Canadian Safety Reporter - sample

4 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2018 CSR | March 2018 | News to stress has increased by more than 300 per cent since 1995. That translates to an average cost of $3,550 per employee per year, according to Watson Wy- att Canadian Staying @ Work Survey. There are hidden costs, too: Mood Disorders Society of Canada says workplace stress can result in a lack of engage- ment, higher staff turnover, costly mistakes, and poor cus- tomer service. And the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board notes that can stress can contribute to workplace acci- dents as well. Sources of stress What's causing all this stress? A 2016 Neilson survey of U.S. em- ployees found six key sources for stress in the workplace: lack of work-life balance, poor relation- ships with co-workers, excessive workload, a lack of job security, inadequate compensation and lengthy commutes. Aside from workplace stress, many people are dealing with challenges in their personal lives that will impact their mental health. "Those might include natural life stressors like get- ting married or having a baby, grief when a loved one dies, or even something like a clinical diagnosis or substance abuse," says Danielle Stewart, consul- tant, Workplace Safety and Pre- vention Services. "Any of those things can make life at work more difficult, since we can't necessarily divide work life and home life — they naturally bleed into each other." Certain workplace conditions can compound stress levels, too. "If you have caregiver duties with aging parents or young children, for example, and you have a very rigid work environment without a lot of flexibility or accommo- dation, that can be an additional source of stress and that's where work and home life can have an impact on one another," says Emma Nicolson, Occupational Health and Safety Specialist, Ca- nadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety. Mitigating stress "In a lot of ways you can think of the mental health of our em- ployees as being synonymous with this concept of stress, "says Jordan Friesen, National Associ- ate Director, Workplace Mental Health, Canadian Mental Health Association. "Stress is very easy to talk about and it also tends to correlate well with mental health." Given the amount of time most Canadians spend work- ing, an employer can have a tre- mendous impact on how much stress employees must handle and whether or not they have a support system to help ensure their mental health. Doing right by employees is good for busi- ness, too. A 2010 study by the Mental Health Commission of Canada found the average cost of accommodation of a mental health issue was around $500 per employee, but the average cost of a short-term disability claim was about $18,000. So, there's a strong case for taking proactive measures. "We know from research that there are 13 factors (see page 1 brief ) — referenced in the National Standard of Canada for Psycho- logical Health and Safety in the Workplace — that employers are encouraged to address to help mitigate sources of stress for em- ployees," says Nicolson. Strengthening workplace relationships Each of the 13 factors — the list includes clear leadership and expectations, growth opportu- nities, civility and respect, work- load, recognition and balance — share some common ground. "In each case, it really comes down to the quality of relationships people have in the workplace," says Friesen. "The relationships we have with our colleagues, supervisors, with people lead- ing the organization can really mitigate the stress we experience when work is challenging, or they can add to the stress we're feeling on a day-to-day basis." He adds, "This comes down to the concept of psychological support and in particular emo- tional intelligence. It means hav- ing leaders who can understand the emotional reactions people may be having to stressors in the workplace as well as under- standing their own emotional reactions." He adds, too, that this may be new territory for many managers and organizations will often need to invest in training. "Most people leaders and man- agers think they have very good emotional intelligence. Howev- er, if you look at the actual skills they possess, many don't have those fundamental skills to su- pervise in an emotionally intel- ligent kind of way," says Friesen. "Leaders need to be able to recognize the signs and symp- toms of stress responses," says Nicolson. "What they're really looking for with any type of is- sue is a change in behaviour." She adds, "If a leader is trained and knowledgeable about how to engage staff to create a safe and trusting environment, then an employee feels safe enough to go to a manager and say 'I'm not okay today,' or the manager is knowledgeable enough and feels safe enough to go up to a team member and ask, 'Are you okay today?'" Taking action An important first step in ad- dressing the challenge is to re- view how your organization is doing, and what sort of change it's ready for. The stressassess. ca website, developed by the Ca- nadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, assesses an organization's readiness and de- termines whether it's at a 'getting started,' 'gaining momentum' or 'raising the bar' stage, then rec- ommends specific actions. Stag- es could involve creating literacy and building a foundation, then addressing specific needs of an organization, then implement- ing best practices. One resource likely already in place is your organization's em- ployee assistance plan. "That's one area that organizations tend to look at the wrong way," says Stewart. "We often think if no one is using the EAP then there are no issues, when in fact it might mean either there's some stigma at work or people don't know what resources are avail- able to them." She adds, "In an ideal world we want to see EAP utilization higher, since that will indicate that the stigma is lower in your organization and people are getting help when they need it." Top-down support "The one thing I always say or- ganizations need for a mentally healthy environment is clear leadership and commitment from the top," says Friesen. "This could be through a company- wide email or a policy state- ment." He adds, "It just needs to be something that demonstrates to the employees in the organi- zation that psychological health is a priority." That step, says Friesen, needs to be followed up with action. "That could include things like training for managers and people leaders, or could include running a campaign like notmy- selftoday.ca, or adopting the Na- tional Standard," says Friesen. Eventually, mental health be- comes a natural element of busi- ness decisions. "It's important to make sure the psychological component is integrated into ev- erything an organization does," says Nicolson. "When we talk about change management, for example, it's important to make sure we understand how that's going to impact people and not just bottom line or quality of production." Evidence of change There's evidence change is start- ing to happen. "There's a much broader recognition that a psy- chologically healthy environ- ment is good for business," says Friesen. "We're seeing more em- ployers willing to take action. In 2017, for example, we had more than 320 corporations across Canada sign up to participate in the notmyself.ca campaign and as a result that impacted more than 300,000 employees in Canada." He adds, "10 years ago it wouldn't have had anywhere near that kind of traction." "Without employees you typi- cally don't have a business so em- ployers are encouraged to create and look after a supportive work environment where workers want to be," says Nicolson. "And then in turn you're fostering this culture of wellbeing and caring that really is beneficial not just to the bottom line but to everybody involved." Supporting < pg. 1 Employee mental health and stress correlate strongly

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