The Canadian Standard on Psychological Health and Safety with Mary Ann Baynton
Welcome back to another episode of The Work Well Podcast. Today, we are delighted to talk to Mary Ann Baynton, principal of Mary Ann Baynton & Associates and Director of Strategy and Collaboration at Workplace Strategies for Mental Health.
Mary Ann has contributed to many committees and was co-chair of the technical committee for the development of the National Standard of Canada on Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace, the first national standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the world.
Mary Ann has been referred to as the Godmother of Psychological Health and Safety, and in this episode, she shares with us her thoughts on the growing interest from companies and governments in improving the psychological safety of workers. We also discuss her work with Workplace Strategies for Mental Health and the potential impact of ISO 45003 on the Canadian market and the world.
Take a listen!
The Godmother of Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace
In her almost 20 years of experience, Mary Ann has developed an expertise in workplace mental health, psychological safety, resolving conflict, and addressing performance concerns. As principal of Mary Ann Baynton & Associates, she consults with all levels of government and organisations to help people get unstuck, move beyond problems, restore productivity and improve their working lives.
In her opinion, maximising mental health and psychological wellbeing in the workplace translates into maximising focus, energy, and performance, and it can be done by building a psychologically safe workplace, and promoting emotional intelligence and resilience for all colleagues in an organisation.
Building the First National Standard on Psychological Health in the Workplace
In 2013, Mary Ann helped develop and publish the Canadian National Standard on Psychological Health and Safety, the first national standard in the world addressing psychological health in the workplace.
This was an extremely positive experience for Mary Ann, who realised that bringing any kind of solution to the mental health issues in the workplace required more than just consensus from the employees, but also strong interest from representative groups. Said groups came together and offered their point of view to create a standard that addressed the main problem for all of them, which is how to create an environment that allows them to optimise the health and wellbeing of employees.
The First National Standard on Psychological Health in the Workplace in Action
It’s one thing to create a standard as revolutionary as this one, but implementing it is a whole other challenge. Mary Ann tells us more about how Canadian companies have adopted the standard and the reception it has had in Canada.
To Mary Ann’s surprise, many companies were interested in implementing the standard from the outset. They received over 40 requests from companies to be part of the case study, which confirmed to her the fact that employers have broadened their horizons to see their businesses in a holistic manner and want to support their employees to achieve better results.
In the first study, they measured employees’ perception of psychological factors and saw a significant improvement across every organisation that participated. As well as the excellent organisational outcomes, Brian makes an interesting comment on this and it is that, according to the studies, up to 90% of organisations’ primary interest was not the organisational outcomes per se, but the overall wellbeing of their people.
The impact of ISO 45003 in Canada
Canada is one of the few countries that already have a national standard to address mental health and psychological wellbeing from a risk management point of view. So now, with the new ISO 45003 global standard, it is yet to be seen how both standards will coexist together.
Mary Ann thinks the most likely scenario is that, for international organisations, ISO 45003 would be the touchpoint, but for Canadian companies, the national standard, Z1003, would be the preferred one to follow. “I think that Z1003 actually goes a bit beyond [the ISO 45003] in terms of requiring management to look at themselves and to consider the impact that they're having on employees”, adds Mary Ann.
Nonetheless, the evolution of psychological wellbeing in the workplace has been exponential thanks to COVID as well as the change in people’s perception of work. The ISO 45003 standard is a really positive step towards promoting and embedding this idea of organisational wellbeing to the rest of the world.
How Can Small Organizations Get Started Implementing Psychological Health Standards
Workplace Strategies for Mental Health is an initiative that creates free resources for small companies to help them implement psychological health and wellbeing interventions effectively without the need for a dedicated department or a wellbeing leader.
Even if you don’t have any experience or a budget, these resources can help you take the first step towards a psychologicaly healthy workplace. Then, what Mary Ann recommends, is to find a wellbeing specialist to help you improve in specific areas, but this is not necessary to start seeing results within your organisation.
A final piece of advice from Mary Ann to businesses that are trying to get started is to stop thinking about psychological and mental health as something that can be done in a couple of days or weeks. It can be overwhelming for business owners to have too much on their plates, so, to make it a sustainable practice, they should settle and focus on small goals at a time to build an infrastructure within the organisation that supports and welcomes initiatives that promote psychological wellbeing.
‘What if I Already Have Psychological Wellbeing Standards in Place?’
There are many ways an organisation can implement psychological wellbeing standards, but the question Mary Ann asks is simple: Are you meeting your strategic goals?
Even with the best programmes, not all initiatives work perfectly for every organisation. So Mary Ann encourages leaders to think about the results they want from these strategies and evaluate if the protocols they have are actually helping them achieve success. If we think of psychological health as the way people treat each other, that involves all parts of the organisation, therefore, instead of approaching mental health initiatives looking for the one that will solve everything, Mary Ann aims to offer support to whatever specific need organisations and leaders identify to make them more efficient.
The future of work according to Mary Ann Baynton
The future of work and, particularly, the future of psychological health and wellbeing is hard to predict, even with Mary Ann’s vast experience. Her hope is that, in the most likely scenario, psychological wellbeing will become part of every interaction in the organisational ecosystem.
The pandemic has motivated employees to ask themselves what kind of work environment they want to go back to, and employers need to provide flexible options to accommodate the changing needs of their people.
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If you’d prefer to watch our conversation, you can view it on YouTube through this link.
If you liked this episode and want to know more about Mary Ann Baynton and Mary Ann Baynton & Associates, you can visit their website and follow them on LinkedIn.
Additionally, you can find all sorts of free resources on Workplace Strategies for Mental Health
Mary Ann is also the author of several books:
The Evolution of Workplace Mental Health in Canada: Towards a Standard
Building Stronger Teams
Resolving Workplace Issues
Keeping Well at Work
Mindful Manager
Preventing Workplace Meltdown: An Employer’s Guide to Maintaining a Psychologically Safe Workplace (with Dr. Martin Shain)
Our Partners
This episode is brought to you in partnership with AJ Products who are leading the way in Ergonomic and Active workplace furniture solutions at ajproducts.ie
About Your Host
Brian Crooke is a wellbeing educator, speaker and adviser, empowering organisations to promote and sustain wellbeing within their workplaces.
He is the founder of The Work Well Institute and the Work Well Community and is Course Director of the Postgraduate Certificate in Workplace Wellness at Tangent, Trinity College Dublin. He is the host of The Work Well Podcast.
If you’re looking to bring sustainable wellbeing to your workplace then check out The Work Well Institute’s flagship programme, Developing a Workplace Wellness Programme that Lasts.
In his spare time, Brian is bringing free resistance training to every county and community in Ireland through his parkHIIT social enterprise.
If you have any suggestions for future topics you'd like to hear on the show, email Brian directly, brian@workwellpodcast.com