School Boards Co-operative Inc.

1.    Accountability and Commitment of Senior Management and Key Interested Parties

The Director of Education and Senior Management (e.g., Executive Council) are key parties that must be assigned accountability and provide commitment to the development, implementation and evaluation of an effective Workplace Support Program. This will ensure a healthy workplace culture which, in turn, will optimize staff well-being and student achievement.

The school board’s vision or mission statement should reference the well-being of staff and students. This leads to the requirement of a strategic business approach for the development and maintenance of a Workplace Support Program.

Plan design impacts utilization and can influence the success of a Workplace Support Program. School boards must have effective administrative processes to ensure fair and consistent access to sick leave. This includes clearly defined and broadly communicated criteria for the access to or appropriate use of sick leave.

Workplace Support Programs must be compliant with relevant legislation and case law and not conflict with collective agreements. Relevant legislation includes but is not limited to: Human Rights Code, Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, Occupational Health and Safety Act, Canada Labour Code and, privacy legislation. Case law related to Workplace Support Programs is constantly evolving. It is therefore essential that the program is reviewed regularly to ensure ongoing compliance.

Policies and procedures provide the framework for a fair and consistent Workplace Support Program. The program policy must support the vision as it relates to healthy workplaces and staff well-being. The procedures ensure that day-to-day processes are in place and define roles, responsibilities, program expectations and outcomes. They must be reviewed regularly to evaluate their effectiveness and to maintain alignment with required compliance.

Comprehensive communication and training must be planned, developed and in place prior to implementation of a Workplace Support Program. This must be ongoing to ensure all interested parties remain well informed.

Some level of joint labour-management collaboration is necessary for a successful Workplace Support Program to be built and maintained. The school board has the responsibility to manage absences. However, both the organizational needs and the employee’s rights need to be addressed. When labour and management’s perspectives differ, there must be a defined process for resolution that does not impede the management of absences.

Appropriate resources are essential for the effective administration and management of a Workplace Support Program. These resources must be of adequate numbers and have appropriate knowledge and skill set to meet the complexity of program parameters. Internal and external resources should be accessed, as required, to support the program.

This includes benchmarking, timely and accurate absence reporting, effective and consistent absence tracking, and accessible absence reports. Effective and efficient processes for absence reporting and tracking are essential for a Workplace Support Program. Quality control and administrative processes must be maintained to produce absence data reports to trigger interventions, evaluate the program and highlight future improvement opportunities.

Case management is a collaborative process which assesses, plans, implements, coordinates, monitors and evaluates services required to meet an individual’s health needs using communication and available resources to promote quality, cost effective outcomes. The duration of absences and the associated costs can be reduced by an effective case management process. Case management activities must be customized on a case-by-case basis, whether attendance support (sporadic absences) or disability support (consecutive absences).

Employers must monitor and evaluate their Workplace Support Program regularly from both a quantitative and a qualitative perspective.  The findings will identify what is working well or where they are program gaps or roadblocks. This provides an opportunity to develop focused strategies for ongoing improvements to the program. Results should be communicated and shared with key interested parties.

To truly support your employees and address your significant costs of absenteeism, you must ensure that there are programs in place that provide proactive measures to support employee health and wellbeing as well as provide timely intervention when absences that meet a defined criterion occur. This includes Attendance Support and Mental Health and Wellbeing programming.