Develop the assessment plan
- Identify one or more champions from senior leadership ranks who can influence and mobilize resources and ensure commitment throughout the process.
- Establish a psychological health and safety (PHS) working group comprised of key stakeholders who will help drive the process. The mandate of the working group is to plan the assessment, analysis and communication about the process, as well as actively help steer the planning, implementation, evaluation and continual improvement stages.
- The stakeholders should come from all levels – management, employees and employee representatives.
- Where possible, include a representative:
- From human resources, union, occupational health and safety and/or finance
- With expertise in communications
- With authority to access organizational data to help inform working group decisions
- Involve key stakeholders in discussion about the working group’s approach, getting critical feedback from employees, union and management before communicating the plan to the rest of the workforce.
- The assessment project plan may include:
- Objectives and success measures
- Project scope, including the approach and resources used
- Timeline with milestones
- Budget
- Roles and responsibilities
- Implementation and communication strategies
Communicate the assessment plan
Communicating with staff openly and early in the process may enhance participation, engagement and interest. It also gives employees time to ask questions or raise concerns.
Who to communicate to
Ensure you communicate with all workplace stakeholders, including senior management, union representatives, line managers, occupational health and safety representatives, human resource professionals, all employees and any other individuals who play a role at work.
What to communicate
- Support from senior leadership – Refer to the directive or policy statement from senior leadership, obtained in the “Get buy-in” stage in Readiness for Guarding Minds at Work.
- Purpose of the survey – Outline the reason why your organization is embarking on the survey and how the results will be used. If there are known issues in the workplace, be transparent about accepting responsibility for the current situation and the organization’s awareness that changes need to be made.
- Participation is voluntary – It’s important to emphasize your goal of gathering input from all employees. To ensure a balanced perspective, you need responses from as many employees as possible, rather than only those interested in specific issues. You may want to include incentives for completing the survey such as gift cards, movie passes, giving employees time at work to complete the survey, etc.
- Confidentiality will be protected – To ensure widespread participation and honest responses, employees must be assured that any information they provide will be kept confidential. The survey results are provided in aggregate only – individual responses are not provided. If an employee chooses to participate and later changes their mind, they can stop completing the survey at any time and the responses will not be saved. Here are some points you may want to include in communications:
- Participation in this project is voluntary.
- They may choose not to participate.
- The choice not to participate will have no adverse effects on employment.
- Each employee has anonymity when completing and returning their submission.
- No personal or identifying information will be gathered. Survey respondents will only be asked their experiences and perceptions about their work from the perspective of their current position.
- If an employee chooses to participate and later changes their, they can stop completing the survey at any time and the responses will not be saved.
- Any information that is obtained during this project will be kept strictly confidential.
- Only aggregate data with 10 or more survey responses will be analyzed and reported. If there are fewer than 10 respondents to the survey, no data will be analyzed or reported. Individual-level data will not be accessed.
- Survey start date and survey close date – It is recommended that the start date for the survey is at least two weeks from when the first communication explaining the survey is sent to employees. This allows time for responding to employee questions. The survey should be closed when all employees have had sufficient opportunity to complete it. This is usually about 2-4 weeks depending on the time of year and whether employees are away, or if they are managing an increased workload.
- Expectations on when the survey should be completed – The Guarding Minds employee survey1 takes about 20 minutes to complete. Consider whether staff will be able to complete the survey during work hours or during non-work hours. If they are completing the employee survey outside work hours, will they be compensated for their time?
- Responses to questions – Provide employees with information for a contact person(s) who can answer employees’ questions about Guarding Minds and the employee survey. Allow at least two weeks to respond to questions before the employee survey is sent out.
Communications to be developed in advance
- Announcement and explanation of your project:
- Obtain a statement from senior leadership about the organization’s goals around PHS at work, what employees can expect from the Guarding Minds employee survey (including timing of the survey, anonymity and how the information will be used), and share it with employees at least two weeks prior to the employee survey being distributed, to provide enough time for questions about the survey to be asked and answered.
- It is recommended that this statement be reviewed with any union leadership before it is distributed.
- Request to complete the survey:
- Send this to employees when you feel you have leadership buy-in and have adequately communicated the purpose of the survey to all employees. When your appointed administrator creates your organization’s employee survey, they’ll see the Introducing Guarding Minds template letter. This can be used or modified to develop your own initial communication with staff about the survey. This communication advises employees that you will be sending them a link to the employee survey and provides information about confidentiality, data security and how the information will be communicated and used.
- Email employees approximately one week before the employee survey closes to remind them to complete the employee survey. Remember, once the online survey is closed, you will not be able to open it to obtain more responses, but you can adjust the employee survey closing date while the survey is still open for responses.
- Thank you for participating in the survey message:
- Send to all employees immediately after the employee survey closes.
- Consider adding a first action such as subscribing to the free Mental health awareness weekly emails and sending the emails out to all employees each week. This helps demonstrate that your organization is immediately taking action to help improve PHS.
Potential methods of communication
- Meetings – Each department or team leader may wish to hold discussions on the above once they have been briefed
- Email, instant message boards, online forums
- Intranet
- Organizational newsletters
- Written communication for employees without access to an electronic device
- Common area notice boards
- Lunch and learn sessions on PHS
- Identify any other communication challenges or limitations, such as employees with vision or other impairments, working offsite, on vacation or leave. Consider ways to ensure these employees are included in both the communications and the ability to complete the survey.
Explore more information or begin using the survey tools.
1. © Samra, J., Gilbert, M., Shain, M., Bilsker, D. 2009-2020, with amendments by Stuart, H. 2022. All rights reserved. Website development and data storage by the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS).
Guarding Minds at Work was commissioned by Canada Life and additional resources are supported by Workplace Strategies for Mental Health.