Friday, October 2
8:45 am - 11:30 am
4A Guarding Minds @ Work (GM@W): Making the Case for Attending to Psychological Safety and Health
Dr. Merv Gilbert, PhD, R. Psych.
Adjunct Professor and Senior Research Consultant
Consortium for Organizational Mental Healthcare, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
Dr. Joti Samra, PhD, R. Psych.
Adjunct Professor and Research Scientist
Consortium for Organizational Mental Healthcare, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
Employers across Canada are increasingly aware of the financial, productivity and human costs associated with compromised employee psychological safety and health. This has prompted the need for the translation of awareness into practical action. Guarding Minds @ Work (GM@W) is a new, uniquely Canadian employer resource developed to understand, assess and address workplace factors that affect mental health. GM@W is a freely available, web-based resource for large or small, for profit or not-for profit, employers that will provide practical, cost effective, evidence-based information and tools to create, evaluate and sustain a psychologically safe and healthy work environment. GM@W has been developed by the Consortium for Organizational Mental Healthcare (COMH) at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University. This has been commissioned by the Great-West Life Centre for Mental Health in the Workplace and funded by The Great-West Life Assurance Company. This session will describe the legal, health and business case rationale for this resource and guide participants through successful implementation.
4B Issues and Solutions: Mental Health in the Workplace
Mary Ann Baynton, MSW, RSW
Program Director
Mental Health Works, CMHA
Research shows that the relationship between the immediate supervisor and the employee most impacts motivation, productivity and satisfaction. When an employee is struggling with emotional distress due to life events, illness, trauma or stressors, this relationship becomes especially complicated for small business owners, who may not be adequately prepared to successfully intervene. The session analyzes challenging, but successful case studies and provides practical strategies on how to identify and address employee mental health issues, including emotional distress and burnout. It is based on years of research review in the areas of stigma, mental health and illness, management, motivation and expectancy theories, as well as adult education principles and workplace health studies. The presenter explores the tough questions, such as, "What if I push them over the edge? How do I know if they are "faking it"? How do I deal with co-worker fears? How do I talk about this without violating privacy?" Each participant is also provided with a booklet with no-cost resources for effective workplace solutions for mental health or addiction concerns.
4C Designing Healthy Workplaces: Four Generations at Work
Andrée Iffrig, M.E.Des (Arch)
Principal
Limegrass Productions Ltd.
Sholem Prasow, LEED AP
NCI Charrette Planner and Manager Certifications
Vice President, Business Development,
Canadian and International Markets
Teknion Furniture Systems
Designers design, and Human Resources personnel take care of issues like employee well-being; and never the twain shall meet. Right? Wrong. This workshop explores how design can contribute to satisfaction and well-being for all four generations in the workplace. Architects, interior designers and applied design researchers are collaborating with human resource professionals and senior managers to address challenges posed by contemporary workplace demographics. Using an integrated design approach that builds on sound research and promotes collaboration between people in different functions, designers are playing a leading role in building healthy organizations. Attendees will have an opportunity to experience a design workshop or charrette, using the Teknion integrated design approach. They will finish the workshop with an enhanced understanding of how design can partner with HR and management to improve productivity and boost satisfaction in a workplace, where Traditionalists, Boomers, Generation Xers and Millennials must co-exist. The workshop targets decision makers, senior human resource managers, team leaders, and HR generalists, who are concerned with creating healthier multi-generation workplaces.
4D Creating Healthy Workplace Cultures through Sustainable Management Practices
Hélène Grandmaître, MSW, CCC (Canadian Certified Counsellor)
Senior EAP Advisor, Employee Assistance Program
Canada Revenue Agency
The Canada Revenue Agency's (CRA) Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is committed to fostering employee and organizational well-being by providing counselling, consultation and advisory services, along with training and information sessions for employees and managers on a variety of wellness related topics. The goal of the workshop is to present how EAP professional resources and services can be leveraged to create a healthy work environment. Research on the topic of "workplace as a community" will be referenced. Hélène Grandmaître will describe the training for the development of sustainable management skills and the on-going support available to facilitate the integration of these skills into the manager's daily tasks through EAP consultation services. The presenter will showcase resources to deal with exceptional and challenging situations. Small and large-group discussions, case studies and other tools will be used to make the workshop interactive. Organizational data will be examined in light of the research on some of the key drivers of healthy workplace cultures and linked to the effectiveness of internal EAPs in fostering healthy workplace cultures through sustainable management practices.
4E Conspiracy of Calm: Building Productivity from Workplace Mindfulness
Larry Birckhead, MA Psychology
Consultant, Coach, Facilitator
Habit Shift
Mindfulness is awareness without judgment or reaction. It reduces perceived speed of our lives yet increases our capacity to make a difference. It is about living our life with intention, nourishment and peace, by choice and at a moment's notice. Workplace mindfulness is a mental skill that lets a person relate to his or her world in a way that not only enhances productivity, but makes this person happier doing it. The workshop is designed for people, whose service delivery, relationship with co-workers, or decision making is strongly impacted by their capacity for being calm, clear, and values-based while facing pressure for speed, client/patient demand, and a wide array of response options from which to choose. Upon completion of the session, participants will be able to define and recognize mindfulness as distinct from meditation. They will learn an array of mindfulness techniques that will help them relax in seconds and manage all the noise that so often occupies one's brain at work. These techniques are easily learned and are easily passed along to family, friends, co-workers and clients.
