How a strategy to support psychological health and safety can build a stronger and more inclusive workforce

How to develop a strategy to support mental health

A psychological health and safety strategy can help both your company and employees thrive. These actionable steps can help you get started:

Conduct workplace assessments

A psychosocial hazard assessment can help your organization identify stressors and psychological hazards specific to the energy and utilities sector. This may include high workloads, demanding conditions, and inadequate support.

It is important to remember that a workplace assessment involves more than just a survey. It also requires you to start conversations about psychological health and safety and prepare your employees to understand how to complete these types of assessments.

Additionally, your organization must be willing to action changes from the findings of your assessment as well as engage employees for ongoing feedback and input. This is complex work — and an external advisor can help you understand, accept, and align psychosocial hazards and facilitate change within your organization.

Review your policies

Your workplace’s health and safety policies must include a statement about psychological health and safety to align with the Canadian National Standard of Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace. However, it is important to consider how you can go beyond this requirement to address specific psychosocial hazards through your workplace policies.

If your workplace assessment identified work-life balance as a significant concern, your organization can implement a policy around the right to disconnect to reinforce work-life balance. Additionally, assessing your policies through an equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) lens can reveal areas where you can increase inclusion for all employees — which is a vital factor of psychological health and safety.

Monitoring the impact of these changes through ongoing workplace assessments can help you determine if your policies are effectively addressing psychosocial hazards. It is recommended to conduct these assessments every two years. While these changes take time to show results, it is a significant investment in the overall success of your organization.

Provide training to management

Management within your organization plays a key role in supporting the psychological health and safety of your employees. Leadership training that addresses the importance of mental health in the workforce can help ensure they have the knowledge they need to make informed decisions.

Invest in training that helps managers to notice behaviours that may indicate employees are struggling with mental health challenges — such as frequent absences. This equips them with the skills to intervene, provide support, and offer prevention.

Leadership training also helps destigmatize mental health challenges through building awareness throughout all levels of your organization. This helps create an environment that promotes open conversation about psychological health and safety — supporting employee well-being as well as increasing engagement and productivity.

Implement wellness programs

Implementing a wellness program and ensuring your employees have access to mental health resources that meet their needs can play a significant role in supporting psychological health and safety. Professionals can provide intervention and therapy through employee assistance programs (EAPs) or employee and family assistance programs (EFAPs) to proactively address challenges.

Additionally, more organizations are expanding benefits to ensure employees have access to meaningful and sufficient mental health supports coverage that meets their needs. Consider how you can increase benefits, extend benefits, and make employees aware of these benefits.

Communication is key to ensure that employees are aware of the benefits and options that your organization provides to support their psychological health and safety. Open conversations also help create a work environment where employees feel comfortable asking for support if they are struggling and using the benefits your organization provides.

Take the next steps

For more information about how to foster psychological health and safety within your organization, contact MNP’s Consulting Services team. Our team has a wide range of experience and takes a clinical approach toward helping you create an effective strategy tailored to the unique needs of your energy and utilities company.