What to do when your employee presents a mental health concern
The impact of mental health and addictions-related disabilities on the work force and economy is staggering.
Where to start when you need a mental health accommodation at work
It’s important to understand that mental health is a spectrum. You can have poor mental health, but not a diagnosed mental illness, and you can be in a state of positive mental health while living with a mental illness.
How to recognize – and correct – negative thinking
Many psychologists employ cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to treat anxiety and depression.
How to start a mental-health conversation with a colleague
We’re all different in how we act, react and carry ourselves. Just because someone appears to have a low mood, is quiet or has withdrawn from social situations doesn’t mean they have a mental-health issue.
How to be an empathetic leader
How important is empathy as an attribute for effective leadership?
Wake up, try the 72-hour challenge and focus on what really matters
You walk into your staff break room at lunch time and you run into a group of colleagues in deep conversation about what’s wrong with your workplace...
How exercise can help improve your mental health
Do you know the benefits of regular physical exercise?
Why you should find the positive people at work
Our emotions can be facilitated by our interactions with others.
The mental health benefits of saying Thank You
Research has determined that people who are appreciated by a simple thank-you demonstrate a 50 per cent increase in their willingness to help.
Self care and productivity are not mutually exclusive
Managing stress in the workplace.
Stress a key driver of substance abuse
Understanding how to recognize and treat substance abuse in employees is critical to a healthy work force.
When is cake not just cake? Some employee retention strategies
Explainations on inexpensive ways to boost workplace wellness.
Focus on well-being helps companies keep employees
Recruiting and retaining talent is essential to any strong organization. But focusing on this while juggling other organizational goals can be a challenge.
Keep up with your friends, it’s good for your mental health
We humans are social creatures. Social connections can lead to relationships with other people that paradoxically can bring us joy and pain. While there may be nothing more difficult than getting along with some people, there’s really no greater joy than the lift we get through certain social connections.
Twelve organizations win top Employee Recommended Workplace Awards
Twelve organizations across Canada received Employee Recommended Workplace Awards for earning top scores in their respective categories.
Evaluate addictive habits before they get out of control
Do you have any addictive habits you or others in your life are concerned about?
An easy three-minute plan for learning to meditate
If you don’t meditate or haven’t thought about trying, it may be because of some stereotype impression you have about what meditation is, and the kind of people who meditate has turned you off.
Learning to control your emotional switch
Our emotional brain can take over at times and we need to learn how to get our rational brain back on track.
Take the time to celebrate the good moments
Life can be challenging – perhaps the most challenging part is interacting with other humans. Many of us are hyper-sensitive to negative comments or feedback.
How your core values can guide you in your daily decisions
Most of us have a set of values that influence how we make decisions. However, if you ask the average person what their top-five core values are, unless they’ve done a value clarification exercise, they may need to take a moment to think about them.
Seventy-five organizations recognized as Employee Recommended Workplaces
More companies across Canada are putting the health and wellness of their staff first and The Globe and Mail and Morneau Shepell have announced that 75 organizations are being recognized as Employee Recommended Workplaces this year.
Cut! How to edit your self story-telling so it’s more positive
If you could watch a movie of all your self-talk over the past seven days, what would be the main themes?
Why you need to do an annual mental health check up
Getting a mental health checkup does not mean you need to have a reason or be experiencing any mental health stress. A mental health checkup is adding a proactive step where you intentionally focus on your mental health to determine if there has been any change both positive and negative.
Social connections and their power to improve your mental health
A balanced, positive social connection that evolves into a close friendship is a good thing.
Why standing up for yourself at work is worth it
Self-advocating is the action of speaking up for one’s self to achieve a desired outcome. The goal for self-advocating is to have some positive benefit on one or more areas of your total health.
Changing your perspective can alter everything about your day
There’s little chance any one of us will have a life in which every day things go as perfectly as we expect and plan. Life happens, mistakes happen, and sometimes things just don’t go our way, regardless of how hard we try.
Forget the new year’s resolutions, a re-start can happen anytime
Many of us fall into daily routines that become automatic and outside our level of awareness until we think about what we’re doing. Automatic routines facilitate micro decisions and micro behaviours that may or may not be good for us.
