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Introduction
Mental health is necessary for optimal human mental and physical well-being and safety. As such, this blog will discuss the importance of adding a mental health program to your existing HSE management system, program, or manual to ensure worker well-being, health, and safety at your workplaces.
NOTE: This is part one of a series of blogs discussing the key components of any safety management system.
Background
Before COVID-19, mental health was not universally understood or prioritized in workplace health and safety. Research and surveys conducted before the pandemic showed a general lack of comprehensive mental health programs in many organizations. For many people, the recent pandemic significantly altered perceptions of mental health's importance.
While a few companies had a mental health program before the pandemic, most were basic or merely ticked a box but were not particularly effective. Therefore, it is absolutely critical your company has a comprehensive and functional mental health program in place to prepare for the next pandemic.
Unfortunately, many workers are still dealing with the continued toll of the pandemic on their mental health. For years to come, worker mental health will be a critical issue to address. Part of this includes having a mental health component in your management system.
Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) legislation mandates the identification of all worksite hazards, including mental health. However, mental health hazards are often overlooked and mental health risk factors like stress and burnout are not always integrated into traditional hazard assessments.
Admittedly, mental health hazards can be challenging to identify as they are not typically tangible like traditional safety hazards. We recognize something sharp can hurt you. But how do we handle something we can’t see? This is where a mental health program comes into play.
How Do You Start Building a Mental Health Program?
If you’re unsure where to begin developing a mental health program, many others share this challenge. One option is to hire a consultant. At Risk Defense, we have helped several of our clients develop a mental health program which we integrated into their HSE manual, program, or management system. If you need some help, you can fill out the contact form below or give us a call.
However, a consultant isn’t the only option. Some companies have developed their corporate mental health programs in-house. If you have the internal capacity and expertise, this is a realistic option.
Many companies have already successfully built and implemented mental health programs. Examples include:
- Bell Canada
- Ernst and Young
- Microsoft
- Thermo Fisher Scientific
- Coca-Cola Canada
- 3M Canada
- Air Canada
If they can do it, so can your company. Start with these tips.
Develop a Successful Mental Health Program
At Risk Defense, we have found it useful to consider the following four steps when developing a mental health program:
- Research relevant mental health materials
- Conduct a survey to understand employee needs
- Take action by building (or enhancing) and then implementing your program based on research materials and survey results
- Continually Improve by Repeating the Cycle
1. Research Mental Health Program Materials
I will provide a brief overview, as experienced HSE professionals generally understand the importance of thorough research in addressing specific HSE topics. The mental health program research includes gathering and reviewing relevant materials from trustworthy sources including, but not limited to:
- Industry best practices
- Safety associations
- OHS legislation
- Standards
These resources are essential for ensuring your mental health program is grounded in the most current and credible information. Research findings should applied in a way that best suits your organization, tailoring the approach to meet your specific operational needs. While we won't delve into the specifics here, it is important to recognize that every company is different. What works for one may not work for another.
NOTE: It is strongly recommended that the research includes a review of the CAN/CSA-Z1003-13/BNQ 9700-803/2013 (R2022), Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace standard. It is the benchmark for psychological health and safety in the workplace. You can download a copy by clicking here.
2. Conduct A Mental Health Program Survey
Fortunately, it is very easy to develop and conduct a survey. You can use Survey Monkey or other survey tools to determine your employees' mental health needs and how best to support them with the corporate mental health program.
This is very important as you want to build a mental health program that is relevant to the needs of your workforce. Every person is different, but there may be trends that apply to the majority of workers, and these are important to understand and act upon.
A couple of tips include:
- Spend some time upfront developing your mental health program survey. Identify the top three pieces of information you want to learn about your workers' mental health understanding and needs
- Keep the survey short. People are less likely to complete surveys that take longer than 5-10 minutes
- It can be helpful to ask some questions that require a long answer. When you allow personnel to use their own words to answer a question, you are likely to uncover new information. Of course, this may not always be possible, as it can become quite challenging for a larger company, given the amount of information that must be read, analyzed, and summarized
3. Take Action
Once the mental health program survey results are received, read, analyzed, and summarized (many survey tools do this for you as part of the survey subscription), a high-level summary must be communicated back to employees along with a strategy to address the needs of the workers.
This is an opportunity to demonstrate the organization's commitment to employee mental health and create employee buy-in with the mental health program. Requesting employee feedback is one step; taking meaningful action based on that feedback is another. This doesn’t mean that every employee's desire gets met, but it means that the organization demonstrates it is committed to helping support its employees’ mental health in ways that are meaningful to their people.
If one of the action items is to build a comprehensive mental health program then do so and incorporate the research findings and survey results.
4. Continually Improve Your Mental Health Program
Many companies complete steps one, two, and three and think they are done. "Yay, the program has been established!" Unfortunately, the reality is if they want to have a successful mental health program - this is just the beginning.
Step four is essentially to repeat the cycle. Once the action items from the research findings and initial survey have been fully implemented, there is another opportunity to conduct another mental health program survey (and to review research findings and ensure they are still current).
However, it’s crucial to manage survey frequency to prevent employee survey fatigue. Consider the amount of other corporate surveys, but also consider regular mental health surveys so you can ask new questions and track the progress of existing questions to provide valuable insights to the organization.
For most companies, an annual or bi-annual survey would be appropriate to start (and as the program matures, progress to one survey every three years). If employees are experiencing frequent or serious mental health challenges then, likely, the program is not working effectively and a more frequent survey might be required.
For best results, after each survey communicate the summary of results and implement the action plan. The cycle continues, and there will always be opportunities to learn, adapt, and improve.
Conclusion
As was highlighted during the recent pandemic, mental health must be taken seriously by all organizations and their leaders. While the worst is likely behind us, many people are still dealing with the psychological toll that the pandemic took on themselves and their loved ones. By conducting research and surveys, acting on the results, and continually repeating this process, every company can develop a customized mental health program to suit the needs of their workers.
For more information on how to develop a mental health program (or to discuss other ideas on how to take HSE at your company to the next level), please contact Risk Defense Inc. by filling out the contact form below.
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