We’re thrilled to share with you the video from our recent webinar, “Life on the Line: Supporting Men’s Mental Health in a ‘Tough it Out’ Culture,” presented by headversity. To everyone who joined us, your participation and engagement made it a truly impactful event.

In this engaging session, held on November 22nd, our expert speakers, Jesse Fehr and Brad Blaisdell, provided valuable perspectives on the landscape of men’s mental health in the corporate setting. They delved into the stigmas and challenges men face around mental health and offered actionable steps for employers to build a supportive environment. The webinar also featured success stories showcasing the real impact of mental health initiatives.

We hope you find the webinar insightful and encourage you to share it within your networks. Together, let’s continue to redefine what it means to be resilient.

Empowering Voices: A Focus on Men’s Health This Movember

As the leaves change and the air cools, November (clevery branded ‘Movember’) emerges as a powerful reminder to bring men’s health into the limelight. Dating back to the early 2000s, Movember started with a few supportive men growing moustaches in support of prostate cancer. Since then, the cause has gained worldwide momentum and raised more than $900 million USD and funded over 1200 men’s health projects globally. Today, men grow moustaches in solidarity and contribute to the climbing fundraising tally with the goal of reducing stigma for a variety of men’s health issues.  It is a time to address the full spectrum of men’s health, including physical wellbeing, mental fortitude, and the role of a respectful and supportive culture in fostering holistic health.  

Understanding the silent struggle of men 

Traditional views of masculinity often dictate that men should ‘tough it out’ when facing adversity. This ‘grin and bear it’ mentality has discouraged men from discussing their physical and mental health challenges openly. These traditional gender roles view disclosure of issues or symptoms as a weakness, therefore opening up about feelings or talking about ailments is not seen to be socially tolerated. Clearly, this approach is flawed, as bottling up emotions typically exacerbates problems rather than resolving them. Acknowledging the interconnectedness of mind and body is central to a holistic approach to health; one’s overall wellbeing is compromised when either aspect is neglected. 

This reluctance to speak out was demonstrated in a 2020 study, which found that men often avoid labeling themselves as ‘bullied’ in the workplace due to fears of seeming weak. This stigma can significantly impact mental health, as we are at increased risk when we feel threatened by ongoing negative behavior and are unable to address it. Suffering in silence for men is not isolated to mental health. Other issues that impact men, such as heart disease, diabetes, and prostate and testicular cancers also require men being vocal about their symptoms to address the issues before they become serious health concerns Evidence underscores the value of early detection and candid dialogue about health symptoms, leading to improved outcomes. For example, the American Heart Association in 2021 underscored the lifesaving power of community awareness in identifying the early warning signs of heart conditions, one of the top causes of death among men. 

By cultivating an environment that not only allows but celebrates the act of reaching out and offering mutual support, we can gradually dismantle these harmful stigmas. It’s about ensuring that no individual has to endure challenges in isolation, whether they’re grappling with emotional turmoil or navigating health changes. Movember is our collective opportunity to reinforce that no man should navigate these waters alone. 

How to spot struggles in our male colleagues 

By hiding what’s going on physically or emotionally, men are at an increased risk of depression and suicide by a wide margin. Understanding that men may tend to endure their challenges quietly, it becomes crucial for us as leaders and peers to be attuned to these physical symptoms. 

Here are 5 Key Signs of Mental Health Struggles in Men: 

• Withdrawal from social activities: A sudden or gradual retreat from hobbies or social gatherings.

• Change in sleep patterns: Sleeping too much or having trouble catching shut eye.

• Increased irritability or anger: Out-of-character outbursts or a short temper can be a sign of emotional distress.

• Changes in appetite or weight: Significant weight gain or loss, or changes in eating habits.

• Decline in performance at work or school: A noticeable drop in productivity or focus can often point to struggles with mental wellbeing.

Recognizing these signs is just the first step. It’s equally important to respond with empathy and offer support, encouraging open conversations and a helping hand. 

Creating supportive environments 

Movember is not just about the changing trends in facial hair. It also shines a spotlight on topics once considered taboo, such as the vulnerability of men. This month is our opportunity to foster environments that don’t just allow, but actively promote dialogue and support for wellbeing. It’s time to break the vicious cycle of silence and ensure that no story of struggle remains untold or unheard.  

As we journey through this month, taking time to support our male colleagues and acknowledge the Movember efforts is important, not just for making light of the fun facial hair efforts they’re championing, but to spotlight the issues at large and what this time of year really signals. This can help to build psychological safety around sensitive issues and build respect into our organizational culture.   

Want to learn more about how we can help support our male colleagues in Movember? Join our Webinar – Life on the Line: Supporting Men’s Mental Health in a ‘Tough It Out’ Culture.  We will be discussing more on this topic and diving into ways we can help men avoid suffering in silence at work. We’ll equip you with the insights and tools to become a pillar of support in your workplace and community.  

