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April 10, 2017 from the April 17, 2017 issue.
HEALTH & SAFETY
Positive mental health
good business strategy
Evolution of mental health initiatives in the
workplace sees encouraging results
By Mary Ann Baynton
I
n workplaces where positive
mental health for all employees
is supported, engagement and
productivity increase while stigma
and stress are reduced. Employees
can maximize their potential to do
a good job and go home at the end
of the day with some energy left
over for their personal lives.
Building team resilience, effectively
addressing and resolving conflict,
providing clarity about expectations, and supporting the success of
each employee’s performance are
some of the major contributions towards a mentally healthy workplace.
And if there are employees who also
live with mental health issues such
as depression or anxiety, the same
approaches will be protective for
them.
These are exactly the elements
that contribute to organizational
success.
And while human resources professionals cannot be responsible for
the mental health of every employee, with the right framework, they
can cascade responsibility to each
and every employee, with clear directives and support for leaders.
The strategies and outcomes of
employers that have been successful in creating this seemingly idealistic environment are shared in the
2017 Evolution of Workplace Mental Health in Canada: Research Report, a project commissioned by the
Great-West Life Centre for Mental
Health in the Workplace to support
research through the University of
Fredericton.
These are not perfect workplaces,
with no conflict or mental health
issues — that is not even the goal.
These are workplaces where conflict
is resolved effectively, the mental
health of all employees is promoted,
and employees with mental health
issues are helped to remain productive while at work.
The report, along with other research, provides evidence that this
is not just a so-called “nice-to-have”
approach. We now have statistics
that show it is a prudent and beneficial business strategy.
Fortunately, early adopters that
implemented the National Standard of Canada for Psychological
Health and Safety in the Workplace
released in 2013 have shared their
results to light the way for other
employers that wanted to see proof
before taking action.
Leadership views changing
Progress on mental health is evident — 73 per cent of the working
Canadians surveyed for the report
said the availability of workplace
mental health and educational
training programs had improved
since 2007, with similar responses
from those who came from whitecollar, blue-collar or pink-collar
work environments.
And societal shifts in the general
public’s attitudes toward mental
health issues have also contributed
to overall stigma being reduced,
according to lead researcher Joti
Samra, program lead at the Centre
for Psychological Health Sciences at
the University of Fredericton.
Mental health is increasingly being viewed as an important component of overall health, awareness has
increased, and the overall understanding of mental health issues has
become less judgmental and more
compassionate. There is a movement from a focus exclusively on
those with a diagnosed mental illness to a broader view of protecting
the psychological health and safety
of each and every employee.
One of the overarching themes
that has evolved in the last decade
relates to attitudinal changes in
the workplace, particularly among
those in leadership roles, toward
valuing the protection of employees’ mental health. Seventy-seven
per cent of survey respondents
across all worker groups indicated
attitudes toward workplace mental
health issues were better than they
were in 2007.
“This suggests a better understanding of the impact that the
workplace has on mental health and
awareness of the important role and
obligation employers have in protecting the overall health of their
employees — not only in terms of
physical health and safety, but also
psychological health and safety,”
says Samra.
The results of a 2016 national
public opinion survey of 5,000
working Canadians, commissioned
by the Great-West Life Centre for
Mental Health, support Samra’s
findings. In the last decade, fewer
Canadians describe their workplace
as being one that is psychologically
unhealthy and unsafe. In fact, since
2009, the number who disagree that
their workplace is a psychologically
healthy and safe environment has
been cut in half, to just 10 per cent.
Taking action
The sheer quantity of tools and resources now available can be daunting, and many of them are available
at no cost in the public domain. This
is quite a change from 10 years ago
when employers had access to information about physical safety, but
little help with psychological safety.
Where to start? If your organizational objective is to increase sales,
start by improving the emotional intelligence of the sales force, including management, because higher
rates of emotional intelligence correlate to improved sales, and will
also improve psychological health
and safety in the workplace. If your
main goal is to improve employee
engagement, begin implementing
evidence-informed team activities.
Psychological health and safety
does not have to be a huge additional initiative or program to implement. In fact, it really comes down
to the way people at an organiza-
Page 1 © Copyright Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. - April 10, 2017 - Toronto, Ontario, (800) 387-5164 - Web Site: www.hrreporter.com
tion interact on a day-to-day basis.
There is no cookie-cutter approach
that will work for everyone, but by
linking HR’s efforts to the overall
organizational objectives, it will be
supporting both organizational success and employee well-being. This
is a much easier sell in the C-suite
and will likely reflect well on HR.
“HR professionals are poised to
be true leaders in ensuring good
mental well-being in the workforce. In fact, 81 per cent of respondents in the national survey indicated that the attitudes of human
resources professionals toward
workplace mental health issues
have somewhat or significantly im-
proved since 2007 — that’s higher
than reported attitudinal improvements among executives and leaders, union representatives, managers and supervisors, and general
employees,” says Samra.
And employees whose workplaces are implementing the National
Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the
Workplace are much more likely
to describe their workplace as psychologically healthy and safe; are
more compassionate in their attitudes towards mental health conditions; and are more likely to know
their own role in the workplace
regarding identifying and sup-
porting those with mental health
conditions.
Actively promoting and adopting initiatives related to enhancing psychological health and safety
provides immense benefits for organizations and employees alike,
including enhanced worker satisfaction and productivity, economic
benefits related to an engaged and
healthy workforce, and general improved quality of life outcomes.
“An increasing number of organizations are supporting initiatives
for the betterment of workplace
mental health, thereby shaping an
encouraging outlook on the future
landscape of psychological health
and safety in the workplace, and
— most importantly — the psychological well-being of workers across
Canada,” says Samra.
Despite the marked progress,
there is a continuing need for improvement in protecting and promoting psychologically healthy and
safe work environments. And this
is not just something that is an ideal
— we now have evidence it is good
business strategy.
Mary Ann Baynton is program director
at the Great-West Life Centre for Mental Health in the Workplace. For more
information, visit www.workplacestrategiesformentalhealth.com.
Page 2 © Copyright Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. - April 10, 2017 - Toronto, Ontario, (800) 387-5164 - Web Site: www.hrreporter.com