Canadian HR Reporter

www.hrreporter.com 11 "They may do very well in certain areas, but there's not a commonality across it all. So… it's an exercise of stepping back and saying, 'OK, what do we really want here? How do we want our employees and actually our larger community to feel about this?'" However, while the new standard reconfigures the knowledge that's out there in a different way, that doesn't mean organizations will be onboard, says Wolfgang Zimmerman, executive director of the National Institute for Disability Management Research in Port Alberni, B.C. "It's a great tool… but how do you get employers to actually buy into it?" he says. "As with anything else, you can lead a horse to water, [but] you can't force it to drink.... unless somebody is willing to actually drive this and say, 'This is what we want to do. And this is part of our toolkit.'" Focus on flexibility, mental health part of equation When it comes to disability manage- ment, it's also important to build flexibility into the equation, according to Pomaki. "On the one hand, you have a solid structure of disability management as a whole system that has the right zational management, the worker/ workforce and worker representatives • legal compliance The whole world of disability manage- ment in the broader sense has developed over the years and means different things to different people, says David Brown, corporate medical director at CIBC in Toronto. "It's got overlapping and sometimes competing interests, and that depends on the stakeholders' point of view. So, I think the whole notion of the standard brings a common understanding of the issues, uses a language and a set of principles and… a management system that helps guide us through it all," he says. " Whether it's organized labour, whether it's academia, government, business, the whole [CSA standard] was built by consensus, which means you don't absolutely have to agree with everything but we're trying to find that middle ground… I feel really comfortable about how it meets the needs of each of these stakeholders in a very coherent way." Up until this point, work disability management had all been developed through isolated silos, whether it's hiring practices, disability management or accommodation, says Brown. people in the right places with the right knowledge and then also a guide about what needs to be done when. But when we go through a particular case of a worker that needs support, that's where the tailored and flexible approach actually needs to come in [so], 'For this employee, this needs to be done, but for that employee, other measures need to be taken,'" she says. "There are no two people or two health events that are the same, so that's where the flexibility comes in. [And] the success of the flexibility of that tailored approach really relies on how solid the structure is that surrounds [you]." And when it comes to employees off on a mental health leave, employers may find it awkward and have concerns about the communication, says Pomaki. " T he standard emphasizes that connection with the employee while they're off work is very important because it does go on and maintain the connection with the workplace and, of course, conveys the message of that, of care and support. And it has to be done in an appropriate, supportive way." There are also challenges when it comes to employees with mental health issues staying at work and remaining productive, she says. "One of the key issues is, of course, the issue of stigma and the stigma surrounding mental health disabilities. So, this standard really comes to help employers to say, 'You can be proactive with helping employees, independent of what their health issues are, whether they're physical health or mental health issues, and provide some very specific, practical support." CHRR "It is a struggle for employers to understand where they need to step in or how to collaborate with everybody else that is supporting the employee." Georgia Pomaki, Manulife

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