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How do you embed psychological health and safety in organizational policies and processes? A group of executives, labour leaders, health and safety professionals, government agency representatives and experts in law and policy came together to answer this question and consider the implications of Dr. Martin Shain's paper Tracking the Perfect Legal Storm: Converging systems create mounting pressure to create the psychologically safe workplace | PDF.
The following adaptation takes the five elements of a standard management approach (policy, planning, implementation, evaluation and review) and applies them against different employment life cycle stages.
Use this to help guide your own policy planning and review.
The On the agenda creating change series provides materials to lead a policy planning session. Each of the sessions in the series covers a psychosocial factors from the National Standard of Canada on Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace (Canadian Standards Association z1003:2013).
Recruiting and hiring
The hiring procedure is the first impression of your organization and its leadership. It shows recruits how your organization values its employees and defines the workplace culture.
Policy and commitment
- Articulate the values of the organization and how they will be upheld or measured
- Define psychological health and safety for new recruits
- Define psychologically safe leadership for new recruits
- State that negligent, reckless or intentional injury to employee mental health isn't tolerated.
- State the organization’s commitment to supporting employees who:
- May have mental or physical disabilities
- Are part of the 2SLGBTQ+ community
- Are from any racialized or marginalized group
- Communicate consequences for violations
Planning
- In the hiring process, consider the psychological demands of the role being hired for, as well as the required emotional and social skills
- Use psychologically safe strategies for hiring and orientation
- Consider leadership skills for roles that involve supervision or support of employees
- Where permitted by law, ensure your organization uses inclusive hiring best practices | PDF , such as the 40% rule where there is a mandate of a minimum requirement of 40% women and 30% racial minority candidates at the first stage of every interview process
- Ensure the hiring process includes consideration of psychological safety for interviewees
Implementation
- Discuss your process for accommodation and any organizational supports
- Define the cultural and social expectations or norms of your organization
- Increase psychological comfort by considering recruiting options such as:
- Sharing the interview process in advance
- Providing written questions at the time of the interview
- Offering a choice of sequential versus panel interviews, and ensuring the interview panel is diverse | PDF
- Offering the option of in-person or virtual interviews to provide flexibility for the interviewee.
Evaluation and correction actions
- Provide a review of job-fit within 3 to 6 months of hiring to assess the effectiveness of your recruiting practices
- Measure job satisfaction and engagement, as well as performance
- If necessary, provide additional relevant training and support
- If changes are needed, review again in another 3 to 6 months
- Survey all recent hires about their experience with the recruiting and hiring process. Then use their feedback as part of continual improvement.
Review
- Conduct an annual review of recruiting and hiring practices. Then analyze the outcomes
Orientation and training
- Integrate psychological health and safety principles into all orientation and training protocols. Do this especially for leaders so they can support continual improvement.
Policy and commitment
- Require that the organization’s values be embedded in the orientation and all training approaches
- For each value, share examples of the behaviours, words and actions that could support it
- Embed the principles of psychological health and safety, including psychologically safe leadership and discrimination prevention and inclusion in:
- Training,
- Policies
- Strategies
- Changes
- Processes
Planning
- Consider how all orientation and training processes (or their absence) may impact psychological health and safety
- Embed psychologically safe leadership strategies in training for both potential and existing leaders
- Embed discrimination prevention and inclusivity strategies in training for employees at all levels
Implementation
- Develop an orientation program that takes into account:
- Psychological safety on the job
- The culture
- Rates of change within the organization
- Application of organizational values
- How to access support or accommodation
- Ensure your orientation program includes information that clearly defines:
- What discrimination is
- What it can look like
- Next steps if an employee experiences discrimination in the workplace
- What to do if they witness another employee experiencing discrimination at work
- Make sure all current and future training programs are inclusive.