Register here: https://headversity.com/webinar/supporting-mens-mental-wellbeing-2023/

Mentorship: It’s impact in your workplace

Today, most businesses and organizations are interested in advancing opportunities for their employees to learn and grow. Career development has become a top priority for both employees and employers resulting in more companies implementing mentorship programs. A mentorship program is a method for employees to accelerate their adjustment and advancement in the workplace.

What is mentoring?

Mentoring is the process in which an individual provides their experience and expertise to support a junior or less experienced colleague. A mentor serves as a guide to help support their colleague develop their skillset and grow their knowledge and understanding in a broad or specific field. The objective of mentoring is to prepare mentees for next steps in their professional career. Therefore, mentoring is not a position to reinforce your superiority, rather an opportunity to support the next generation of leaders. When matched correctly, mentorship has been proven to enhance the quality experience of individuals in the workplace.

What do mentors do?

In a workplace, mentors support their colleagues to learn more about how to efficiently complete their role. This can be completed formally by meeting at a specific time and date on a regular basis or informally having casual conversations whenever needed. Mentors serve as coaches, teachers, and positive role models. They often share experiences of their career path and provide insight, guidance, and emotional support based on the challenges they have faced to date. A mentor, therefore, may assist with helping you achieve your short and long-term goals that go beyond the workplace.

Why mentor in the workplace?

The workplace can seem like a daunting place when taking on a new role. New colleagues want to ensure they perform efficiently from the get-go and are motivated to grow into a very successful employee at the business. But it’s not as easy as it seems. A new work environment takes time to adjust, learn, and observe from peers. A mentor can help one achieve their goals by sharing their experience when they were in the same position. They can further share how they were able to succeed and the measures they took in order to accelerate their growth. Not only can they provide insightful guidance, but they will also improve employee retention. Employees that are mentored are less likely to leave their organization leading to talent being retained in the business.

Benefits of mentoring

Although it may seem that mentees are the ones benefiting from the relationship, mentorship is actually mutually beneficial. According to numerous studies, individuals that mentored colleagues felt a greater sense of satisfaction with their workplace and felt that they were contributing in a meaningful way to the team’s goals. Mentors are able to get more perspective on different problems and challenges

experienced at the workplace and beyond, resulting in improvements on performance. Research suggests that mentoring can improve the emotional health of both mentors and mentees when a close, trusting relationship is established. In stressful work environments mentees and mentors benefit from sharing different coping mechanisms. Mentoring also plays a critical role in getting your employees more familiar with the work culture, enabling their active involvement. Furthermore, it opens up new networks across departments in your workplace enhancing your visibility and worth. It’s important to note that mentorship doesn’t have to be formal. Mentorship can consist of informal meetings, providing advice, check-ins on the mentees’ mental and emotional well-being and so forth. The most important thing to consider in your mentorship journey is how to successfully implement your ability to mentor your peers. Remember, mentoring is not just confined to the role, mentoring in a workplace can consist of career mentoring, psychosocial mentoring, and role modeling.

Characteristics of efficient mentors:

• Competent: a great mentor needs to be fully competent in their field and possess great leadership, managerial, and communication skills.
• Approachable: being friendly and open to communicate with is a crucial aspect of mentorship. Listening to the mentee and acknowledging their thoughts and opinions is extremely important. When people transition to a new role, they have valid questions and concerns but sometimes maybe afraid to articulate them to a senior as they feel they may be judged. As a mentor, being approachable, empathetic and open-minded allows your mentor to feel more comfortable sharing their questions and concerns.
• Respectful: valuing the mentee and considering their well-being is extremely important. Respectful constructive criticism can help improve and push the mentee to their potential.
• Role model: providing guidance for the mentee to reach their career goals is fundamental to their growth. This does not mean that you are producing a replica of yourself. Rather, assisting your mentee to build their own identity and be their own creative and unique self.
• Supportive: exposing mentees to a wide network of professionals and enabling them to showcase their competence and skill set.

Benefits of being mentored

Guidance from senior colleagues has been shown to enhance mentees’ job performance and satisfaction. This unique experience enables knowledge transfer at a substantial rate compared to a colleague who is not being mentored. In turn, this enhances the mentees’ confidence and ability to execute projects efficiently. Mentees are also exposed to greater networks and opportunities at the business which ultimately leads to employees remaining at the company longer and reporting higher job satisfaction.

Characteristics of efficient mentees:

• Eager to learn: having a desire to learn new things, methods, and strategies that have been beneficial to your mentor will support your transition to the position. Taking risks and having an open mind will help you tackle challenges in ways one hadn’t imagined before.
• Take initiative: Learning is a journey, but the journey should be initiated by you. Successful mentees visualize what they want to achieve in the near future and work incredibly hard to learn what it takes to get there.
• Respectful: being thankful of the time and energy a mentor dedicates is very important. Appreciate that their expertise, knowledge and experience can be essential to your learning.
• Goal oriented: walking into a mentorship relationship with specific goals and desire to achieve it will certainly assist your mentor with understanding what direction you would like to take. This makes the relationship more meaningful and allows for greater productivity.

