cover feature
the workplace – and Guarding Minds @ Work (GM@W) was
born. Over the next several years – with the support of the Centre
– I led the development of GM@W, a free, evidence-based col-lection
of resources that allows employers to evaluate and address
13 specific psychosocial factors shown to have a sizeable impact
on collective organizational mental health, individual employees’
mental health and financial stability. GM@W was a response to
an identified gap in the landscape with respect to evidence-based
employer tools that could aid employers in assessing the psycho-logical
health and safety of their work environment.
GM@W’s design was informed by extensive research, includ-ing
consultation with experts from across the country, reviews of
national and international best practices, as well as existing and
emerging Canadian legislation and case law. Organizations opting
in to implement the GM@W program’s principles and strategies
in their workplace are presented with several options for collect-ing
data on the psychological health and safety of their employees
during the initial assessment period. Post-assessment, those orga-nizations
seeking to fill gaps in their workforce’s mental health are
provided with resources for acting on and continuing evaluation
of organizational mental health, both of which require ongoing
commitment to workplace psychological health and safety from
the employer.
A significant factor contributing to workplace managers and
leaders’ ability to ensure workplace psychological health and safe-ty
is their ability to remain disciplined under stressful situations,
and exhibit the level of emotional intelligence necessary to medi-ate
conflicts and other difficult situations in the workplace. Thus,
with support from the Centre once again, I led the development
of “Managing Emotions” – a module of the Centre’s Managing
Mental Health Matters framework. “Managing Emotions” con-stitutes
several important lessons for managers, such as how to
respond to distressed workers, methods of resolving sensitive
workplace conflicts, using assertive but non-defensive communica-tion
and effectively managing personal and work-based stressors.
Guiding each facet of the module are video lessons that exemplify
the most effective methods for managers to manage their emo-tions
in the workplace. Learners are also presented with exercises
such as skills assessments and self-evaluations of what they have
learned from the module’s lessons.
THE STANDARD
One of the most significant, tangible developments I have wit-nessed
in the broad landscape of workplace mental health has
been the development and release of the Standard. The Standard
is championed by the Mental Health Commission of Canada, was
developed by the Bureau de normalisation du Québec and the
CSA Group and is supported by the Centre and other agencies.
Broadly, the Standard encourages employers to prevent reasonably
foreseeable psychological harm to employees by making every rea-sonable
effort to ensure respectfulness, fairness and consideration
as core values driving everyday interactions in the workplace. The
Standard also proclaims a central definition of a psychologically
healthy and safe workplace, and provides employers a voluntary,
systematic set of guidelines for fostering and maintaining a psy-chologically
safe and healthy work environment. These guidelines
specify how to identify, assess and address workplace risks to
psychological health, as well as establish policies that promote psy-chological
health and make it an organizational goal. Numerous
organizations across Canada have begun adopting the Standard
– an act that is an investment in the benefits of a psychologically
healthy workplace, as well as a signal to employees that the orga-nization
is committed to their psychological health. As a member
of the Technical Committee that developed the Standard, it was a
pleasure to witness the convergence of great minds in the form of
legal experts, researchers, industry representatives and clinicians,
all of whom stand as champions of what is clearly a bright future
for the maintenance of workplace mental health across Canada. It
was additionally rewarding – both personally and professionally
– to have GM@W and its associated 13 psychosocial risk factors
inform the development of the psychosocial factors identified in
the Standard as being a key part of a psychologically healthy and
safe work environment.
Human resources professionals are poised to be true leaders
in ensuring good mental wellbeing in the workforce. In fact, 81.1
per cent of our respondents in the Evolution of Workplace Mental
Health national survey indicated that the attitudes of HR profes-sionals
toward workplace mental health issues have somewhat or
significantly improved since 2007 – higher than reported attitudinal
improvements among executives and leaders, union representa-tives,
managers and supervisors and general employees. In light of
organizations’ evolving duties to simultaneously prevent workplace-induced
mental health issues, while accommodating employees with
pre-existing ones, it falls to HR professionals to remain privy to de-velopments
in this landscape, and to actively promote the principles
of psychological health and safety in their workplace. ■
Dr. Joti Samra, R. Psych., is program lead at the Centre for
Psychological Health Sciences, University of Fredericton and an
organizational, research and media consultant through Samra
Psychology Corporation.
HUMAN RESOURCES
PROFESSIONALS
ARE POISED TO BE
TRUE LEADERS IN
ENSURING GOOD
MENTAL WELLBEING
IN THE WORKFORCE.
22 ❚ APRIL 2017 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL
