Before building a mental health strategy, it’s important to understand some of the foundational elements.
Culture is the bedrock of any workplace mental health strategy. It sets the tone for your organization. Without a supportive culture your efforts are likely to fall short of making a real impact.
Enhancing your knowledge can help you recognize and better understand:
It’s also important for addressing the stigma around mental health.
You play a key role in changing workplace culture and reducing stigma. You set the standards and tone for your organization. Leaders who champion the values of mentally healthy workplaces are likely to act in ways that support positive employee mental health.
Leadership commitment: fostering a mentally healthy and safe workplace will walk you through the essential elements.
Organizational culture is the mix of values, beliefs and expectations that a group holds in common. Workplace culture cues employees to what is acceptable behaviour and how to solve problems.
Why is it important?
A poor workplace culture can cause negative health outcomes among employees. Employees tend to be less productive, engaged, and there is less shared problem solving.1
An organization with a health-focused culture enhances:
It can also help to retain and attract talent: A mentally healthy and safe workplace culture makes employees feel more comfortable coming forward with mental health concerns. It can help keep employees at work and support them when they return to work if they’ve been on disability leave.
What happens when a culture isn’t supportive?
A negative culture:
Senior leaders who talk about mental health can:
Leaders can help drive down stigma and empower employees at risk to get help early.
A mentally safe workplace will empower and enable employees to do their best. Leaders play an important role in creating these conditions.
Some initial steps to take action:
Using safe, respectful and inclusive language is key to fostering a healthy and safe workplace culture. It’s also important to be consistent. This language goes a long way to addressing stigma. It lets employees know that it’s normal to experience mental health challenges from time to time.
We know that stigma is a powerful barrier to getting help. 60% of people with a mental health problem or illness won’t seek help because of their fear of being labeled. 52% of those with a mental health disability consider themselves disadvantaged in employment.3
The workplace can be a potent source of stress and poor mental health for:
Employees need to be able to be their true selves at work. Having to hide any part of their identity can cause stress and anxiety. Embedding inclusion in every facet of a workplace mental health strategy is critical. And it’s especially important as part of your mental health strategy. Workplace mental health supports also need to reflect the different needs of employees.
The best practices for inclusion align with key elements of building a mental health strategy. This includes:
At Sun Life, our practices reflect a promise to be an inclusive business. We focus on creating an inclusive environment that not only supports all our employees but also reflects our Clients and communities. Doing so allows us to better serve their unique cultures and needs.
Some examples of how we do this at Sun Life are through:
For more information on the importance of inclusion, you can visit CAMH’s webpage on Health Equity.
Here you'll find explanations on terms we use in our toolkit. For example: the difference between mental illness and mental health and what it means to have a psychologically healthy workplace.
In 2013, the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC) launched the National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace. It’s often called “The Standard.” It was the first of its kind in the world.
The Standard is a voluntary set of guidelines, tools, and resources. It guides organizations in promoting mental health and preventing psychological harm at work.
If you are looking to implement the National Standard, the MHCC has developed some free tools and resources:
The standard identifies 13 factors that can influence mental health in the workplace. These factors include the way employees do work and the work environment. It can involve things like deadlines, workload and work methods. It can also involve relationships and how employees interact with managers, coworkers, customers. The 13 factors apply to all Canadian organizations and employees. This includes large and small, private or public sector workplaces.
You’ll want to consider these factors when you start building a mental health strategy.
A series of videos of each of the 13 factors is available here.
1 Ramkissoon, A., Smith, P., Oudyk, J. (2019). Dissecting the effect of workplace exposures on workers’ rating of psychological health and safety.” American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 62, 412-421.
2 Canadian Centre for Occupational Health & Safety Mental health – psychosocial risk factors in the workplace,
3 Statistics Canada (2020). Canadians with mental health related disabilities.