Conclusion

The purpose of mentorship programs is to accelerate the personal and professional development of mentees. Mentoring in the workplace provides junior colleagues with guidance and support to integrate into the work environment and further advance their careers. Mentoring can be mutually beneficial to both mentor and mentee by improving their social well-being and adding more purpose and meaning to the work environment. This relationship provides both parties with an opportunity to learn and grow from the experience. Mentorship programs can enrich the culture of the workplace and have been proven to assist in unequivocal ways ultimately leading to a positive work environment.

References:

Abbajay, B. M. (2013). The Working Life : The Importance of Workplace Mentors. Working Workplace, 1–4.

Allen, T. D. (2007). Mentoring relationships from the perspective of the mentor. In B. R. Ragins & K. E. Kram (Eds.), The Handbook of mentoring at work: Theory, research, and practice (pp. 123-147). Sage.

Chao, G. T., Walz, P., & Gardner, P. D. (1992). Formal and informal mentorships: A comparison on mentoring functions and contrast with non-mentored counterparts. Personnel Psychology, 45(3), 619–636.

Eby LT, Allen TD, Evans SC, Ng T, Dubois D. Does Mentoring Matter? A Multidisciplinary Meta-Analysis Comparing Mentored and Non-Mentored Individuals. J Vocat Behav. 2008 Apr;72(2):254-267. doi: 10.1016/j.jvb.2007.04.005. PMID: 19343074; PMCID: PMC2352144.

Eby, L. T., & Robertson, M. M. (2020). The psychology of workplace mentoring relationships. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 7, 75–100.

Graen, G. B., & Uhl-Bien, M. (1995). Relationship-based approach to leadership: Development of leader-member exchange (LMX) theory of leadership over 25 years: Applying a multi-level multi-domain perspective. Leadership Quarterly, 6, 219–247.

Hu, C., Wang, S., Yang, C. C., & Wu, T. Y. (2014). When mentors feel supported: Relationships with mentoring functions and protégés’ perceived organizational support. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 35(1), 22–37.

Weinberg, F. J., & Lankau, M. J. (2011). Formal Mentoring Programs : A MentorCentric and Longitudinal Analysis. 37(6), 1527–1557. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206309349310

Keeping Girls in Sport: An Overview on Girl’s Sport Participation.

Women and girls want to play sports. They are passionate, driven, and dedicated to the activities they love. It is our responsibility as a community to ensure they have the right environment, tools and resources to enjoy their sport and to stay active for life.

It is proven that sports improve the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of people. Despite all the benefits, girls are leaving sport at a young age and rarely pursue this into adulthood. By thirteen, 70% of kids leave sport. Girls drop out of sport at twice the rate of boys. An alarming one in three Canadian girls leave sport in their adolescence.

According to the World Health Organization, only 15% of girls meet the 60 minutes of recommended moderate to vigorous activity. Less than 20% of Canadian Women aged 16-63 participate in sport (Canadian Women Sport, 2020). These inequalities are also reflected in stakeholders and staff members involved in sport. 

So, what is stopping girls from continuing an active lifestyle and how can we help fix this? 

The problem isn’t persuading girls to be active; they already want to be. We need to provide girls with relevant opportunities and resources to play and find viable solutions that will help keep them in the game and active for life.  

Luckily, we can all help change these statistics and play a dynamic role in supporting quality sporting opportunities for girls by understanding why girls drop out of sport. 

Lack of access to sport is one of the main reasons why girls are not involved or don’t remain active. Limited opportunities to play on school teams or in free community organizations means that girls have to look elsewhere which is usually not cost friendly. The cost of sport and physical activity is a great barrier in accessing physical wellness.  

Girls also leave sport due to the lack of fun or decreased quality experience. The facilities may be subpar, lack of resources and tools to support their development in their sport, negative environment with unrealistic expectations, and they may not be in an optimal environment to grow with quality trained coaches. This ultimately leads to sport and activity not being desirable anymore.  

Moreover, there are social pressures, gender stereotypes, lack of diversity and inclusivity and sometimes negative connotations associated with girls that compete in sport. Girls are also often hesitant to compete in sport or be physically active because they may lack the confidence to move athletically or are afraid they will be judged based on their body image. The social pressure of what a girl should look like in sport can dismay girls from even being involved.   

As a community we need to first help build girls’ confidence in order for them to enjoy their experience. Physical literacy is the fundamental movement skills that help kids be confident to participate in activities. When kids are confident in the games they enjoy, they will look to further improve their skillset leading to greater conviction in their abilities. 

Girls need opportunities to compete in sport at school, their communities and the public sphere. However, girls will only remain in sport if they are in an environment that is safe, accessible, and inclusive. They need to feel valued and appreciated in order to continue to be involved in activities. Furthermore, their individual, cultural and religious needs must also be accommodated and welcomed if we want to achieve the full participation of women and girls in sport. Sport and physical activity are for all; therefore, we must ensure everyone feels a sense of belonging.  

We all truly want girls to stay involved in sport and continue their passion. Through sport, girls learn critical life skills such as leadership, time management, teamwork, and confidence that can be transferred to any environment. It also allows them to be positive role models for future generations of young girls. 

