By age 40, 50% of the population will have or have had a mental illness
This article was produced in partnership with Workplace Strategies for Mental Health, compliments of Canada Life.
If people are the lifeblood of an organization, then their well-being should be top of mind. Psychological wellbeing is the bedrock of any business success – and if your people are struggling it stands to reason that your organization will too.
In that vein, Workplace Strategies for Mental Health compliments of Canada Life have been developing a variety of resources and tools aimed to help employers prioritize the mental wellbeing of their people. Speaking to HRD, Mary Ann Baynton, Director of Collaboration and Strategy says that their new tool is designed to analyze, assess and ultimately improve the wellbeing, focus and energy of your entire team. No matter where they are.
“Originally we developed a leadership tool - the psychologically safe leader assessment – from which a leader can check-in with their team, see how they’re doing and better understand how they can improve their own role in order to help their people. We then noticed a gap – that we also need to focus on the team dynamics because that plays a very big role.”
This is where the psychologically safe team assessment comes in. The test itself, created in association with the Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety, takes just 10 minutes to set up and the link can be sent directly to each individual employees’ email. After the assessment is completed, the leader generates a report highlighting both positive aspects of the team dynamics and areas that could be improved upon.
Not only is this new tool completely free to use, it’s also set up to protect both employees’ identity and the organization’s private data. And, really, the new resource has come at exactly the right time. According to data from the Canadian Mental Health Association, in any given year one in five Canadians will personally experience a mental health problem or illness. What’s more, by age 40, 50% of the population will have or have had a mental illness.
The issues are there – even if they appear hidden at first, as Workplace Strategies uncovered in a recent survey. According to their data, respondents are still experiencing bullying (16%), harassment (13%) and discrimination (18%) often or always in the workplace.
“People might assume they don’t have time to focus on psychological health and safety – or that it’s a bit ‘fluffy’,” says Baynton. “But really you don’t have time not to focus on it – because mental wellbeing is embedded in everything organizations do. If your people aren’t feeling included, if team dynamics are off, if there’s bullying or harassment in the company, then employees aren’t going to feel safe speaking up and they’re not going to give their all.”
The new tool looks at issues like inclusion and cohesion. It also looks at how the the leader supports the team. By asking a series of questions and producing a report, the leader can get a comprehensive analysis of how well their team is faring.
“The report, supports the leader to leverage Workplace Strategies’ tools to enhance and improve the team experience. And again, it’s all free.”
Seems like a win-win for both leaders and their organization – a complimentary way of showing your people you care by fixing the issues. And it can be used in any company of any size, working off of any model.
“It can be used in a huge, multinational company or a small start-up,” says Baynton. “It’s meant for any team that regularly interacts and it will work for any work situation – remote, hybrid or in-person.”
The bottom line is that discrimination and harassment are still prevalent in Canadian organizations – be it visible or hidden. As Baynton says, there’s always room to improve and evolve.
“There shouldn’t be anyone experiencing discrimination or exclusion, but sadly they do,” she tells HRD. “That means there's still things that we, as employers, need to do. Our new tool is a way of uncovering these issues, of seeing what’s not working, and taking those important first steps in fixing the problems.”