Minutes of the Well-being National Advisory Committee (WB-NAC)

Workplace Relations and Compensation Directorate (WRCD)

•  Natalie Waples, Chair and Director General, WRCD
• Marc Bellavance, Director, Well-being and Occupational Health and Safety Division (WOHSD)  
• Kyla McGuire, Assistant Director, Well-being Section
• Genevieve Maurice, Manager, Employee Assistance Program (EAP), Policy and Programs
• Lisa Beaulieu-Picard, Clinical Manager, EAP
• Fanny Poncin, Manager, National Informal Conflict Resoltuion (ICR) Program Office
• Natalie Cherryholme, Senior Analyst, Early Intervention and Return to Work
• Lise Breau-Emond, Manager, National Well-being Office
• Katelin Pepper, Senior Project Officer and Secretariat

Management Representatives

• Pam Vendette on behalf of Jonathan Carty, A/Director, Northern Ontario TSO
• Pansy Leung, A/Director General, Information and Data Directorate, Service, Innovation and Integration (SIIB) Branch

Union-Management Relations (UMR)

• Khaled Messaoudi, Analyst

Guest(s)

• Jaime Robinson, Assistant Director, Occupational Health and Safety Program

Welcome and Opening Remarks

• The Chair welcomed the committee and conducted a roll call for the WRCD members.
• The Chair introduced management representatives and welcomed Pam Vendette on behalf of new management representative Jonathan Carty.
• Members were reminded that UMA principles of mutual trust and respect, and a commitment to be constructive, fair, sensitive and courteous in our dealings with each other, would be followed. When items outside the scope of this committee are raised, they will be redirected to the appropriate forum.
• Members were invited to speak in the official language of their choice.
• AFS and UTE gave brief opening remarks.

Amendments to the Terms of Reference (ToR)

• The Chair thanked those who provided feedback on the ToR. The changes were sent to committee members in April 2024.
• UTE pointed out that there was a sentence under Section 2: Scope that had been removed. UMR explained that the sentence in question was from a two year old version of the ToR that would have been submitted for Committee’s review and discussed at the previous meetings. The sentence in question is “In cases of unresolved local or regional issues related to EAP, ICR or EIRTW, the Committee may provide advice or direction; however, resolution of these issues will be addressed through regular Union-Management consultation processes at the Regional or Branch level.”
  This section has been added back to the terms of reference.
• Under Section 3: Composition, UTE requested adding a Call Centre representative to join the committee. The Chair agreed that this was a good suggestion. This item has since been actioned.
• UTE also expressed that it would be a good idea to change the Annex to only include positions rather than name persons, as management representatives are often changing.
• The Chair made a commitment to follow-up on these suggestions in an ad-hoc discussion.

Program Updates

Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

• The EAP newsletters on topics related to mental health and well-being continue to be promoted on a monthly basis to all CRA employees by means of a news item.
• The EAP also published information in the EX Newsletter and the HR newsletter on several occasions on topics related to mental health or to promote a designated day/week.
• The EAP highlighted Bell Let’s Talk Day (January 24, 2024) and Mental Health Week (MHW) (May 6 to 12, 2024). National messages were posted to InfoZone as spotlight items. On both occasions, the InfoZone banner was reserved to promote the day or week. For MHW, a table of regional activities was created and promoted at a national level to increase participation rates. Over 2,000 employees participated in events organized for MHW this year.
• The National EAP Office shared that they are organizing their very first National EAP Orientation Sessions that will take place on June 25 in English and June 26 in French from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST.  The EAP manager asked the unions to help promote these sessions. As an update, these sessions have since been held with 569 participants in the English session and 102 in the French session. More than 120 client satisfaction questionnaires were received and the majority of the comments were very positive.
• UTE asked how we can ensure that employees who work in call centres are aware of events/ training opportunities and have a chance to participate. The Assistant Director for Well-being asked the table for suggestions on how to ensure that this group has the same opportunities to participate in training, as other CRA employees. This may be an agenda item for a future meeting.
• “Suicide Prevention: What to say and how to say it” is a new factsheet for employees found on the Well-being Self-directed learning page. It will be posted on the Suicide awareness, prevention and support page on InfoZone. This page will be revamped and promoted, as well as the new factsheet, during World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10, 2024.
• NEAPO and senior management are reviewing the issue of clients not showing up to their Homewood Health appointments or cancelling too late. They are actively trying to find solutions that would help reduce occurrences.
• UTE is very pleased with the work EAP is doing. The EAP Manager reminded unions that they could contact her directly should they want to include EAP content or contact information in their messaging.
• The Manager stated that EAP is now invited to present during the HRB Orientation Session for new HRB employees. The session took place on June 19^th. ICR was also invited to present.