The progression of girls’ sport is contingent on dismantling structural issues, programming availability, equitable opportunities, building sustainable solutions and educating our communities on the importance of girls’ participation in sport.  

Supporting girls to be active is a community wide responsibility. In response to the concerns of why girls aren’t participating in sport and activity and the high drop-out rates, Respect Group developed “Keeping Girls in Sport”. This unique program was created to help everyone who coaches girls understand how they develop physically, mentally, socially, and emotionally. When we understand how and why girls play, we can help every young athlete stay in sport, reach their potential, and remain active long after the competitions end. Finally becoming the next generation of inspiring female coaches and role models.  

We all play an integral role in advancing opportunities for women and girls. Let’s take action and be a part of the change we want to see. 

References:

Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport CCES (2022). Power of Sport: The True Sport Report 2022.  https://cces.ca/sites/default/files/content/docs/pdf/cces-true-sport-report-2022-acc-eng.pdf (accessed October 5, 2022)

Canadian Women Sport (2020a). The Rally Report: Encouraging Action to Improve Sport for Women and Girls. Available online at: https://womenandsport.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Canadian-Women-Sport_The-Rally-Report.pdf (accessed October 5, 2022)

Canadian Women Sport (2020b). The Rally Report: Encouraging Action to Improve Sport for Women and Girls. Available online at: https://womenandsport.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Canadian-Women-Sport_The-Rally-Report.pdf (October 5, 2022)

Government of Canada (2009). Actively Engaged: A Policy on Sport for Women and Girls. Available online at: https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/sport-policies-acts-regulations/policy-actively-engaged-women-girls.html (October 5, 2022)

Government of Canada (2019). Working Group on Gender Equity in Sport of the Minister of Science and Sport. https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/working-group-gender-equity.html (accessed October 5, 2022)

Rich KA, Moore E, Boggs J and Pegoraro A (2022) Mapping Women’s Community Sport Participation to Inform Sport Develop Initiatives: A Case Study of Row Ontario. Front. Sports Act. Living 4:836525.doi: 10.3389/fspor.2022.836525

Positive Culture – The Key to Employee Recruitment/Retention and the Bottom-line

Even in the best of times, businesses struggle with supply chains, administration, financial management, and keeping up to date with technology. But recently, one challenge has emerged as both an existential threat and a key indicator of any organization’s overall health—how to hold onto that most valuable of commodities? Staff.

It’s no secret that the post-pandemic business world has seen a flurry of resignations. Some have even labelled this phenomenon the Great Resignation. So why are people leaving? Often the decision to leave marks a desire for a general career change, a better salary, more flexibility. Other times, the decision is less about going towards something new and more about escaping a current unfavourable work environment. It’s hard to know for sure why so many more employees are leaving now compared to pre-pandemic rates, but in amongst matters of pay, benefits, hours, work/life balance, for many, the impetus to stay or go boils down to workplace culture.

Workplace culture is a set of shared values, beliefs, and attitudes, all communicated with clarity of purpose from management and company leadership. Whether intentionally or otherwise, every company has their own unique workplace culture, and whether this is a positive or toxic one is often determined by how a company’s leadership interacts with their employees.

Companies that don’t foster positive workplace cultures often create high stress environments, and stress is the number one attributed cause in costly workplace accidents. Workplace stress is one of the leading causes of doctor visits and can even contribute to cardiovascular diseases. This leads not only to employee absences due to stress leave but also absences from sick leave, as mental stress transforms into physical disorders and impairments.

What we know is that people are far more likely to leave a toxic workplace where they feel undervalued and disrespected compared to a positive work environment where they feel valued and respected. Not surprisingly, toxic work cultures often have high turnover and increasing difficulty attracting new employees.

Studies on the effects of positive work cultures, however, show that a workforce with strong morale and shared values, not only keeps their workers, but also benefits from increased productivity and efficiency. 

Several businesses have successfully integrated these practices, one such being Costco, which makes a point of valuing employees as individuals and paying attention to their needs. The company is frequently ranked at the top of lists of great employers, such as Forbes’ “Best Large Employers” list, which is based on how willing an employee is to recommend their employer to friends and family. These types of lists are not only useful as a way to attract and retain employees but also offer tangible benefits; companies that rank high on these types of lists often outperformed others on the S&P 500 by up to 84 percent in some years.

Even the size of a workplace has no precise bearing on whether a workplace culture is positive or negative. Stereotypes of the soulless corporation viewing its employees as cogs in a machine and treating them as such may exist for some big companies, but if a smaller business does not value their employees or make an effort to create environments where employees are valued and listened to, they are losing out on a strategic edge they are especially equipped to enjoy. The same workplace culture issues discussed above apply just as readily to small businesses. 

Ultimately, the question becomes not so much if these practices have a positive effect, but how to implement them. And this is what Respect Group’s “Respect in the Workplace” online certification strives to help organizations achieve— a healthy workplace culture where people choose to stay.

