What is Healthy Workplace?
Carleton University’s Healthy Workplace is an exciting program that is bringing workplace health to all Carleton faculty and staff. The program is based on exhaustive research on wellness and recognition practices throughout the university community. The Healthy Workplace Committee and the Healthy Workplace Champions, comprised of staff from all over campus, seek to make Carleton a healthy and enjoyable place to work.
One of the three strategic directions of Carleton’s Strategic Integrated Plan (SIP) 2020-2025 is Strive for Wellness. Strive for Sustainability. The SIP states: “We will strive to enhance personal wellness and health. Carleton chooses a holistic, campus-wide approach to personal wellness and health
for students, faculty, staff and the community. We will encourage a focus on mental health, purpose, activity, resilience and togetherness so that we and our communities may thrive.”
Healthy Workplace Mission
Healthy Workplace encourages Carleton University faculty and staff to champion positive physical and mental health, build meaningful social connections, foster personal and collective resilience, explore opportunities for personal growth, and enjoy work-life balance.
Healthy Workplace Vision
Carleton University is an exemplary workplace where all faculty and staff thrive both as individuals and as a community.
How will we get there?
Excellence Canada is a non-profit Canadian organization that offers a comprehensive and practical four step certification process to help organizations implement and maintain a healthy workplace. The Excellence Canada models for Healthy Workplace and Mental Health at Work have allowed Carleton to form a foundation of excellence as well as a long-term strategy for creating a workplace culture of trust and respect. Carleton has embarked on this excellence journey to ensure that we are using the best practices possible to create and sustain a work environment where employees feel valued, motivated, and engaged.
Dimensions of Well-Being
The Healthy Workplace Committee recognizes that there are various dimensions that can influence an individual’s well-being and thereby impact a Healthy Workplace culture. These dimensions are not independent, but rather interdependent and interconnected. The following dimensions of wellness that impact health and well-being will assist in developing Healthy Workplace programming and planning.
- Mental – Mental health is about fostering the development of positive mental health by supporting individual and collective resilience, creating supportive and inclusive environments and addressing the influence of the broader determinants of mental health within the workplace.
- Physical – Physical health includes everything ranging from the absence of disease to fitness level. While physical health consists of many components, there are some key areas that should be addressed, including: physical activity, nutrition and diet, medical self-care, rest and sleep, physical safety, and hydration.
- Professional – A healthy work environment is created when employees are given opportunities for personal, intellectual and professional growth in a manner where resources are perceived to be fairly distributed. Collaboration and conversations are key to this dimension and lead to employees being “professionally” healthy.
- Social – Social health fosters a sense of uniqueness as well as belonging and purpose. Culture is created, reinforced, and sustained by ongoing patterns of relationships and communications that are known to have an important influence on psychological health and safety. The ability of the culture to adapt to increasing diversity is also essential to social health. Social connections and community are imperative for social health.
Guiding Principles
Carleton University develops and maintains policies, practices and programs that contribute to a physically and psychologically safe and healthy workplace based on the following Guiding Principles:
- Guiding Principle 1: Both the institution and the individual play key roles in promoting and maintaining a physically and psychologically safe and healthy workplace.
- Guiding Principle 2: A physically and psychologically safe and healthy workplace is based on a culture of respect, trust, honesty, fairness and inclusivity.
- Guiding Principle 3: Workplace health and well-being initiatives are based on best practices and are regularly reviewed and evaluated in order to sustain a supportive culture and relevant programming.
Carleton University’s Healthy Workplace Policy can be found on the University Policies page of the University Secretariat website.