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"We've had our second mental health week and
we will do a smaller one in the fall as well, just as a
sort of a refresher and to keep that conversation
going."
In addition to regular events, the company offered
specifi c training for its managers, and a Workplace
Mental Health Leadership Certifi cate program was
provided to senior leadership. The program helped
leaders "set the tone for how to talk about mental
health, how to accommodate people's needs not
only as required by law but as needed to help
people get through those times when they need
more support, and how to direct the managers and
to ensure that that happens," says Kennedy.
The fi rm also opened that up to people who
have no direct reports but either have an interest
in mental health or are working with their kids or
their family members who want to be able to talk to
people who are in crisis or who need help, she says.
Aird & Berlis also brought in guest speakers to
discuss the issue of mental health, such as TSN
radio host Michael Landsberg and former Ontario
attorney general Michael Bryant.
Feedback after the talks has been positive.
"What I heard from people was 'I'm so glad we're
fi nally having this conversation. And I had no idea
where to access the employee assistance program.
Now I know,' because there's intense messaging that
goes around every day of the week with mental
health tips and with what's happening and why we're
doing it," says Kennedy.
Aird & Berlis also has a formal feedback survey
to gauge success. "I'm the fi rst one to admit that we
have not been great at that part yet," says Kennedy
of some early struggles with the survey format.
"We had the option of putting everything on
hold until we had the processes down perfectly
and then launching it (but) no one was willing to
do that because we felt there was more benefi t
to getting it started immediately and having some
impact as soon as we could, rather than getting that
done perfectly."
"There's always room to improve and to grow and
to change and to evolve in this process," she says.
The fi rm puts on many different events just to
help people feel better about the workday.
"We did eco-therapy, we've done movies in our
client centre — we turned it into a movie theatre
thing with popcorn. We've done duelling pianos,
we've done the keynote speakers, we've done
chanting yoga, we've
done meditation and
mindfulness."
As well, Aird &
Berlis handed out
plants to help spark
the mental health
conversation.
"We use it as
an oppor tunity
to show people
where resources are, to have a conversation, to
share mental health tips, to talk about self-care, to
do all of those things. So those activities are fun and
engaging or they're challenging and uncomfortable
in terms of the keynote speaker sometimes. But, in
some ways, they get that conversation going," says
Kennedy.
The ultimate aim is to fully transform the
workplace, she says.
"The bigger goal is to get toward the national
standard on a psychologically healthy workplace.
That's what we're trying to get to, that place where
every decision we make as a fi rm gets looked at
from a mental health lens."