Part of creating and maintaining a positive workplace culture is making sure everyone in an organization learns how to recognize and deal with harmful interaction which includes: bullying, abuse, harassment, or discrimination, or what we refer to collectively as BAHD behaviours. Respect in the Workplace provides strategies for confronting these behaviors, encouraging everyone to “look in the mirror”, and empowering bystanders to step-up and step-in. Anonymous pre and post surveys from thousands of employees across hundreds of companies using Respect in the Workplace, confirm that when it comes to “crossing the line” on BAHD behaviours, many did not know where the line was drawn. Organizations with positive and progressive work cultures also recognize the importance of RESPECT as the foundation to advancing their corporate commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Culture starts at the top and without sincere leadership to create and maintain positive morale, psychologically safe and welcoming environments cannot exist. Simply stated, good people are not motivated to stay and corporate profitability is at risk.

______________

References

Eli Rosenberg. “4.3 million Americans left their jobs in December as omicron variant disrupted everything.” The Washington Post February 1, 2022.

Emma Seppälä and Kim Cameron. “Proof that Positive Work Cultures Are More Productive.” Harvard Business Review.

Gabriella Olya. “Why Costco’s Employee Culture May See It Through the Labor Shortages.” Yahoo. July 26, 2021.

Sarah Treleaven. “Why Even Small Businesses Need to Focus on Workplace Culture.” Macleans. March 25, 2019.

Respect in the Workplace –  Cross-Sector Focus

Forward-thinking organizations in the 21^st century recognize the need to cultivate professional, respectful, and rewarding work environments. Studies show that positive work cultures attract and retain new employees while simultaneously boosting productivity and profits. The future trend of workplace culture is focused squarely on inclusivity and acceptance, but to achieve these values there are significant obstacles to overcome.

Unlike industry-specific hurdles like supply chains or raw materials, the challenges to a positive workplace culture remain common across multiple sectors. Referred to as BAHD Behaviours, Bullying, Abuse, Harassment, and Discrimination exist, unfortunately, in all fields and industries. BAHD behaviours can be found in blue-collar and white-collar jobs, in the office or on the construction site, from academia to the military and everywhere in between. Given this universal reality, Respect Group has consciously developed Respect in the Workplace,  as a cross-sector, multidisciplinary program.

Over the years, numerous Human Rights Laws and Anti-Discrimination Legislation have been passed across North America. Despite these standards,  there are still a significant number of minorities who report encountering harassment and discrimination in the workplace.

Nearly thirty percent (29.8%) of LGBTQ+ employees reported they’d experienced some form of employment discrimination because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, and over a third (37.7%) reported experiencing harassment at work.[1] Almost two-thirds (64%) of workers report having seen or experienced age discrimination (ageism) in the workplace, [2]and one in four Black and Hispanic employees (24% for each) reported being discriminated against in 2020.[3] The fact these results were found across multiple sectors demonstrates the need for a non-industry specific approach to training.

Focusing on specific workplaces, versus the adoption of a cross-sector approach, could lead to the reinforcement of industry stereotypes and contribute to stigmatizing individual sectors. Imagining entire programs that feature cat-calling construction workers or ageist bullying at a tech firm paints a broad, negative picture of those industries—one that could be criticized for not being fair or realistic. In Respect in the Workplace, when we feature specific, real-world examples, we do so using cross-sector scenarios and settings to demonstrate the universality of BAHD behaviours. We do this to encourage learners to draw parallels to their own work experiences, both past and present.

Sector-specific training becomes even less viable when you consider that many sectors contain multiple job functions and widely varied work environments. A municipality, for example, will employ office staff, construction workers, maintenance engineers, bus drivers, police/fire services and more. Universal scenarios would be next to impossible in these cases and would have to be broken down into individual sub-sectors, which would add a level of unnecessary complexity. Crafting sector-specific training would also significantly increase development time and costs, and limit broad, affordable use.

A key feature of Respect in the Workplace is allowing certified users to transfer certificates from one company or organization to another. This function would not be possible with a sector-specific focus, forcing individuals who are already “Respect Certified” to repeat the same training unnecessarily.

In instances where an organization’s unique work environment requires a specific focus or specialized training, Respect Group offers Workshops/Facilitator’s Guide that provide the ability to actualize foundational training within a specific department or work group.

Ultimately, a cross-sector approach establishes a common language and paradigm around respectful behaviour that transcends sectors and benefits the entire community. When everyone speaks the same language regarding core, foundational concepts, the faster and easier it is for them to establish solutions to problems that affect not only a single organization but all of them, regardless of industry or sector. To date, over 90% of the hundreds of thousands of “Respect Certified” users report that the training has helped them be a more respectful employee and co-worker regardless of their organization or job title.

[1] Sears, Brad, et al. LGBT PEOPLE’S EXPERIENCES OF WORKPLACE DISCRIMINATION AND HARASSMENT. The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, 2021, http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep35009.