BREAKOUTS
1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
5A Return to Work: Treatment and Management of Psychiatric Disabilities
Edgardo Pérez, MD, MPH, FRCPC, CHE, CPHQ
CEO and President
Homewood
Fran Pilon, MBA
CEO
Homewood Employee Health
Charlotte Logan, CDMP
Director, Disability Services
Homewood Employee Health
The Conference Board of Canada reports that high costs associated with disability have the most significant impact on an organization's ability to achieve a profitable bottom line. In Canada, the leading cause of disability is depression. Escalating drug benefits, wage replacement, short-term disability premiums and lost productivity create a compelling business case for a proactive approach to mental-health disability management. This session offers an insight into a Canadian comprehensive ambulatory return-to-work program, including early psychiatric assessment, treatment, psychosocial intervention, and case management. Homewood's team of professionals describe a case study of an employer highlighting the return on investment of this program and the effectiveness in helping individuals return to work sooner. The presenters will describe a psychiatric in-patient treatment program with emphasis on early return to work. Upon completion of the workshop, participants will learn about a comprehensive return-to-work model that includes an in-patient component, and will be able to apply its key principles to their work situation.
5B Partnerships to Promote Health and Prevent Cancer at Work: Knowledge Exchange
Sharon Storoschuk MS, MPH
Manager, Health Promotion
Canadian Cancer Society, BC & Yukon
Kate Carty MA
Project Manager
Canadian Cancer Society, BC & Yukon
This presentation highlights the work of Tobacco-Free Workplace Initiative (TFWI) - a unique partnership of not for profit, government and business partners. The Canadian Cancer Society, BC & Yukon is leading the Initiative, on behalf of the BC Healthy Living Alliance with funding support from ActNow BC. The goal of the TFWI is to increase awareness among employers about simple, low cost strategies to help employees quit tobacco. The case study presentation identifies the process and strategies used to facilitate smoking cessation activities at participating worksites. Two specific examples of how this worked spurred further opportunities for the businesses and community organization partners to work together to achieve common goals are presented.
5C Four Generations, One Workplace: Attracting & Retaining a Dynamic Workforce
Olivia McIvor
Senior Consultant
The Izzo Group
Leaders today are waking up to the stark reality that it's no longer only how employees must adapt to their employers, but also how employers must adapt to their employees and the new world of work. Partnership, balance, personal growth and community are only some of the values transforming the workforce as we know it today. For the first time in history, four generations are in the workplace at the same time and now the primary challenge is how to navigate and lead effectively while juggling amidst each generation's differing expectations, strengths, and challenges. Based on the best selling book by Dr. John Izzo, Values Shift: recruiting, retaining and engaging the multigenerational workforce, we will explore current research on generational imprints and their impact on the working environment. Gain insights and practical techniques for taking the mystique out of how to involve, interact, and engage the four generations in your workplace. A focus on what the North American research is telling us about the six major value shifts people expect from work from recruiting to retaining will also be discussed.
5D The Subtle Art of Connecting Micro-Skills for Building Good Relationships at Work
Sharon Bronstein, MSW
Creative Arts Therapist and Actor
Director
Open Hand Teambuilding, Coaching and Retreats
Alan Caplan, MA
Coach Mediator and Actor
Director
Open Hand Teambuilding, Coaching and Retreats
Today more than ever before, the potential for miscommunication is greater. In workplaces where there are frequent time constraints and deadlines, it is especially easy to be unaware of the hidden influences affecting our interactions. The dynamic, experiential workshop will explore the interactions, which define the quality of relationship and cooperation at the workplace, but which often go unnoticed. Presenters will expose the hiccups in communication that interfere with employee engagement and the bottom line in the long run. Through engaging role-plays and illustrated scene enactments, participants will be exposed to some of the more common dynamics that undermine trust building. They will be offered insight into how hidden blocks may be transformed into more encouraging cues that inspire others to build trust and connection. The most essential communication micro-skills (bids) will be modeled, and participants will have the opportunity to try them out with one another. In this way, session attendees will develop a sense of how to communicate the messages that colleagues want to receive, i.e. that they are cared for, appreciated, trusted and needed.
5E Sound Wellness: Turn That Up, Please!
Sharon Carne, BMus, MFA
President
Mountain Rose Music
Studies have proven that certain kinds of music can improve focus and concentration, enhance learning and memory, as well as connect and synchronize hemispheres of the brain stimulating creativity. Music can also lower blood pressure, reduce pain, decrease stress hormones, speed up recovery from surgery, boost the immune system, and effortlessly create the relaxation response. This session provides an insight into the ways music and sound affect the body, mind, emotions and spirit. Target audience includes people who are looking for effective and proven ways of reducing physical symptoms of stress and who are looking for ways to be more productive in a stressful environment. Participants will experience some of the effects of music and sound with selections from the genres of Applied Psychoacustic Music, Brainwave Entrainment and Guided Imagery. Attendees will become familiar with how music and sound guide their body and mind in and out of three brainwave states: beta, alpha and theta, and how each of these states relates to the physical response in the body and mind, as well as applications at work.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER AND CONFERENCE CLOSING
2:45 pm - 4:15 pm
Inspiring Your People in Tough Times
Peter Legge
Author, professional speaker, business leader.
