From buying ergonomic furniture to equipping workers with the right protective gear, Canada's employers invest significant resources each year to make their workplaces physically safe for their employees.
Today, thanks to a groundbreaking workplace standard introduced last year, employers are also starting to address an aspect of workplace safety that has been largely neglected: psychological health and safety.
"Typically, and for the longest time, the idea of a safe system for work was interpreted as a safe physical system for work," says Dr. Martin Shain, one of Canada's leading proponents of psychological safety in the workplace and principal at Neighbour at Work Centre, a Toronto consulting firm specializing in workplace mental health and safety.
In January 2013, the Canadian Standards Association and the Bureau de normalisation du Québec – accredited organizations that develop safety standards for products and processes – launched the National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace.
Championed by the Mental Health Commission of Canada, the standard is a voluntary set of guidelines, tools and resources that promotes employees' mental health and helps prevent psychological harm in the workplace. Among other things, it underlines the importance of mutually respectful relationships in the workplace.
Dr. Shain distils the standard to four directives for employers: be aware of the duty to provide a psychologically safe workplace; be fair; be careful to take steps to avoid foreseeable psychological harm; and be vigilant and alert to conflict or tensions in the workplace.
The business case for the standard rests on solid evidence: about 500,000 Canadians miss work in any given week because of a mental health-related problem. According to a 2011 report by the Conference Board of Canada, 44 per cent of employees in Canada have had problems with mental health. According to research conducted by Dr. Shain, psychologically unsafe workplaces can result in increased injuries, cardiovascular disease, back pain, substance abuse, and certain forms of cancer.
To support optimum performance and attendance, therefore, "employers need to do everything they can do to try and address the clinical and psychological issues their employees are facing," says Charles Benayon, founder and CEO of Aspiria Corp., an employee assistance program provider headquartered in Toronto.
Janet Jackson, vice president of
group marketing at Empire Life
The country's small businesses – which make up more than 98 per cent of employers in Canada – are well positioned to become leaders in implementing the new standards for psychological health and safety in the workplace, says Janet Jackson, vice president of group marketing at Empire Life, a Canadian provider of individual and group life and health insurance and financial investment products.
"They have better awareness of workplace dynamics just by virtue of the fact that they're smaller," says Ms. Jackson. In smaller groups, it is easier to notice issues that may arise and to provide appropriate coaching, she explains.
While implementing the standard may be easier than employers might think, lack of awareness remains a challenge. A recent survey by Empire Life of its customers – Canadian employers – found that only 19 per cent knew about the standard. About three per cent said they had implemented the standard while another 2.5 per cent said they were now in the process of doing so.
Thanks to outreach and education efforts by the organizations behind the standard, as well as by companies that provide services to employers, awareness and adoption are increasing. Aspiria, for instance, discusses workplace mental health frequently in its corporate blog, while Empire Life provides educational resources on the standard.
"Living the spirit of the standard doesn't take a lot of resources or money," says Ms. Jackson. "It's really about how we relate to one another at work. Once an employer starts talking about the standard, they are in effect beginning to apply it."