[2] STAYING AHEAD OF THE CURVE 2013: AARP MULTICULTURAL WORK AND CAREER STUDY PERCEPTIONS OF AGE DISCRIMINATION IN THE WORKPLACE – AGES 45 – 74. American Association of Retired Persons, 2013.

[3] ONE IN FOUR BLACK WORKERS REPORT DISCRIMINATION AT WORK. Gallup polls, 2020.

The Change the Game Research Project, the largest study of its kind in Canada, has provided new insights on the impact of COVID-19 on sport and play-related access, barriers, and equity factors. Between March-May 2021, the MLSE Foundation and the University of Toronto engaged nearly 7000 youth and their parents from across Ontario to learn about returning to play and how different communities and sports have been impacted by the pandemic. 

Key barriers to returning to play included affordability and access, with youth from lower-income families and those living in rural or remote areas having less opportunities to continue participating in sport. Further, racism was identified as a clear issue in sport: more than 1 in 3 Black youth, 1 in 4 Indigenous youth, and 1 in 5 BIPOC youth reported having directly experienced racism in sport. This, along with other important findings from youth and parents, highlighted the need to develop cultures of representation and inclusion that are supported by policies and processes. Finally, the researchers recommend ways to develop return to play and post-pandemic plans centered around the reasons why youth play, including fun, safety and social connection. 

You can find the full report here, and access the infographic overview here. More information on building inclusive sport cultures through our Respect in Sport programs can be found here. 

Reference:

MLSE Foundation, Change the Game Research: A study focused on sport access, engagement, and equity factors in the wake of the pandemic, (July 2021).

Culture Change- Accomplished through individual and safe learning environments

Learning is a complex process, influenced by factors both internal and external to the learner. One core aspect underlying any type of learning is the safety of the learner. In order to reflect and build upon what they already know, learners must feel safe to ask questions, make mistakes, and challenge existing norms or assumptions. Within the workplace, the safety of the learner is especially important when exploring values, such as respect, equity, diversity and inclusion, and acceptable and unacceptable behaviours, including bullying, abuse, harassment and discrimination. At Respect Group, we believe that culture change occurs by empowering individuals. Through our Respect in the Workplace program, individual employees have the opportunity to learn about difficult topics and develop skills in a safe, secure learning environment, which they can then put into practice to create broader organizational culture change. 

What is the safety of the learner?

According to Dr. Timothy R. Clark, CEO of LeaderFactor and author of “The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety”, learning is both intellectual and emotional, and safety is a fundamental aspect of the learning process. For learners to engage effectively in the learning process through asking questions, sharing and receiving feedback, trying out new knowledge, and making mistakes, the learning environment must feel psychologically safe. When learners feel safe, they’re more willing to be vulnerable, build resilience, and take risks. If learner safety isn’t present, learners will aim to manage personal risks by limiting themselves, shutting down, and not fully engaging in the process (Leader Factor, 2020). 

Clark goes on to say that through combining both respect and permission- to make mistakes, to learn, and to grow- psychological safety is established. Psychological safety underlies learner safety, where learners feel supported in their efforts to learn by their team and feel comfortable making mistakes or asking questions without fear of being embarrassed or marginalized. Adults learn primarily through tackling challenges, experimenting, making mistakes and correcting them, and reflecting on their experiences; if learner safety is not present, learners disengage, censor what they are reflecting and sharing, and approach tasks in defensive mode (Leader Factor, 2020).

When more risk is brought into the learning process, a higher degree of psychological safety is required to set the stage for safe learning. The cognitive thinking brain and the affective feeling brain are intricately connected, so the more fear there is within a learning environment, the more difficult learning becomes (Leader Factor, 2020). The primary obstacle to learning is behavioural, rather than structural, so organizations and leaders must aim to shift behavioural norms and eliminate sources of fear, as well as reward  vulnerability, to build the foundation for learner safety (Leader Factor, 2020). 

When it comes to difficult and potentially emotionally sensitive topics like bullying, abuse, harassment, and discrimination (BAHD), group workshops are (at least initially) less effective than a consistent one-to-one approach. Given the potential of having these very behaviours present in a group setting can undermine the ability to get all learners equally and confidently educated. When difficult topics can be presented in a safe environment, such as through eLearning and simulated scenarios, risks are decreased and psychological safety is increased, creating the conditions for safe learning. 

Real culture change is led by individual learning 

Within organizations, learning and culture cycles operate in reverse order to one another (Hurley, 2002). Hurley explains that culture is held at the group level through norms but operates on the individual level through behaviour; in contrast, learning occurs first at an individual level through independent thought, which in turn can shape the culture through enacted beliefs and behaviours. Learning influences culture creation and change in a reciprocal manner, with culture both influencing and being influenced by learning (Hurley, 2002). Through the modeling of behaviour and talking about values, beliefs, and assumptions, the products of individual learning can end up becoming widely held organizational norms and beliefs (Hurley, 2002). 

When an organization holds deeply entrenched beliefs that require reflection and change, individual learning is necessary to challenge assumptions and habits to create culture change (Hurley, 2002). This bottom-up versus top-down learning model is critical to the innovativeness of organizations; research has shown that the most important contributor to creating innovative workplace cultures is the learning and development of individual employees (Hurley, 2002). 

