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

Sheldon Kennedy and Bruno Gervais from Respect Group met with the Montreal Canadiens at Brossard’s Bell Sports Complex on Monday.

They were invited by the Montreal Canadiens to speak with the prospects during the training on respect and consent and during the breakout sessions. 

“What I see from the Montreal Canadiens is a commitment to lead in this space and to me that’s how we’re going to have significant change. I don’t think this is just a hockey issue. This is a societal issue. But if I look at the culture of hockey I think we’ve got some catching up to do.” – SHELDON KENNEDY

“I’m here because I see leadership and I see an organization that wants to be the best it can be in this space,” he added.

Having honest conversations is an important step towards culture change. The Canadiens are among teams in Canada who need to complete the Respect in the Workplace training mandated by the NHL to prevent bullying, abuse, harassment and discrimination.

Sheldon Kennedy, Canadiens of Montreal

Bruno Gervais, Canadiens of Montreal

More articles on the subject:

https://www.tsn.ca/video/sheldon-kennedy-meets-with-habs-prospects-as-part-of-the-respect-and-consent-program~2480984

https://montrealgazette.com/sports/hockey/nhl/hockey-inside-out/sheldon-kennedy-speaks-with-logan-mailloux-and-canadiens-prospects

https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/canadiens-dev-camp-notebook-slafkovsky-feels-he-can-be-better-than-he-showed-on-day-1/

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 Group is proud to announce that the Respect in the Workplace program delivered to all Alberta government employees is now being offered to all agencies, boards and commissions across Alberta. Click here to read the news release.

The Respect in the Workplace program provides employees with the knowledge and tools they need to ensure a safe work environment and prevent bullying, abuse, harassment and discrimination. About 26,000 Government of Alberta staff will take the program in phases, over two years.

“We have to ensure that everyone feels safe and respected in their workplace. Alberta has made this anti-harassment training mandatory for all public service employees and it’s now being made available to all provincial agencies, boards and commissions. We’re making it crystal clear that harassment of any kind is unacceptable in the public service.”

– Jason Kenney, Premier

“Psychological safety is important for all employees, perhaps now more than ever. I applaud our government leaders for making this training a priority and giving those who work on our behalf the tools they need to ensure a safe and respectful work environment.”

– Sheldon Kennedy, co-founder, Respect Group

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

Experiencing bullying, abuse, harassment, or discrimination (or BAHD behaviours) in the workplace is harmful for both employees and the organization as a whole. It is important for all employees and workplace leaders to know how to address BAHD behaviours and what they can do to support themselves and others. The information below, adapted from our Respect in the Workplace program, outlines key steps for reporting BAHD behaviour in the workplace. 

Write an Incident Report:

After witnessing or experiencing an incident of BAHD behaviour, it is especially important to record and document everything you heard, saw, read, or received. These notes and the details within them may not be formal, but may be influential in validating a formal complaint or identifying a pattern of BAHD behaviour. Your organization may have their own reporting form in place, or you can use the Incident Report template included in the Respect in the Workplace program. The report may contain more information than is needed, but will help you to guide your reporting and provide all the information you’ve gathered in a cohesive way. 

Submit your Report:

After writing up clear, concise, and detailed notes, file your Incident Report according to your workplace policies and procedures. This may mean reporting the incident to your manager, supervisor, or HR personnel. Confidentiality is critical for everyone involved, so do not discuss the details of the report outside of the confidential boundaries such as a reporting line, employee assistance programs, or counsellors.

Understand the Process:

Every organization will have unique processes for addressing BAHD behaviour in the workplace. This could include disciplinary action, mediation, or an appeal process. You should be able to find these processes in your organization’s policies and procedures, or by requesting them from your manager or HR personnel.

