Life insurance and superannuation workplace mental health group SuperFriend has received $428,911 from the Victorian Government to run a pilot program for call centre staff.

The project will run in life insurance and super contact centres until 2020, with SuperFriend co-designing and evaluating a toolbox of mental health resources.

Victoria’s WorkSafe WorkWell mental health improvement fund has now granted more than $3.3 million to such initiatives.

SuperFriend CEO Margo Lydon says call centre workers are “are often perceived as vulnerable and at risk of poor mental health due to the frontline nature of their jobs.

“How they engage and work with customers not only impacts the customer experience, but also their own mental health, safety and wellbeing.

“It is therefore vital that more attention is paid to increase the job satisfaction and job engagement of contact centre workers, so their potential and wellbeing is maximised, and customer experience and other productivity metrics are achieved.”