For organizations to foster culture change, innovation, and advancement, they must invest in the employees’ individual learning. When working to change organizational culture, creating the space for employees to learn and reflect individually will impact their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, progressively building towards change within organizational cultures. Individual learning is only fostered through psychologically safe learning environments and is the key to creating sustainable, organizational-wide culture change. 

References

Hurley, R. F. (2002). Putting people back into organizational learning. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing.

Leader Factor. (2020, September 3). Stage 2: Learner Safety. Retrieved from https://www.leaderfactor.com/post/stage-2-learner-safety   

To acknowledge the International Day of the Girl, we decided to take a closer look at the impact the pandemic has had on girls in sport and how we can take action, now, to keep them engaged.

The Pandemic Impact on Girls in Sport Report by Canadian Women & Sport

“The Pandemic Impact on Girls in Sport Report, which collected data from over 5,000 Canadian families, shows that 1 in 4 girls are not committed to returning to sport. If we don’t act now to counter this trend, we might realize a new normal of over 350,000 girls sitting on the sidelines in the post-COVID-19 world.”

Source: https://womenandsport.ca/resources/research-insights/the-pandemic-impact-on-girls-in-sport/

You can download the full report by clicking here.

Interview with CBC: Pandemic slows girls’ participation in sport

“Physical activity levels have plummeted during the pandemic. For every boy that stops participating in sport, it is predicted that 4 girls will call it quits. But research offers tips on how to keep girls engaged and active for longer. Faith Fundal spoke to Wayne McNeil with Respect Group, an organization that developed a program designed to keep girls in sport.”

Source: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-111-up-to-speed/clip/15867398-pandemic-slows-girls-participation-sport

You can listen to the full interview with our co-founder by clicking here.

The Keeping Girls in Sport program

The Keeping Girls in Sport program was created to address the challenge of high dropout rates amongst girls from sport during adolescence, aiming to give coaches and youth leaders the tools to understand and address the barriers to girls’ continued participation in sport.

We know that sport and physical activity have powerful impacts on our mental, physical, emotional, and social health, yet, even with all the positive benefits of being active girls and women are becoming less active and leaving sport.

It’s frustrating, but there are many reasons girls leave sport. Too many competing demands for their time between work and family, financial pressures, social pressure girls feel from comparing themselves to unrealistic media images, expectations of femininity, and the list goes on.

The Keeping Girls in Sport program examines these pressures, and suggests proactive ways to keep girls engaged, and excited about participating in sport and physical activity. It provides insights from girls, in their own voices, about the influence sport has in their lives. By empowering girls and helping them see themselves in a more positive light, as both capable athletes and dynamic individuals, we set them up for success. Whether they participate simply for fun and recreation, reach levels of elite competition, or grow up to be coaches and leaders themselves, that influence carries over into every aspect of a girl’s life.

So, if you coach, lead, or mentor a girl, this program is for you. It’s about reflecting on who you are as a leader, how you lead, and how you can support every girl who participates. While coaching girls and boys is largely the same, there are some unique differences that we need to consider so we can create the best possible sport environment for girls and women.

If you want to know more about the program, click here. If you would like your organization to take the program, please contact us at: info@respectgroupinc.com

Workplace Harassment During the Pandemic

Despite expectations that workplace harassment might have decreased during the pandemic as many organizations shifted to working remotely, new research suggests the opposite. A survey led by Project Include, who advocate for diversity and inclusion efforts in the technology industry, found that: 

• 25% of respondents reported an increase in gender-based harassment
• 10% reported increases in race or ethnicity-based harassment
• 23% of respondents aged 50 or older experienced an increase in age-related harassment 
• And those most likely to experience harassment identified as Black, Asian, Latinx, Indigenous, female, and/or nonbinary (Rabasca Roepe, 2021). 

These behaviours have also taken on new forms, ranging from individual to group-based bullying, harassment, and discrimination, experienced over video calls, emails, and workplace chat spaces (Rabasca Roepe, 2021). 

This increase in gender-based harassment has also been found in research led by The Purple Campaign, who advocate for ending workplace harassment. Recent findings showed that 25% of employees surveyed also experienced an increase in gender-based harassment throughout the pandemic (Rabasca Roepe, 2021). 

Possible reasons for this increase in harassment include changes in the ways we communicate and our working environments. With more one-on-one communication occurring in isolation and the lines between work and home environments being blurred, employees may act or speak in ways that are much more casual and informal than they normally would in physical work spaces (Rabasca Roepe, 2021). 

To address these challenges, organizational leaders should clearly communicate to their employees that the same rules around psychological safety and professionalism apply in any type of work space, whether in the office or working from home (Rabasca Roepe, 2021). Establishing specific guidelines for video meetings, including the type of commentary in chats, having cameras and microphones on or off during meetings, and where meetings take place (for example, requiring a dedicated workspace with a professional background) can help to set a clear understanding for all employees (Rabasca Roepe, 2021). Establishing anonymous reporting systems, such as Whistleblower Hotlines, are one way to provide safe ways and mechanisms for employees to report harassment and other harmful behaviours. 