Trust the Process:

Once your report has been filed, don’t be concerned if your organization doesn’t keep you informed of the investigation. Their responsibility for confidentiality will often mean they can’t discuss ongoing details. Trust that for almost all cases of inappropriate behaviour, organizational policies or government legislation exist that hold aggressors accountable. Sometimes, aggressors simply need to be made aware of their behaviours, and some cases may be resolved with an apology. In more serious cases, aggressors may be formally disciplined. In the most severe cases, demotion, suspension, or even termination of employment may be the result. However, if you believe the report isn’t being handled in a timely or thorough manner, you have the right to escalate your concern internally through the different levels of your organization, or if required, to the Human Rights Commission. 

Understand the Effects of BAHD:

If you are the target or a witness of BAHD behaviour, or a colleague has disclosed an incident to you, remember to help yourself as well as the person being victimized. Experiencing and witnessing harmful behaviours may have long-term, emotionally significant consequences for everyone involved. When you’re a bystander, while it’s important to assist the victim, you should also seek help for yourself if needed. While maintaining the confidentiality of everyone involved, you can safely seek support from trusted family members, friends or colleagues, or request third-party assistance from your organization or employee assistance program. 

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/ 

At Respect Group, making our programs accessible for learners of all abilities is key. Our team has been working incredibly hard towards accreditation to evolve our programs to be compatible with screen-reader technology. Screen readers are software programs that support learners who are blind or partially sighted to read the text that is displayed within our programs through a speech synthesizer or braille display (American Foundation for the Blind, 2020). We want to offer the best experience possible and provide an inclusive learning environment for users of all abilities.

Today, Respect Group is proud to announce that our Respect in the Workplace program has now been updated and accredited as fully compliant with the stringent WCGA 2.1 AA standard, the strictest standard set out by the World Wide Web Consortium. These updates include:

• Updates to the program code and the overall functionality of the program to better communicate with screen readers and assistive technology, including:
  • • Increasing the interactivity our program content and activities (such as the questionnaires/activities in our programs) for users utilizing screen readers or those who may use a keyboard instead of a mouse
    • Improving our back-end html text to be more clear and concise for screen readers
• Updated headers and navigational elements throughout our program pages
• Updated tab index and focus order of program content

These updates have currently been upgraded for this specific program: Respect in the Workplace (both generic and SCORM versions). Additionally, we are currently working towards these accessibility guidelines for the Respect in Sport for Activity Leaders, Respect in Sport for Parents, Return to Hockey, Gender Equity Lens Program, and Keeping Girls in Sport Supporting Positive Behaviour, Welcoming All Abilities, Stay in the Game, and Respect in School programs. Moving forward, all new programs will be made accessible upon release.

Respect Group will continue working on and implementing accessibility updates for all of our programs in order to provide an inclusive learning environment for users of all abilities.

Source:

American Foundation for the Blind. (2020). Screen readers. Retrieved from: https://www.afb.org/blindness-and-low-vision/using-technology/assistive-technology-products/screen-readers

When discussing diversity and inclusion, it is important to have a shared understanding of the common terms used to discuss the sources and mechanisms of discrimination. At Respect Group, we recognize that these terms can be complex, and have recently updated our Workplace, School, and Sport programs to explicitly discuss these concepts and their impacts across different contexts. To better educate yourself and your organization on how to actively promote diversity and inclusion, it is important to understand the differences between systemic racism, unconscious bias, and microaggressions, and the overarching role that intersectionality plays within each of these concepts. 

Systemic Racism

Systemic racism is defined as, “Organizational culture, policies, directives, practices or procedures that exclude, displace, or marginalize some racialized groups and/or create unfair barriers for them to access valuable benefits and opportunities” (Government of Ontario, 2020). This is enacted through institutional biases that are built into the culture, policies, practices and procedures of organizations and systems, privileging the interests and opportunities of dominant groups while disadvantaging marginalized groups (Government of Ontario, 2020). 

Systemic racism can be found in all major institutions, from governments and schools to public and private companies and religious organizations. It is important to note that systemic racism differs from racial bias in that these policies and procedures often appear neutral and may not be intended to disadvantage members of marginalized groups, but in practice, have the effect of doing so. 