- Adjust orientation and training curriculum for newcomers who may need:
- English as a second language support
- Orientation to workplace jargon and terminology
- Ongoing training and mentorship
- Set up a leadership development process that includes:
- Awareness of what mental health and mental illness is, as well as a process leaders would use to support employees experiencing mental illness
- Development of interpersonal competence like emotional intelligence
- Strategies to prevent discrimination and create an inclusive work environment
- Access to just-in-time resources so they can support employees experiencing:
- Physical injury or illness
- Mental illness
- Grief and loss
- Financial stress
- Another crisis
- Psychologically safe leadership strategies and frameworks
- Ongoing coaching and mentoring
- Set up a shorter orientation process for job changes within the organization
Evaluation and correction actions
- Assess all training and orientation for behavioural impact
- Ask what challenges there were in new job placements to learn how to improve orientation and training approaches
- Ask about training requirements and training refreshers to understand the needs
- Consider using the Psychologically safe leader assessment for continual improvement
Review
- Do scheduled reviews of organization-wide, departmental and job-specific orientation and training approaches. Compare to other measures of psychological safety and engagement.
- Review the impact individual leaders have on the psychological health and safety of their direct reports.
Evaluation, performance management, discipline and promotion
It’s important to evaluate both employee and management strategies to optimize productivity.
Policy and commitment
- Ask senior leaders to model organizational values and best practices.
- Have leaders show they understand the importance of psychologically safe leadership. This should include showing their commitment to discrimination prevention and inclusion
- Support psychologically safe leadership through policies and processes that recognize and reward safe leadership practices
Planning
- Develop a system that supports psychological safety in management, evaluation, discipline and promotion.
- Engage leaders to learn to balance psychologically safe leadership while meeting organizational objectives.
Implementation
- Ensure leaders are able to manage in a psychologically safe way. Or help them develop this skill
- Create a Performance management system that considers health problems, implicit bias, and discrimination before beginning discipline
- Engage employees in developing solutions that allow them to completethe tasks assigned
- Help supervisors and managers to Identify employee issues for leaders promptly
- Have leaders embed solution-focused approaches in Employee concerns
Evaluation and correction actions
- Take regular account of productivity by measuring both outcomes and outputs. You can do this by measuring the results of tasks and projects. Also assess effort made to achieve the desired outcome like:
- The number of hours worked
- New skills learned and applied
- Resources used
- Consider external influences on performance, such as:
- Economic pressures
- Family or health issues
- Disasters or traumatic events within the employee’s community
- Leadership approaches
- Employee conflict
- Organizational pressures
Review
- Consider how various management strategies impact outcomes.
- Consider pilot projects to test alternative approaches.
Grief, loss and crisis response
This is a critical time to ensure psychologically safe approaches. It's important that employees know that supports are available for those who need it.
Policy and commitment
- Make sure there are clear response standards for each job role in the event of a loss or crisis at work.
Planning
- Ensure crisis response actions include aspects related to those who:
- Have mental or physical disabilities
- Are part of the 2SLGBTQ+ community
- Are from a racialized or marginalized group. They may be more likely to experience painful events in their community that needs support at work.
- Ensure that grief, loss and bereavement policies consider:
- How to support an employee who may need help meeting job requirements because they're caring for someone who’s terminally ill.
- Different types of loss employees can experience, including and not limited to:
- Relative
- Miscarriage
- Fertility
- Pet
- Friend
- Community member
- Different types of family structures
- The different customs and traditions practiced in an employee’s community, culture, or background. Some of these may need support or time off not recognized in current policies
- The physical distance an employee may have to travel to attend a funeral or ceremony. You'll also want to consider whether that will mean more paid or unpaid leave
- What supports are in place for the employee when they return, like:
- Access to Employee Assistance Programs (EAP),
- Grief and loss counselling
- Community support groups
- Accommodations like reduced job requirements, hours or tasks
Implementation
- Develop actions for proactive crisis prevention
- Create bereavement policies to support employees experiencing grief and loss. Include how the policies will support employees who have lost someone outside the typical family structure. For example, in some communities, someone may be as attached to an aunt, uncle or grandparent as others might be to a parent.
- Create action plans to support employees whose community has experienced a traumatic event. Ensure the plan engages people from that community to support the affected employees
- Develop intervention programs to assist troubled employees
- Ensure Employee assistance programs (EAP) are relevant to your organization
Evaluation and correction actions
- Assess each program’s efficacy and relevance to need
Review
- Review all programs, look for synergies, and consider gaps
Accommodation and return to work
Treat every situation as unique. But, there are best practices you can follow that align with human rights legislation. They’ll also support success.
