Psychological safety, DEI rising considerations in workplace mental-health support

“I’ve been in this industry for a while and I’ve seen disability patterns, but different industries have different disability rates, so examining the workplace environment can be helpful. When you’re talking about psychological safety, it’s often about removing something: an unsafe environment, unsafe experiences, etc. Those unsafe experiences can tie up a person’s brain at work and affect their productivity because they don’t have the energy to focus on tasks like they normally would.”

Read: CAA Club Group wins award for holistic, data-driven wellness approach

Mara Notarfonzo, vice-president of total rewards at CAA Club Group, says the key is for employers to focus on the overall well-being of their employees and how different components intersect. “Employee mental health is a vital piece of an organization’s well-being strategy. To support this, it’s important for employers to consider multiple factors, such as performance and culture.”

In 2023, when CAA was redesigning its benefits plan, it wanted to put more emphasis on mental health, so it debundled it from other paramedical services and provided $2,000 specifically for mental-health support. “The No. 1 type of disability claim for most organizations is mental health,” said Notarfonzo. “So [it’s a matter of] how to develop programs that are more proactive in allowing employees to seek the care they require before the issue transitions into a disability case.”

If benefits are aimed at addressing employee well-being, employers must also look beyond the traditional benefits, says Rolando Lopez, vice-president of talent acquisition and human resources business services at the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board.

Read: 2024 HOC: Panel: Optimizing well-being benefits to deliver equitable coverage for employees

“If we want to make sure employees bring their whole selves to work, we need to look beyond the typical dental and medical coverage, because it’s about people’s health [holistically]. If you’re looking at physical or financial well-being, you need to consider someone’s mental health as well. We now know so much about how mental health can impact people in the workplace, so . . . employers need to step up, provide broader coverage and consider it part of their total rewards package.”

Making tangible connections

Indeed, when the WSIB looks at its total rewards strategy and enhancing employee well-being, its main focus is the employee value proposition.

“Our employee value proposition is about making sure employees feel wellrounded and taken care of,” says Lopez. “We looked at making mental-health benefits unlimited because, if someone needs assistance [for an extended period of time], we don’t want them to just stop treatment half way. We need to ensure the coverage doesn’t run out and they won’t feel burdened to limit themselves just because their benefits stop.”

In terms of the workplace environment, the organization also looks strategically at mental health and well-being when designing new office spaces, including providing spaces that promote wellness, such as reflection rooms. The non-monetary benefits may seem small or insignificant, notes Lopez, but every little bit can help in someone’s wellness journey.

“Our staff are very engaged. They want to do activities [like lunchtime yoga] and help each other out. We hope to enable our people to think creatively in terms of how we can make ourselves better. Employers should consider the free and easy things they can do to contribute to a total rewards strategy that enables employees to bring their whole selves to work.”

Read: Beyond Blue Monday: Employee mental health a year-round priority, says expert

CAA aims to provide mental-health support proactively — through its wellness programs instead of just coverage, says Notarfonzo. “The programs focus on building employee resiliencies and adaptibility. If the last five years have taught us anything, change is constant, be it at work or in your personal life. So we focus on how people can utilize the tools available to them to help navigate through those changes.”

Workplace culture is a key component of psychological safety support at work, she adds, which involves ensuring leaders have the skillset to manage people in a safe environment. For many years, CAA has provided mandatory training on how to lead a mentally healthy workplace.

Manager behaviour is important, agrees Allen, noting it doesn’t matter what a policy says if it isn’t backed by leadership support. Training managers and making sure they understand the impact of their role can positively influence their team’s mental health.

Enhanced coverage and extended benefits can also help establish tangible mental-health connections, she adds, noting employee assistance programs continue to evolve in this area. As well, by analyzing data from recent mental-health indexes for multiple countries, Telus Health found having employers that were team-oriented, inclusive and empathetic — all things that foster psychological safety — made a significant difference in employee wellbeing and productivity.

Integrating mental health and DEI

Wendy Poirier, wellbeing solution leader at WTW, believes peer support networks and offering diverse counselling options are some of the best ways to connect mental health and DEI.

“Mental health, in particular, is something where people respond to peer support. And we’re seeing more community resources offering culturally sensitive support. EAPs are one of the foundational items of a mental-health strategy, but they can support the DEI side by having more coaching and the right resources to reflect the makeup of your organization. Having counsellors and coaches who are diverse themselves [allows for a more] inclusive view.”

Read: Employer Strategy

Another example is mapping mental-health journeys across different cohorts of the population and understanding how different demographics respond to mental-health issues, she adds, as well as considering the perspective of the neurodiverse population, including offering options like off-video calls or pre-meeting discussions.

