just Personal: Every skill is linked to a measurable workplace outcome — engagement, productivity, retention, culture. You can articulate the value to your CFO, not only to your team.

Mauritian Context, Mauritian Examples: Case studies, scripts, and scenarios drawn from real workplaces in Mauritius — not imported from materials designed for other cultures.

Small Group, High Engagement: Limited cohort size ensures every participant gets individual practice, feedback, and the chance to safely rehearse difficult conversations.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

HR Directors and Wellness Leads: Build the organisational capacity that delivers on your retention, engagement, and culture KPIs. Equip yourself and your function with practical tools that show measurable impact.

Line Managers and Team Leaders: The first point of contact when something is wrong on a team. Lead high-performing teams by knowing how to spot and address the early signs of disengagement — before they become departures.

Senior Management and Business Owners: Embed mental wellness as a performance lever, not a cost centre. Understand the operational and reputational dimensions of workplace mental health, and position your organisation as a destination employer.

Health, Safety, Compliance Officers: Meet the rising expectations from regulators, investors, and the talent market for a structured, demonstrable approach to workplace mental wellbeing.

Nominated Workplace Wellness Champions: Companies typically nominate a cohort of 3–10 people who become the trained first responders for mental wellness across the organisation. Group rates apply for in-house delivery.

EXPECTED OUTCOMES

Reduced attrition driven by mental health and engagement issues

Catch the early signals before they translate into resignation letters. Retain the people who would otherwise have quietly slipped away.

Higher engagement and productivity

Reduce the presenteeism that quietly drains productivity. Rebuild focus and energy in teams that were running on fumes.

Psychological safety as an operational capability, not just an aspiration

Move from talking about culture in town-halls to having trained people who reinforce it daily, conversation by conversation.

A trained, networked cohort of Workplace Wellness Champions

A group ready to intervene early, support line managers, and embed wellness as a daily organisational capability — not just a slide in your HR policy deck.

A measurable 90-day action plan tied to your business KPIs

Walk out with a concrete rollout strategy that connects to your existing engagement, retention, and culture metrics.

Demonstrable duty-of-care structure

A documented, MQA-approved capability you can show to regulators, board members, investors, and prospective talent.

Course Details

Duration: 8 hours · 1 day

Date & Time: 7th August 2026 · 9:00 – 17:30

Location: Voila Bagatelle Hotel

Investment: MUR 15,000 per participant (includes course materials, certificate, 2 tea breaks and lunch)

Accreditation: MQA-approved · HRDC-refundable (up to 75% claim-back via training levy)

Format: Live in-person, small-group practice-based

Limited Seats: Small cohort to ensure individual attention. First Come First Serve Basis.

Group bookings and in-house corporate delivery available — the most cost-effective option for organisations nominating a cohort of 3 or more Workplace Wellness Champions. Please get in touch for tailored proposals.

For More Information

Email: info@valdus.net
Phone: +230 2610909 | 261 2901 | 261 3092