Organization strongly focusing on employee wellness and mental health
Article written in partnership with CSA Group.
As Canada slowly makes its way out of the pandemic, organizations are looking ahead to the future, and employee mental health and wellbeing is top of the agenda. With 2022 shaping up to be another unprecedented year for Canadian employers, CSA Group is revisiting its policies and processes to be sure that it’s able to address the evolving needs of its 2,000 global employees.
“When the pandemic hit, we focused on expanding the existing safety tools and resources we had,” says Top Woman in Safety Manisha Mistry, Senior Director, HSSE and DEI, CSA Group. “It was kind of a reset, to make sure that the information and resources we were providing to employees were relevant for the situation, recognizing that all employees were going through different experiences and challenges. As we move into the next phase of the pandemic, we’ll need to continue to revisit and update those tools and resources to be sure the changing needs of our employees are met. The pandemic has shown us that we really need to focus our efforts on our employees’ mental health and wellness.”
While CSA Group has made great progress in developing a strong mental health and wellness program, program development is a fluid process guided and informed by employee feedback.
Concerns and challenges faced by employees are shifting. At the onset of the pandemic, the biggest question was how to stay connected to each other. But Mistry says that the pandemic has shown CSA Group that the virtual world can help foster communication and connections between employees. “We’ve seen the resilience of our employees, even in new hires joining the organization. As we begin to adopt a more flexible model, we can expect to see new challenges arise from technology and encouraging a new type of life-work integration,” continues Mistry.
As CSA Group looks ahead to the future of work, it is considering how it can level the playing field to be sure that employees, whether they are working from home or at the office, feel included and are provided with the same opportunities for advancement and visibility.
This focus on inclusion is core to Mistry’s role leading DEI efforts at CSA Group. The organization is working to support a diverse and equitable environment which is a safe and inclusive workspace for all its employees. Mistry says that CSA Group has been active on several fronts. “When you drill down to it, it really is making sure that employees feel that they are coming to a safe environment where they can be themselves.”
“We’re very mindful about representation, and making sure that from this perspective, employees feel like they have a sense of connection and belonging in the organization,” says Mistry. The organization recently launched an employee resource group (ERG), the Women’s Empowerment Network, which she hopes will inspire the development of other ERGs. “It’s about bringing employees together who share commonalities, who can come together, share their experience and have a place where they can talk about opportunities or challenges.”
Broadly, she says that with CSA Group having such a safety-focused culture, it will be interesting to see how the work environment evolves. “Because you can’t really have one without the other. Physical safety, psychological health and safety, DEI – they all inter-connect.”