Providing all staff with anti-harassment training, such as the Respect in the Workplace program, can help open the lines of communication between managers and employees and create a shared set of standards for organizations as a whole (Rabasca Roepe, 2021). Finally, for this training to be effective, it should come from a lens of preparing managers and employees to act as bystanders when witnessing harassment or other harmful behaviours, instead of approaching them as either victims or aggressors in these situations (Rabasca Roepe, 2021). 

The Link Between Workplace Psychological Well-Being & Depression

New research has shown that full-time workers in organizations that don’t prioritize employee mental health have three times the risk of being diagnosed with depression (University of South Australia, 2021). The year-long study led by the University of South Australia’s Psychosocial Safety Climate Observatory, the world’s first research platform focusing on psychological health and safety in the workplace, also found that poor workplace mental health can be traced back to poor management practices (University of South Australia, 2021). If employee well-being is not prioritized and valued by organizations, these management practices can include high job demands and low resource availability, including working long hours, not rewarding or acknowledging hard work, unreasonable demands and expectations for workers, and a lack of autonomy in the workplace (University of South Australia, 2021). Along with higher rates of depression, increased levels of burnout and workplace bullying were also found within organizations that failed to support employee mental health (University of South Australia, 2021). 

The researchers used the term psychological safety climate (PSC) to describe the practices used by management, including communication and participation systems, that protect the health and safety of employees (University of South Australia, 2021). Other studies have found that low PSC is an important predictor of emotional exhaustion and bullying (University of South Australia, 2021). Low PSC can result in increased employee stress; in turn, this can trigger bullying, which impacts all employees involved both directly and indirectly, often leading to higher rates of exhaustion and burnout (University of South Australia, 2021). 

Low PSC is often found in companies that do not consult with employees and unions over workplace health and safety and those who provide little support for stress prevention (University of South Australia, 2021). Further, bullying can be both predicted and prevented, depending on a company’s level of PSC and commitment to employee mental health (University of South Australia, 2021). With the impacts of low PSC resulting in absenteeism, poor engagement in the workplace, more stress leaves and lower productivity, investing in your psychological safety climate benefits both the social and economic health of your organization (University of South Australia, 2021). 

Emotional Literacy as a Tool for Psychologically Safe Leaders

Emotional literacy, or the ability to recognize and responsibly manage emotions, is one of the key skills held by psychologically safe leaders (Howatt & Winters, 2021). Leaders with high emotional literacy understand and care about how their and others’ behaviour impacts their colleagues and can manage their emotions under pressure (Howatt & Winters, 2021). A major challenge to emotional literacy is learning to navigate unpleasant, negative emotions proactively instead of reactively (Howatt & Winters, 2021). Understanding that emotions themselves are not the problem, but how they are handled, leaders who can manage difficult emotions effectively are well poised to support their teams through challenges (Howatt & Winters, 2021). Emotional literacy has no doubt benefitted leaders throughout the pandemic, as organizations and employees navigated unprecedented circumstances and ongoing changes to daily routines.

Four skills leaders can focus on to develop their emotional literacy include:

1. Increasing your self-awareness to better know and acknowledge your feelings.

Rather than just knowing your emotions, recognize why you might be feeling them and how your reaction to these emotions might impact others, both positively and negatively (Howatt & Winters, 2021).

2. Manage your initial reaction.

Negative emotions can and will happen, but you have a choice in how you react. If your immediate reaction is guided by negative emotions, this can often lead to worse situations or outcomes (Howatt & Winters, 2021).

3. Lean into and show empathy.

Empathy, or the ability to understand and share in your employee’s emotions, is a crucial skill for psychologically safe leaders. Beyond what employees are saying, their body language and tone are important cues to recognize how they are feeling (Howatt & Winters, 2021).

4. Recognize your mistakes and repair hurt feelings.

Psychologically safe leaders are able to admit when they are wrong and have made a mistake. Mistakes will happen, and authentic efforts to repair hurt feelings and acknowledge missteps are important habits for leaders to develop (Howatt & Winters, 2021). 

References: 

Howatt, B., and Winters, T. (2021, July 21). Emotional literacy is a core competency for psychologically safe leaders. Occupational Health & Safety Canada. Retrieved from https://www.ohscanada.com/features/emotional-literacy-is-a-core-competency-for-psychologically-safe-leaders/ 

Rabasca Roepe, L. (2021, July 19). Why workplace harassment increased during the pandemic. Fast Company. Retrieved from https://www.fastcompany.com/90655155/why-workplace-harassment-increased-during-the-pandemic 

University of South Australia. (2021, June 24). Companies who pay scant attention to workers’ psychological health leave employees at higher risk of depression. Retrieved from https://www.unisa.edu.au/media-centre/Releases/2021/companies-who-pay-scant-attention-to-workers-psychological-health-leave-employees-at-higher-risk-of-depression/