Frequently Asked Questions

WCB has provided the resources on this site for employers and workers on psychological health and safety (PH&S).

As you navigate through the site, you will find a range of additional links, tools, and resources including definitions, FAQs, best practices, infographics, action plan templates and videos. The core resources are organized around the National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace psychologically safe leadership and employee resilience.

The majority of resources on this site were originally developed by WorkSafe Saskatchewan in partnership with Dr. Joti Samra and MyWorkplaceHealth and have been used and adapted from the National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace, with permission.

Fortunately, creating a psychologically healthy and safe workplace does not require a large budget. Many free public resources exist and have been created to support small, midsize, and large employers through their PH&S journey. This site comes complete with many free resources, programs, training, and links to other information addressing PH&S.

The resource centre comes equipped with sections for both leaders and workers. Each page will contain information relevant to one’s position and will help one understand what is required of them to assist in workplace PH&S.

The National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace – the first of its kind in the world – is a voluntary set of best practice guidelines that specify requirements for a systematic approach to develop and sustain a psychologically healthy and safe workplace. A psychologically healthy and safe workplace has been defined in the National Standard as “a workplace that promotes workers’ psychological well-being and actively works to prevent harm to workers’ psychological health, including in negligent, reckless or intentional ways.” The Standard recommends that organizations look to implement a Psychological Health and Safety Management System (PHSMS) for assessing how policies, processes and interactions in the workplace might impact the psychological health and safety (PH&S) of workers. It should be noted that implementation of a PHSMS is not about diagnosing the mental health issues of workers.

Implementing the framework and approaches from this Standard can help organizations with:

• Worker productivity

• Increased worker happiness and engagement

• Reduced incidents and injuries – both physical and psychological

• Reduction in WCB claims

• Increased customer satisfaction

• Reduced absenteeism and presenteeism

• Recruitment and retention

• Workplace and worker resilience

• Improved financial bottom line

You do not need to address all of them at once. Ensuring a psychologically healthy and safe workplace is an ongoing process. As with occupational health and safety, PH&S involves a continual process of assessment, implementation, evaluation, and improvement. We recommend you initially familiarize yourself with all elements of PH&S and reflect on strengths and opportunities for improvement for each. You will likely find areas you have strength in already within your organization. Work towards ensuring those stay strong. Following that, work towards targeting those areas of relevance or risk to your work environment. You can discover each of these factors here.

Each factor has detailed information including its definition, relevant FAQs, videos, infographics, and a sample action plan that guides you in taking a first step toward implementation.