While Poirier acknowledges that most employers are leaning into mental health and wellness, she’s also hearing from employees that the methods aren’t as effective as employers think. “Even though an EAP might be foundational, simply offering an EAP is not a mental-health strategy; it’s just one element.

“There are many other ways employers can support mental health and connect it to DEI,” she adds. “I think organizations are looking for places where they can add value but not cost. If you unpack some of these things, it’s not costly to connect benefits and mental well-being efforts with your employee resource groups. It’s not costly to put a real emphasis on gratitude and promoting employees being kind to each other.”

When the WSIB developed its DEI strategy, it made sure it was connected to employee wellness and mental health so it didn’t become an afterthought or just simply checking a box, notes Lopez. “When you actually employ mental health into a DEI strategy then your [ERGs] will weigh in and make it relevant. The LGBTQ2S+ community can discuss what their people struggle with or people with disabilities can identify the unique mental-health issues they’re experiencing. Those things will organically be drawn out if employers take a more meaningful approach.”

Read: 2023 Healthy Outcomes Conference: The role of mental-health care, support in DEI strategies

It’s also one of the reasons the WSIB introduced unlimited mental-health coverage. Coverage is often about looking at the lowest common denominator, adds Lopez, but with each group identifying different needs and different budgets, the WSIB decided it made the most sense for coverage to be unlimited.

Employers can promote a sense of equity and belonging by creating a culture of inclusion and being fair in their decisions, says Allen, noting sometimes it takes a while to change a pattern within an organization so they need particular initiatives that are focused on diversity. “If you have a mental-health strategy but you don’t have those other elements, your strategy isn’t going to be very successful. It’s largely going to be focused on individuals trying to help themselves, which isn’t sustainable. To create a sustainable strategy, you need that cultural integration.”

DEI is an important aspect of psychological safety in the workplace, she adds, because a lack of fairness can be unpredictable and cause tension. “Not having a sense of inclusion and belonging is probably one of the cruelest things a person can experience. . . . People can feel under threat when they’re excluded so employers need to make sure they address the individual [while also incorporating those aspects of] psychological safety and DEI.”

Indeed, Poirier highlights the direct connection between psychological safety, DEI and social well-being in order for employees to feel comfortable at work and confident enough to speak up. “Psychological safety goes beyond those thoughts of having safety, both physically and mentally, to be able to live your full life at work. It’s also about having a voice at the table and the ability to manage your career, having the ability to connect with the right work practices to support your lifestyle, like flex work. [Ultimately], you can’t have positive mental health if you don’t have an inclusive experience at your workplace.”

Read: Are workplace mental-health programs evolving beyond the National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace?

However, WTW is seeing many employers pivot from a strong focus on DEI to reframing their strategies around psychological safety and connecting the dots that way. “I see more organizations combining their well-being efforts with their DEI efforts, which are pretty natural connections, to amplify the messages from both sides — from [ERGs] and leadership.”

Support for all generations

Since most workplaces must consider the needs of multiple generations, it can be difficult to strike a proper balance through wellness programs and mental-health support.

Indeed, Notarfonzo recognizes it’s nearly impossible to create a mental-health program that will meet everybody’s needs so her team looks at how to at least meet the needs of the broader base of CAA while providing flexibility. “For us, the flexibility comes from providing enhanced coverage in certain areas [or] providing a wellness account that allows people the flexibility to be reimbursed for different products and services to help their overall well- being.”

The idea that only younger generations are more open to discussing mental health seems to be changing, she adds, as people of all ages now understand the importance of open communication. “I think one of the key differentiators is speaking with employees to create an open environment like our president and [chief executive officer] promotes. As leaders, we need to truly connect with all the people that report to us. So we try to focus on how we can develop and maintain those connections because one of the biggest things for mental health is feeling supported and connected.”

It may be easier for millennials to establish those connections compared to generation Z, for example, which is used to working from home and may lack social experience, so Notarfonzo suggests employers set up resources to everyone has access to mental-health support and can participate in social activities.

Read: How remote working is impacting employee mental health

Indeed, it’s important to be cognizant of the different wellness needs of a multigenerational workforce, adds Lopez, but it goes beyond grouping generations.

“Employers need to go beyond the generational perspective and consider life stages more generally. For example, let’s not make any assumptions or biases that child-rearing is just for millennials in their 30s. In order to connect a total rewards strategy with mental health, we want to be aware of the different life stages people are experiencing, [what the impacts might be] and how we can truly support each of these stages.”

Sadie Janes is an associate editor at Benefits Canada and the Canadian Investment Review. She’s currently on maternity leave.