Here’s what you can do to build a happiness habit
One way to influence happiness is to become aware and in tune with our brain when it’s not focused on tasks or goals and moves to its default model network mode.
What to do if you’re addicted to your smartphone
The growing number of people getting access to smartphones and the increased amount of screen time they’re engaged in, both at work and for personal use, has resulted in more users developing a risk for smartphone behavioural addiction.
How learning to forgive can improve your mental health
Forgiveness is an intentional and voluntary decision to focus on changing our feelings, thinking and attitude about a real or perceived wrongdoing.
Why you need to learn how to take 10
When you woke up this morning, was there one thing you planned to do just for yourself?
How to turn a negative thought into a positive one
While there are events that we cannot control, we can be intentional in how we respond to stress in the statements and questions we ask ourselves and others.
A pathway to finding true happiness
Happiness and what brings happiness for each of us varies.
How to make a plan to boost your mental fitness
Most of us know that building physical fitness requires resolve and that you take the right actions to improve your nutrition, exercise, rest and hydration.
Perfectionists, it’s time to give yourself a break
At the core of perfectionists is fear of not being good enough.
Why consumers and workers need to understand the effects of cannabis
In a few days there will be another legal recreational drug available for Canadians of legal age to indulge in. Canada will be the first industrialized country in the world to legalize cannabis for recreational use. Whether you’re currently a user of cannabis or a potential user, you likely have a point of view on this topic.
The many reasons why you need to say ‘Thank You’
Two words in the English language when spoken authentically are among the most powerful phrases for promoting social connections: “Thank you.”
Minding the mental health of today’s students – tomorrow’s work force
By extending accommodation to students living with a mental health problem, universities and colleges will ensure they set out to join the work force with confidence in their capacity to succeed.
Protecting the protectors: Safeguarding the mental health of first responders
First responders form a unique and resilient work force. Safeguarding their mental health is integral to protecting and promoting the safety of our communities.
Hiring aspiring workers living with mental illness makes both sense and cents
Every week in Canada, half a million people call in sick because of a mental health problem or illness.
Supporting healthcare workers' mental health is good for patient care
The benefits of entrenching psychological health and safety in the workplace can no longer be dismissed.
What to consider when auditing your company’s psychological health and safety plan
How confident are you in your ability to conduct a psychological safety audit in your workplace?
A safe workplace requires a team approach
One group alone can’t ensure a workplace is psychologically safe.
The unexpected benefits of being kind
Performing an act of kindness shifts our attention to a positive that can be helpful when our mind is busy worrying or stressing.
Steps to create a psychologically safe workplace
How does an organization create a psychologically safe workplace?
Make a plan to stop a bad habit – and replace it with a good one
This micro skill provides tips on changing old habits into new ones.
What is employee psychological safety and who at work should be in charge of it?
Where did the term psychological safety come from?
Why you need to take care of you
This micro skill explores how self-care can play a role in how we manage stress and maintain our composure under pressure. How we react to these kinds of situations and the degree they have a negative impact can be predicted by our self-care.
Why you need to evaluate your organization’s mental health strategy
Does your organization have a documented mental health strategy in place?
How to keep your brain healthy and avoid cognitive fatigue
Think back to your school days, especially postsecondary school, and how your brain felt after cramming all night for a tough exam. Remember that? When you felt like your brain had been pushed to the limit and was no longer functioning properly? That is called cognitive fatigue.
Why one organization is pushing its industry to measure the health of its employees
An organization that provides health and wellness services to the broad communications industry wants to see more companies in the sector take the pulse of their staff to find out where they’re coping well – and where they’re not.
How to manage when your decision-making abilities are frozen by information overload
We’ve all been there: You had to make six major decisions before lunch and felt completely overloaded with all the information coming at you. This information overload, or “infobesity” can cause stress or cause you to just shut down.
A path to successful problem solving
How confident are you in your ability to solve problems under stress?
Discover the link between productivity and resilience
Does your organization's success really depend on its people?
We all just want to have fun – but are we?
How much fun do you allow yourself to have each day?