Unconscious Bias

According to Catalyst (2019), unconscious bias is, “An association or attitude about a person or social group that, while not plainly expressed, operates beyond our control and awareness, informs our perceptions, and can influence our decision-making and behaviour.” Unconscious biases are pervasive, powerful predictors of behaviour, even if they don’t match conscious attitudes or opinions (Catalyst, 2014). Unconscious biases impact actions large and small, but are more likely to be observed when conscious controls over decision-making are lowered and factors such as stress, distraction, relaxation, or competition impact one’s control over conscious behaviours (Catalyst, 2014).  

It’s important to recognize that everyone has unconscious biases within our worldviews, affecting our actions across different areas of our lives that we may not be aware of, but are perceived by others (Catalyst, 2019). These biases often reflect internalized societal messages and norms, which are influenced and/or created by systemic racism, misogyny, and other common stereotypes and prejudices. Unconscious biases can create many barriers at both organizational and individual levels, working against inclusion, performance, engagement, and innovation (Catalyst, 2019). Given the nature of unconscious biases, we cannot completely eliminate them, but we can develop strategies and skills to override these biases and mitigate their impacts (Catalyst, 2019). 

Microaggressions

Racial microaggressions are a form of discrimination that is brief and commonplace; occurring daily; and can be verbal or nonverbal (Sue et al., 2007). There are three common forms of microaggressions: microassaults, microinsults, and microinvalidations (Sue et al., 2007). 

Microassaults are explicitly derogatory verbal or nonverbal attacks on one’s race, where the perpetrator aims to hurt or harm the victim through name-calling, avoidant behaviour, or discriminatory actions (Sue et al., 2007). One example of this may be using outdated and offensive terms to refer to Black or Indigenous peoples (Sue et al., 2007). Microassaults are usually both conscious and deliberate, and often occur in relatively ‘private’ contexts, where the perpetrator can maintain some degree of anonymity (Sue et al., 2007). 

Microinsults are subtle, rude and insensitive comments or actions that demean a person’s racial heritage or identity (Sue et al., 2007). Microinsults may seem harmless to the perpetrator, but hold a deeper, more painful meaning for the victim (Sue et al., 2007). One example of this may be not taking the time to learn the proper pronunciation of a co-worker’s name because it is unfamiliar, and consistently mispronouncing or avoiding using their name (Montañez, 2020). These types of statements and actions may not necessarily be aggressive , but the context in which they occur and the impact on victims determines whether a comment or action is a microinsult (Sue et al., 2007).

Microinvalidations are comments or actions that exclude, ignore, or invalidate the thoughts, feelings, or reality of a person of colour (Sue et al., 2007). Examples may include asking a person of colour where they are from ‘originally’, or where they are ‘really’ from (Sue et al., 2007). 

The daily experience of microaggressions is incredibly harmful, both for the individuals experiencing them and for organizations as a whole (Sue et al., 2007). Though the emotional tax of experiencing microaggressions can be felt in a wide variety of context, more information on the high emotional tax of experiencing racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination in the workplace can be found here. 

Intersectionality

Lastly, it is important to consider the role that intersectionality plays in impacting the experiences of individuals and organizations. Coined by scholar and advocate Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989), the term intersectionality refers to the ways in which the intersecting and overlapping identities of individuals impacts their lives based on their social location, which includes (but is not limited to) one’s race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, religion, age, ability, and citizenship. Intersectionality is both a concept and a tool that can be used to reflect on how the policies and procedures of a system or organization impact individuals with intersecting identities, who may be experiencing multiple, layered forms of oppression and discrimination (Crenshaw, 1989). 

The resources below provide more information on systemic racism, unconscious bias, and microaggressions specific to schools, sports organizations, and workplaces. 