Policy and commitment
- During the accommodation and return to work process, make sure leaders are physically present and communicate effectively.
- Ensure leaders have the skills and resources to support the success of employees who need accommodations. These skills must be adequate to address a physical health issue, a mental health illness or a loss.
- Consider using the tool Supporting employee success
Planning
- Define accommodation opportunities that address issues related to:
- Communication
- Feedback
- Directions
- Relationships
- Triggers and stressors in the workplace
- Task-oriented approaches
- Consider the impact on others during accommodation and return-to-work planning.
- Proactively remove or reduce barriers to work-related psychological safety and support.
Implementation
- Create a return-to-work process that considers the psychological impacts of physical injuries, illness, and loss
- Consider refresher or new training for anyone who has been away for 2 months or more, or during a time of change in processes or procedures
- Develop an accommodation approach that engages the employee fully in finding solutions that allow them to be successful at their job
- Support supervisors in understanding and sustaining all aspects of a successful return to work including changes in communication and feedback
Evaluation and correction action
- Follow up regularly for at least the first 6 months of a return to work
- Follow up at least annually for accommodation to ensure it is still the most effective solution
- Make sure all needs are being met
Review
- Review the plan annually against changes in human rights or disability legislation and for effectiveness from the perspective of the employee and the supervisor
- Make changes as needed
Redeployment and termination
Consider the impact on all stakeholders including managers, human resources, union reps and workers.
Policy and commitment
- Mandate leaders to be physically present and communicate effectively, in a psychologically safe manner, during times of layoff or redeployment
- Review Termination and layoff planning
Planning
- Explore community resources, organizational or benefit provider resources and external providers for approaches and supports available to those who are losing their jobs.
- Consider the psychological impact on employees who remain at the organization and those who must facilitate downsizing, layoffs or redeployments.
- In times of significant change, consider:
- The psychological impact of job insecurity
- Lack of role clarity
- Competition or collaboration with new employees or replacements
- Changing or unclear expectations or values
Implementation
- Provide targeted training programs and ongoing support for those:
- Managing organizational change
- Involved with the termination process
- Delivering the termination message to employees
- Ensure the availability of resources to support the employee as they deal with the emotional fallout and subsequent job search.
- Consider the needs of those who may have mental health issues at the time of termination, and the psychological safety of those who are terminating
Evaluation and correction action
- Gather feedback by interviewing both those employees who are let go and those who remain about the perception of the company and leadership response to layoff or redeployment
Review
- Prepare for possible future situations by having plans in place, or consider next steps if the event has already occurred
Organizational structure
Policy and commitment
- Consider the potential psychological impact from governance, new developments and existing organizational structures
- Require integration of psychological safety into existing and future programs
Planning
- Collect data that will help guide the development or evolution of the organizational structure. Include a focus on psychological impact.
- Analyze data and involve stakeholders in developing alternative approaches.
- Consider the psychological impact of:
- Communication and feedback loops
- Job security
- Role clarity
- Levels of competition and collaboration
- Clarity of expectations, values and policies
Implementation
- Ensure psychological safety for all positions including those that use non-standard approaches such as telecommuting, working alone or other flexible work arrangements
Evaluation and correction action
- Audit programs to ensure psychological factors are measured and addressed at regular intervals
Review
- Review results using continuous improvement framework
Job design
Policy and commitment
- Organizational policy should include a process to assess healthy and safe job design. For example, conduct a job risk assessment and cognitive demands analysis
Planning
- Plan and review jobs to ensure psychological demands are assessed and psychological safety is addressed
Implementation
- Ensure job design for those in supervisory or management positions includes adequate time to provide a psychologically safe work environment
Evaluation and correction action
- Seek feedback from those in the jobs to assess if the design is psychologically safe and clearly defined
- Make adjustments as necessary
Review
- Review job design when new jobs are developed or when there are significant changes to jobs