Why you need to keep self deception in check
How familiar are you with the idea of self-deception?
Is it better to be patient or persistent in order to reach your goals?
What trait dominates your decision making and actions: patience or persistence?
Making mental health a workplace priority
More than 60 per cent of Canadian organizations report that they don’t have a mental health strategy in place.
What to do when you’re stuck in a negative feedback loop
Have you ever been stuck in a negative mental loop?
Eight ways to prepare your organization for the legalization of marijuana
Will your organization be ready to manage cannabis in your workplace?
Taming the negativity factor in relationships
Why do we put more focus on a negative comment than a positive comment?
Mental health and your day at work
How you feel plays a big role in how productive and happy you are on any given day. If you’re tired, overwhelmed and emotionally exhausted it’s much harder to have a good day.
Workplace stress a main cause of mental health issues, study finds
Is your senior leadership concerned about the number of employees who may be coming to work each day with a mental health issue or mental illness?
How to turn rejection into something positive
How prepared are you for rejection?
Three key conditions to create a healthy workplace
Current research underscores the importance of creating workplace cultures that foster the psychological health and wellness of employees within their team and work environments. Healthy workplaces support employee wellbeing, are psychologically safe, and provide the basis for effective team functioning.
What to do when we question whether life is worth living
If you trip and fall while walking across the street, what are the chances you will skin your knees?
A plan to make happiness happen
How significant is depression as a global cause of disability?
The key to creating your own good luck
How much do you think having a good day is due to luck?
How to say no at work nicely
How often do you say yes to your manager when you would rather say no?
Why a glass of water can make you more productive
How much do you pay attention to your daily hydration levels?
How workplaces can improve mental health support
How can we make mental health support more accessible to more people?
How leadership can impact workplace mental health
Thousands of books claim to include the most important knowledge and skills required to be an excellent leader. However, there’s much less written on the key knowledge and skills required for a leader to effectively prevent stigma, promote mental health and support employees’ mental health in the workplace.
Awareness is the first step to promote mental health in the workplace
Do you know when someone is having a bad day? Do you notice their facial expressions, body language, even tone of voice and words? Would you know how to determine if they may be experiencing more than stress, perhaps a mental health crisis?
Small steps can lead to big change in curbing mental illness in the workplace
Sometimes we don’t need another program; we need a movement to make lasting change.
There is no work-life balance - but how you blend your time matters
So, how are you managing your work-life balance?
Caring employers boost productivity of their staff, survey finds
What is one of your most important assets that predicts your organization’s success?
Winning workplaces put flexibility first
Flexibility is top of the mind this year: flexibility in the workplace, flexibility in employee relations. This can mean everything from varied office hours and working from home to creating a more adaptable office culture and open-door communication.
Employee Recommended Workplace Award celebrates 11 organizations that earned top scores
Eleven organizations earned the highest scores, highlighting their excellence in achieving a healthy, engaged and productive workforce, to become top category winners at the second annual Employee Recommended Workplace Award.
Medium-sized companies get top health scores in benchmark report
This article highlights some findings from the total health benchmarks from the 2017 Employee Recommended Workplace Award.
Write away your stress with a journal
How do you objectively evaluate each day as being positive or negative?
Winners see award as ‘validation that we’re doing the right thing’
Nine companies win top prize at the inaugural Employee Recommended Workplace Award ceremony.
The winning formulas for workplace wellness
Health and wellness can be many things to many people, and individuals will always have a preference over what works for them.
Sensitivity grows for workplace mental illness
Every week, half a million workers in Canada call in sick because of mental health problems.
Employee Recommended Workplace Award finalists announced
Thirty-two Canadian companies have earned the distinction of being named an Employee Recommended Workplace in the first year of the awards developed by Morneau Shepell and The Globe and Mail.
Why you need a mental health leader
This is part of a series examining the mental health experience in Canada’s workplaces.
Should my company hire someone to implement a mental health strategy?
This is part of a series examining the mental health experience in Canada’s workplaces.
A step by step plan to improve workplace mental health
This is part of a series examining the mental health experience in Canada’s workplaces.