Resources for Schools

• Physical & Health Education Canada’s Anti-Black Racism Resources for K-12 Classrooms

• Lesson Plans from Speak Truth to Power Canada

• Talking About Race & Privilege: Lesson Plan for Middle & High School Students 

• Anti-Oppression/Anti-Racism Resources for Educators 

• • From Early Childhood Educators through to College/University

• School Mental Health Ontario resources for conversations about Anti-Black Racism

Resources for Sports Organizations

• Physical & Health Education Canada’s We Belong Guide
• Anti-Racism Resources from the Sport Information Resource Centre  
• Resources, programs and research from the Black Canadian Coaches Association
• Team Canada Anti-Racism Resources
• WeCoach Diversity, Inclusion & Anti-Racism Resources

Resources for Workplaces

• Understanding Unconscious Bias: Ask Catalyst Express
• What is Unconscious Bias?
• Intersectionality in the Workplace
• Microaggressions in the Workplace
• Implicit Bias Workshop
• How to Combat Unconscious Bias as an Individual
• How to  Combat Unconscious Bias as a Leader in your Organization
• Canadian Anti-Racism Network

References

Catalyst. (2019, December 12). Understanding unconscious bias: Ask Catalyst Express. Retrieved from https://www.catalyst.org/research/unconscious-bias-resources/  

Catalyst. (2014, December 11). What is Unconscious Bias? Retrieved from https://www.catalyst.org/research/infographic-what-is-unconscious-bias/  

Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. u. Chi. Legal f., 139.

Government of Ontario. Glossary. (2020, February 29). Retrieved 

from https://www.ontario.ca/document/data-standards-identification-and-monitoring-systemic-racism/glossary

Montañez, R. (2020, June 11). 10 microaggressions and 5 microinvalidations women of colour are tired of, are you guilty? Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelmontanez/2020/06/11/10-microinsults-and-5-microinvalidations-women-of-color-are-tired-of-are-you-guilty/?sh=7b9ef35f6ea8 

Sue, D. W., Capodilupo, C. M., Torino, G. C., Bucceri, J. M., Holder, A., Nadal, K. L., & Esquilin, M. (2007). Racial microaggressions in everyday life: implications for clinical practice. American psychologist, 62(4), 271.

Bill C-65: Prevention is the Key to Success

 On January 1, 2021, the federal government’s new Workplace Harassment and Violence Prevention Regulations came into effect, along with federal harassment and violence prevention legislation under Bill C-65 (Anandan et al., 2020). The new legislation and regulations pertain to federally-regulated employees and alter the existing anti-harassment and violence framework within the Canadian Labour Code (Anandan et al., 2020). Employers covered by this legislation include those in the federally-regulated public sector, private sector employers engaged in federal work or endeavours, and federal Crown corporations (Anandan et al., 2020). The three core pillars of this anti-harassment and violence in the workplace legislation focus on prevention, response, and support.

The prevention pillar of Bill C-65 and the Regulations address the need for policies, procedures and preventative measures to be implemented by all federally-regulated employers (Anandan et al., 2020). Along with an ‘applicable partner’, identified as an employer’s health and safety committee or representative, the employer is responsible for assessing internal and external risk factors contributing to harassment and violence in the workplace and, within 6 months, developing and executing a plan to implement preventative measures (Anandan et al., 2020). 

The employer and the applicable partner must also jointly develop and implement a workplace violence and prevention policy for all employees (Anandan et al., 2020). Training is a key element of this policy and employers are required to outline and describe the specific workplace harassment and violence training that will be provided to employees (Anandan et al., 2020). Both the preventative measures implementation plan and the workplace harassment violence and prevention policy must be reviewed and updated (as needed) every 3 years (Anandan et al., 2020). 

The Respect in the Workplace program, updated and relaunched in 2019, fulfills and goes beyond the training requirements of Bill-65 and the Regulations. Grounded in a focus on culture change versus check-box compliance, our program helps these policies and training requirements become actionable, while maintaining the safety of the learner. Respect in the Workplace training provides baseline prevention, but also: 

• Foundational education on bullying, abuse, harassment, and discrimination, known as BAHD behaviours
• Standards for physical and psychological safety in the workplace
• Plus actionable tools for both employers and employees to prevent and address maltreatment in the workplace, including a risk management section with information on provincial and federal compliance

In addition, our program was updated in September 2020 to expand upon and explore the important issues of systemic racism, microaggressions, and unconscious bias. 

