Canadian HR Reporter

Canadian HR RepoRteR december 1, 2014 News 11 making mental health a priority at work County of Wellington says culture of respect is key By LiZ BeRnieR emPLoYees at the County of Wellington aren't just protect- ed from slips, falls and workplace accidents. e county also puts a strong focus on psychological safety and mental wellness as part of its over- all safety and HR initiatives. Wellington County — located in southern Ontario, encompass- ing the area that includes the City of Guelph — won the inaugural psychological safety gold award in the 2014 Canada's Safest Employ- ers awards, presented by Cana- dian Occupational Safety, a sister publication to Canadian HR Re- porter. e county also took home another award that night — gold in the public sector category. " e county won in both cate- gories (which) shows that a safety culture that includes both physi- cal and psychological safety not only can exist but can support or- ganizational success," said Mary Ann Baynton, program director of the Great-West Life Centre for Mental Health in the Workplace, which sponsored the psychologi- cal safety award. "With this award, we celebrate organizations like Wellington County, which are pioneering ef- forts to protect their employees from psychological injury." e psychological safety award is the fi rst-ever national award that focuses exclusively on miti- gating risks to employees' psycho- logical safety, said Baynton. Award-winning initiatives e County of Wellington was honoured to be recognized for its work, said Andrea Lawson, human resources director. And a lot of the credit is due to county counsellors, senior management and employees. " is was a County win, not an HR win, and their daily contribu- tions made it possible for us to be recognized," she said. The county's many mental health and wellness initiatives are built on a culture of respect, said Michele Richardson, health and safety co-ordinator at the County of Wellington. "It really (requires) a culture of respect to make a psychologically safe workplace and we start that right from day one here, at our new hire orientation," she said. One of the county's most popu- lar initiatives is called "Walk the Talk," in which employees are encouraged to have face-to-face conversations instead of sending emails all day, said Richardson. "It's very easy to send an email to someone who's just down the hall from you or even next door. So we really encourage people to get up and go physically to some- one's offi ce and have that conver- sation," she said. "It allows that hu- man contact, it allows for people to check in and see how someone's doing that particular day." Training and education are also a critical piece of the county's mental health initiatives. Em- ployees are trained in respectful workplace, verbal de-escalation techniques and workplace vio- lence policies, and learn to report psychologically unhealthy situ- ations to managers. e county recently introduced mandatory mental-health tool kit training for all employees across the organiza- tion, said Richardson. "We will actually be having classroom, face-to-face training with all 800 employees." Managers also receive in-depth training around recognizing and responding to mental health is- sues, said Lawson. "We (train) our managers to recognize if there's been a change in their staff , so they've got formal training on how to approach the diffi cult subjects," HR pays close attention to data from the county's employee and family assistance program (EFAP), said Lawson. "If we see that we've got a spike in certain areas on our employee assistance, we'll try to have (some- one) come in to do a lunch-and- learn on that." e initiatives are not just about recognizing and responding to crises — they're about building and maintaining mental wellness, and taking preventative measures before mental health problems ever arise. "We have two gyms which are extremely well-utilized, we do yoga in the park, social services has meditation sessions… so there's something for everybody," said Lawson, adding that by par- ticipating, staff feel like they are part of a family. "( at) contributes to the psy- chological wellness of an employ- ee. If you like coming to work, you feel valued, you feel that there are outlets and resources for you when you get here, you're prevent- ing issues before they even occur." Making the case A major reason those initiatives have been so successful is because of strong support from senior leadership, said Richardson. e costs of the programs are minimal, said Lawson, but the benefi ts are huge — and the uni- fi ed support from all levels of the organization made the initiatives easy to implement. "We've had such incredible support from our council, from our CAO and from all of our man- agers. And the costs have been negligible," she said. "We're a public sector employ- er… we're very accountable for what money we do have to spend, so we have to be pretty resourceful in our initiatives." Employers that are considering implementing similar programs should make the business case to senior leadership, said Lawson. "Let them know what the sta- tistics (are) on mental health in the workplace, and the potential risks of absenteeism and the costs of absenteeism by not doing any- thing," she said. It's a widely known statistic that one-half of employee absences are related to mental health issues, said Richardson. "And that's across the board — it doesn't matter what kind of employer you are. at's a lot of people away from work and a lot of people that are struggling," she said. "And if we can help someone not be afraid to come forward and look for an avenue for some help, or through the EFAP program, or just help with their workload so it can be more manageable, and we can keep that person at work, that's a win-win for both sides. "It's very, very easy to forget the health in health and safety, and that's one thing that we make an eff ort to focus on." Credit: Tim Fraser (Tim Fraser Photography) Mike Schwartz, senior vice-president of group benefits at Great-West Life Assurance Company, presents the psychological safety award to Andrea Lawson, director of human resources at the County of Wellington. Canada's Safest Employers launched in 2011, canada's Safest employers awards recognize companies from all across canada with outstanding accomplishments in promoting the health and safety of workers. the award boasts 10 industry-specifi c categories, ranging from hospitality to mining and natural resources. companies are judged on a wide range of occupational health and safety elements, including employee training, ohS management systems, incident investigation, emergency preparedness and innovative health and safety initiatives. a special wellness award is also handed out to companies that have excellent programs in place to support an employee's overall well-being. a new psychological Safety award was introduced for 2014 to recognize companies that are committed to employee mental health and are working towards implementing the national Standard for psychological health and Safety in the workplace. twenty-seven winners were recognized at a gala event in toronto on oct. 28. the 2015 nomination process will be launched mid-January 2015. For more information — including exclusive videos on all of this year's award winners — visit www.safest-employers.com. COST: $69 + applicable taxes LIVE WEBINAR TIME: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. ET REGISTER ONLINE: www.HRReporter.com/CPDCentre For more Live and On-demand Webinars, visit us online. EMPLOYEE MISUSE OF WORKPLACE TECHNOLOGY: HOW TO PROTECT YOUR ORGANIZATION Learn how to identify risk and protect your organization's condential information. PRESENTERS: Lisa Bolton & Ryan Treleaven Sherrard Kuzz LLP DATE: December 3, 2014 WEBINAR SERIES TIME-SAVING TOOLS FOR RECRUITING AND DEVELOPING TALENT Speeding up HR – Important changes you need to make now. PRESENTER: Arupa Tesolin | Learning Paths International DATE: December 10, 2014 Arupa Tesolin Lisa Bolton

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