Canadian HR Reporter is the national journal of human resource management. It features the latest workplace news, HR best practices, employment law commentary and tools and tips for employers to get the most out of their workforce.
Issue link: https://digital.hrreporter.com/i/1212438
www.hrreporter.com 21 • 84 per cent agree the program has reinforced their understanding and comfort with mental illness and mental health problems in the workplace. • 95 per cent agree they can use this information in the workplace. Next steps The City of Edmonton is currently working toward having all managers trained by 2020. It will also start working toward training its employee base of around 12,000 staff members. There are currently 36 facilitators who are able to deliver the course, and 12 more are expected to be added in early 2020. CHRR THE WORKING MIND TRAINING FOR SUCCESS Chad Scanlan is the marketing and communications specialist for Mental Health First Aid Canada and The Working Mind at the Mental Health Commission of Canada in Ottawa. He can be reached at (613) 683-1866 or visit www.mentalhealthcommission.ca for more information. "Leadership was extremely receptive and supportive of the training from the get-go. They felt it was needed and were open to working collaboratively." Jessica Culling, City of Edmonton Case study: Magenta Magenta is a mortgage investment corporation, focusing on owner- occupied residential first mortgages that fall just short of the recently tightened criteria for chartered banks. CEO Gavin Marshall founded the company in 1994 in Ottawa and the portfolio has since grown to a lending capacity of $400 million. Magenta's growth has sometimes required employees without management experience or training to become managers. So, the company decided to build on its success by strengthening the leadership and management skills of its current generation of managers and — with an eye to the future — its prospective leaders, according to HR administrator Josie Noakes. Magenta worked with Performance Management Consultants (PMC) of Ottawa to create a management development program that focused on leadership, communications and time management. PMC proposed a management development program designed to meet two broad objectives: • Leading self: Enhancing participant self-awareness of strengths and of areas for improvement. • Leading others: Developing core leadership and management skills to improve work-related performance management competencies. Within those objectives, a number of skill areas were identified. They included management, feedback, change, accountability, delegation, communication, interpersonal skills and business writing skills. In the first round of training, PMC facilitators worked with a dozen Magenta employees. The courses included: Managing for superior results; Business writing for impact and influence; Dealing with difficult people; Managing and leading with emotional intelligence; and Assertiveness and conflict resolution. In the second round of training, Magenta hoped to reach beyond the employees involved in the first round, but also to avoid repeating content so that first-round participants would be more likely to return. All of the courses lasted one day, except for Managing for superior results level 2, which was taught over two days. The courses included: Communication effectiveness with Myers-Briggs (MBTI); Critical conversations; and Practical time and workload management. The results were positive, with instructors rated highly for tailoring courses to Magenta and employee objectives, drawing on personal knowledge and experience and creating a safe space to talk about sensitive issues. Employees learn to: understand mental health and mental illness recognize its signs and indicators, in themselves and others reduce stigma and negative attitudes toward people with mental health problems support colleagues with mental health problems maintain their own mental health and improve their resilience. The interior of Edmonton's City Hall.