We encourage employers to see the requirements of Bill C-65 as an opportunity to be leaders in their field and to show their employees that they care by creating and committing to a culture of respect. For more information, please see these additional resources below:

• The Respect in the Workplace Program 
• Bill C-65 Legislative Summary
• Workplace Harassment and Violence Prevention Regulations Overview
• Safe Workspaces in the Public Service 
• Federal government interpretive guidelines on Workplace Harassment and Violence Prevention Regulations 
• Implementing new federal regulations under Bill C-65: Part 1
• Implementing new federal regulations under Bill C-65: Part 2

Source:

Anandan, N., O’Ferrall, K., and Hanson, J. (2020, July 21). Part 1 of 2: Less than 6 months for employers to prepare for the new federal regulations on workplace harassment and violence – changes effective January 1, 2021. Osler. Retrieved from https://www.osler.com/en/blogs/risk/july-2020/part-1-of-2-less-than-6-months-for-employers-to-prepare-for-the-new-federal-regulations-on-workplac 

There are various costs and benefits associated with different jobs and occupations, but one that isn’t widely considered is emotional tax. Emotional tax is the state of being consciously on guard to deal with potential bias or discrimination stemming from factors related to one’s identity, including race, gender, ethnicity, and more (Travis & Thorpe-Moscon, 2018). This tax can be compounded for employees who identify with more than one marginalized group; for example, women of colour often experience both racial and gender bias (Travis & Thorpe-Moscon, 2018). Further, this tax is widespread, with 39% of Black, East Asian and South Asian Canadian professionals report being highly on guard to protect against racial bias (Thorpe-Moscon, Pollack, & Olu-Lafe, 2019). 

Emotional tax has many personal impacts, including effects on employee health and well-being, and strong organizational impacts, particularly through preventing employees from being able to thrive at work (Travis & Thorpe-Moscon, 2018). Of the Canadian professionals surveyed who were highly on guard, 86% aspired to leadership positions in their workplaces and 82% wanted to remain in the same company (Thorpe-Moscon, Pollack, & Olu-Lafe, 2019). Despite their strong drive to succeed and contribute to their organization, the majority of Canadian professionals who experienced high levels of emotional tax were considering quitting their jobs (Thorpe-Moscon, Pollack, & Olu-Lafe, 2019). Clear efforts to bridge this disconnect between employees’ goals of leadership and contribution and their ability to feel safe and respected at work are critical in addressing the high cost of emotional tax in the workplace. 

Workplace leaders play an important role in actively supporting employees and addressing potential reasons for being on guard and working collaboratively towards more inclusive workplaces. Above all, support should be active and expressed, not silent or presumed. A 2019 report from Catalyst identified these strategies leaders can use in the workplace to address and work against emotional tax:

1. Listen:

Create opportunities for open dialogue to discuss differences in the workplace, seeking and acknowledging experiences that bridge differences across employees. 

2. Learn:

Explore the day-to-day instances of inclusion and exclusion experienced by employees, both big and visible and small and subtle- both matter. 

3. Link Up:

Partner with employees to collaborate on meaningful solutions grounded in their expertise and willingness to contribute. The value of employees’ contributions should be identified and shared, both publicly and privately. 

4. Lead:

Both leaders and employees should be both supported in learning and held accountable to enacting inclusive practices, policies, and behaviours in the workplace. 

Additional resources to learn more about emotional tax and inclusivity in the workplace can be found below:

• Day-to-Day Experiences of Emotional Tax in the Workplace Report
  
• These Diagnostic Tools can be used by organizational leaders to provide a deeper understanding of factors that may enhance or inhibit inclusive cultures specific in your workplace
• Our Respect in the Workplace program

Sources:

Thorpe-Moscon, J., Pollack, A., and Olu-Lafe, O. (2019). Empowering Workplaces Combat Emotional Tax for People of Colour in Canada. Retrieved from https://kpmg.pathfactory.com/emotional-tax/emotional-tax-canada 

Travis, D.J., and Thorpe-Moscon, J. (2018). Day-to-Day Experiences of Emotional Tax Among Men and Women of Colour in the Workplace. Retrieved from https://www.catalyst.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/emotionaltax.pdf