York University's Duygu Biricik Gulseren to share insights at HRD's Learning & Development Summit
“There is still a need to train leaders in health-related skills. Many leadership development programs focus on other areas of the business, and health and safety are usually overlooked, especially when it comes to leadership training,” said Duygu Biricik Gulseren, assistant professor at York University.
Gulseren will be speaking at the HRD Learning & Development Summit, which will be held on April 10 in Toronto. Develin’s session is titled “Creating health and safety focused training for leaders in your organization.”
During the session, she will highlight her research on chronic pain in the workplace and identify gaps in health and safety training for management.
Reducing chronic pain in the workplace
Chronic pain is a prevalent problem within many organizations. Alongside mental health issues, it is the leading cause of disability claims, she said.
Gulseren’s research shows that chronic pain is a common workplace issue, and leaders are in a unique position to address these problems. Her survey of 500 leaders revealed that over 80% said chronic pain is an important issue, and while the majority said they were willing to do something to help employees, they didn’t know how to help, she said.
“We found, empirically, a gap between what organizations need and what leaders can actually offer,” she said.
Based on these figures, Gulseren came up with the idea of developing a leadership training program with the goal of equipping leaders with the skills to address chronic pain management.
A leadership training program
Gulseren will highlight her training program at the L&D Summit, specifically with regards to reducing the stigma surrounding chronic pain. The program will also look at leadership efficacy, whether leaders feel confident and comfortable in intervening when an employee is dealing with chronic pain and how leader participation has evolved when it comes to health and safety issues.
Recently, workplaces have seen a shift towards greater concern for mental health issues. Leadership training programs can teach leaders mental health literacy, but physical health and chronic pain are prevalent areas that also need attention, she said.
“Overall, I want to present a case for how leadership training can create healthy workplaces, provide leaders with health-related skills that can be taught to others to ultimately help make a change for organizations from a behavioural and moral perspective, and hopefully in the long run, these strategies will have a financial return on investment as well.”