Informal Conflict Resolution Program (ICR)

• Leadership and learning division (LLD) is expecting finalizing the review of Conflict Resolution Conversations (CRC) – Part 1 (facilitator-led and online) over the summer. Once CRC Part 1 has been completed, we will start the review of CRC part 2.
• ICR is currently reviewing their 90 minute Trust Workshop and it is set to be ready this fall.
• In collaboration with the Performance Management team, the ICR Program is developing a new national workshop on Giving and Receiving Feedback.
• A new tipsheet about communicating with intention is available on  InfoZone.
• Each year, ICR develops a communication plan focusing on lessening the stigma of accessing ICR services, the benefits of addressing conflict, raising awareness about conflict being a natural part of human interaction and highlighting that ICR services are impartial and confidential.
• ICR has been delivering quarterly their program overview presentation in both official languages These are promoted nationally on the CRA calendar of events and have high attendance rates.
• Conflict Resolution Day will take place on October 17, 2024.
• In May 2023, ICR participated in a panel for leaders, managers and executiveswith Character Leadership during the International Coaching week to help promote Conflict Coaching. .
• The ICR Program provides articles on various ICR topics for newsletters such as HRB this Month, What’s New in HR, and the EXGN Newsletter.
• ICR practitioners have been promoting the services by participating in quarterly orientation sessions for new and returning HRB employees. The next one is in English on June 19, 2024.
• UTE asked about the stats of the participants who participate in the ICR sessions. For example, can we see if employees from the call centres are attending the sessions. The ICR Manager thanked UTE for their question and will follow up.

Early Intervention Return to Work (EIRTW) 

• The Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) passport tool is being introduced so employees can identify situations in which they encounter barriers in the workplace, the specifics of those barriers, and potential solutions. Its purpose is to give employees another means of starting the conversation with their supervisor about their accommodation needs. The expected launch in March was delayed due to accessibility issues with the digital version. The passport remains available in Microsoft Word. HRB is looking to publish an update message on InfoZone.
• Process to determine solutions for accommodation has not changed with the return to the office. If accommodation includes full time telework, then it now requires ML-02 approval.
• UTE expressed that people who had permanent agreements prior to the pandemic are being sent to EIRTW, so those employees have to go through the process again. The Senior Analyst explained that employees who received approval prior to the pandemic would have had an ML-02 review the situation.
• A renewal process has been introduced for when initial approvals of full-time telework as an accommodation come to an end (approval is for a maximum of one year). If the employee’s personal and professional circumstances have not changed, all that will need to be submitted for ML2 approval is an attestation (no prescribed form) along with the original form. The attestation is not a form, but an email to the supervisor indicating that the situation hasn't changed and that their accommodation is still working.
• In light of commitments in the CRA’s Accessibility Plan and the Strategy for Recruitment, Onboarding, and Retention of Persons with Disabilities, the corporate EIRTW team is exploring potential process improvements that will raise awareness of, and bring efficiencies to the EIRTW accommodation process.

National Well-being Office

• The Manager announced that they are meeting with the Board of Management in June further to a request for information on how the CRA will tailor its approach to well-being and psychological health and safety based on 2022 Public Service Employee Survey (PSES) data. She provided a summary of the PSES data with how CRA is doing with respect to the workplace factors. Workload management is the lowest scoring factor at CRA and all the public service.
• The Manager spoke about the Ontario pilot and engaging in experimentation and co-design to test new well-being tools and resources. There is a lot of interest around awareness of the 13 workplace factors for employees.
• The NWBO continues to publish articles on topics related to well-being in HRB this Month, and What’s New in HR. New courses from CSPS have been added to the Well-being self-directed learning webpage on InfoZone.

Discussion of EAP statistics

• The EAP yearly statistical report was not shared with attendees prior to the meeting, but was sent by email afterwards. The delay was attributed to a new collaboration between the EAP and the Data Division to process and compile the data.
• The EAP Clinical Manager conducted a brief overview of the statistics and answered questions from the committee members.

Round table

• UTE expressed their interest in increasing collaboration and support with the programs.

Closing Remarks

• The Chair, UTE, and AFS gave closing remarks.
• The next meeting will be held in the fall of 2024, and members were encouraged to submit any agenda items when the call comes out before the meeting.