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By Dr. Joti Samra, R. Psych.
HR professionals occupy a unique position to change the
face of workplace mental health within their own organi-zations,
in addition to the broader, nationwide landscape.
By definition, HR professionals are responsible for re-cruiting,
retaining, supporting and energizing employees so that
businesses can thrive – core functions when we consider the ele-ments
required to create and sustain a psychologically healthy and
safe work environment, and associated workforce.
A psychologically healthy and safe workplace is one that pro-motes
the psychological wellbeing of employees, and prevents
harm to their mental health in negligent, reckless or intentional
ways. The benefits of a psychologically healthy and safe workplace
are immense – aside from contributing to the wellbeing of em-ployees,
psychologically healthy work environments constitute a
motivated and engaged workforce, in addition to lower disabili-ty
costs, absenteeism rates and turnover-based expenses. Jointly,
these factors strengthen an organization’s economic stability and
reputation as an employer of choice.
Over the past decade, I have led and participated in multiple
initiatives that have improved the prevention, assessment, inter-vention
and management of workplace mental health issues across
Canada. Many of my efforts in this field have been supported by
the passionate and dedicated team at the Great-West Life Centre
for Mental Health in the Workplace. The Centre has led a number
of successful workplace mental health initiatives, and is a leading
source of free, evidence-based, practical tools and resources that
assist employers in addressing workplace mental health issues.
EMERGING RESEARCH
Collectively, these initiatives – in tandem with the efforts of many
other influential figures, groups and agencies – have contributed
to a surge in recognition, awareness and commitment to the im-portance
of workplace mental health, particularly over the past
decade. With support from the Centre, I sought to summarize re-cent
developments in the workplace mental health landscape in
the recently released report, The Evolution of Workplace Mental
Health in Canada: Research Report (2007–2017); downloadable at
www.workplacestrategiesformentalhealth.com/centre-initiatives.
Myself and a team of excellent research associates (Dylan
Davidson, Marissa Bowsfield) and expert advisors (Drs. Mark
Attridge, Graham Lowe, Martin Shain) investigated the Evolution
of Workplace Mental Health across a handful of domains, including
the legal and standards domain, shifts in business priorities, trends
in the media, changes in the education and training landscape and
evolving research priorities. Our information was collected via re-views
of empirical and gray literature, semi-structured interviews
with key informants (experts in the area of workplace mental
health) from across Canada, as well as a national survey assess-ing
attitudes and current business practices regarding workplace
mental health.
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HRPROFESSIONALNOW.CA ❚ APRIL 2017 ❚ 19
