Experts expect good uptake of voluntary standard to help make workplaces more mental health friendly
Donna Hardaker is hoping the recently announced National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace may help her address a question she often gets from employers: How can we be more strategic in addressing mental health issues?
Hardaker, a workplace mental health specialist with Ontario’s York region branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association, thinks the familiar framework of a standard will resonate with companies that already have other standards such as ISO standards for environment safety implemented.
“Many of the organizations, already adhere to ISO standards,” she said. “To have psychological health and safety viewed in the same way puts it into an appropriate context.”
The new standard is expected to be released for public comment in the fall and released for use by businesses in 2012.
The standard is not mandatory, but companies will adopt it because of what it offers for their business, said Hardaker.
“If you have a standard on this, organizations will embrace it very quickly,” she said. “It will certainly appeal to them.”
Healthy workplaces are a good business decision, which is one reason the committee working on the standard believes it will have a good take up rate even though it is voluntary, said Ian Arnold, chair of the Workforce Advisory Committee of the Mental Health Commission of Canada.
“I think it’s good for business from many perspectives, it’s good from a financial perspective but most of all it changes the atmosphere of the organization,” he said.
Arnold said organizations that perform well in one sphere often perform well in other areas.
“If you’re good in environment, if you’re good in health and safety then you tend to have improved productivity, improved bottom lines and the same thing is quite true for psychological health and safety,” he said.
The committee is currently about one-third of the way through developing the standard, Arnold said.
The Canadian Standards Association (CSA) is one of the organizations involved in the process of creating the psychological health standard.
The standard will provide employers with tools and strategies to address psychological health and safety in the workplace, said Elizabeth Rankin, project manager with the occupational health and safety program.
“So making sure that hazards that may be inherent in some of the policies and programs or interactions in the workplace are identified and addressed and that risk reductions strategies can be put in place,” she said.
“It’s really to help employers work their way through a really complex subject by giving them tools to be able to use and guidance on how to address these types of issues.”
People who have been calling Rankin to ask about the standard have been very interested in what it is going to cover and when it’s going to be available, she said.
It is being developed along the same lines as many of the other standards that workplaces use. It will utilize a “plan, do, check, act” model similar to CSA Z1000, a physical safety standard, and ISO 3100, a risk management standard.
A plan, do, check, act model works because it give employers a framework so they can always work on health and safety, said Jeanne Bank, OHS manager at the CSA.
“It’s very much about continuous improvement,” she said. “I mean this is a subject area that is an emerging area and I think there’s very much employers are going to have to not only develop but continuously improve psychologically safe and healthy work environments for their employees.”
This is one of the reasons having the standard is so important, said Arnold.
Workplaces have benefitted from having other standards developed and this will be no exception.
“It has an evaluation process and a feedback tool built into it,” he said. “So I think this was our thinking about why a standard would be of value.”
A psychologically safe workplace means that the mental health of employees is valued as much as the physical safety, said Hardaker.
“The idea is that people can come to work and just the way we value physical health and safety at work, we also value psychological health and safety,” said Hardaker. “It means we have taken action to address issues that provide an unsafe environment and we proactively look for issues that may arise that may be psychologically unsafe.”
Hardaker, a workplace mental health specialist with Ontario’s York region branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association, thinks the familiar framework of a standard will resonate with companies that already have other standards such as ISO standards for environment safety implemented.
“Many of the organizations, already adhere to ISO standards,” she said. “To have psychological health and safety viewed in the same way puts it into an appropriate context.”
The new standard is expected to be released for public comment in the fall and released for use by businesses in 2012.
The standard is not mandatory, but companies will adopt it because of what it offers for their business, said Hardaker.
“If you have a standard on this, organizations will embrace it very quickly,” she said. “It will certainly appeal to them.”
Healthy workplaces are a good business decision, which is one reason the committee working on the standard believes it will have a good take up rate even though it is voluntary, said Ian Arnold, chair of the Workforce Advisory Committee of the Mental Health Commission of Canada.
“I think it’s good for business from many perspectives, it’s good from a financial perspective but most of all it changes the atmosphere of the organization,” he said.
Arnold said organizations that perform well in one sphere often perform well in other areas.
“If you’re good in environment, if you’re good in health and safety then you tend to have improved productivity, improved bottom lines and the same thing is quite true for psychological health and safety,” he said.
The committee is currently about one-third of the way through developing the standard, Arnold said.
The Canadian Standards Association (CSA) is one of the organizations involved in the process of creating the psychological health standard.
The standard will provide employers with tools and strategies to address psychological health and safety in the workplace, said Elizabeth Rankin, project manager with the occupational health and safety program.
“So making sure that hazards that may be inherent in some of the policies and programs or interactions in the workplace are identified and addressed and that risk reductions strategies can be put in place,” she said.
“It’s really to help employers work their way through a really complex subject by giving them tools to be able to use and guidance on how to address these types of issues.”
People who have been calling Rankin to ask about the standard have been very interested in what it is going to cover and when it’s going to be available, she said.
It is being developed along the same lines as many of the other standards that workplaces use. It will utilize a “plan, do, check, act” model similar to CSA Z1000, a physical safety standard, and ISO 3100, a risk management standard.
A plan, do, check, act model works because it give employers a framework so they can always work on health and safety, said Jeanne Bank, OHS manager at the CSA.
“It’s very much about continuous improvement,” she said. “I mean this is a subject area that is an emerging area and I think there’s very much employers are going to have to not only develop but continuously improve psychologically safe and healthy work environments for their employees.”
This is one of the reasons having the standard is so important, said Arnold.
Workplaces have benefitted from having other standards developed and this will be no exception.
“It has an evaluation process and a feedback tool built into it,” he said. “So I think this was our thinking about why a standard would be of value.”
A psychologically safe workplace means that the mental health of employees is valued as much as the physical safety, said Hardaker.
“The idea is that people can come to work and just the way we value physical health and safety at work, we also value psychological health and safety,” said Hardaker. “It means we have taken action to address issues that provide an unsafe environment and we proactively look for issues that may arise that may be psychologically unsafe.”
