Evidence-based actions for psychological competencies and demands

A 2021 survey of 5,500 working Canadians by Mental Health Research Canada found that only 39% of respondents feel their employer has prepared them for the psychological demands of their job (Mental Health Research Canada, 2021).

These strategies and resources can help your employees prepare for potential psychological demands at work.

Description: In a work environment where psychological competencies and demands are not a health risk, employees are continuously supported to meet the psychological demands of their position. 

Access our free workshop materials – start a discussion with your team on how to deal with emotional and psychological demands of their job. 

Consider interpersonal and emotional competencies, technical skills and knowledge in hiring and promotion decisions. 

• Interview for interpersonal competencies. For example, for leadership positions, consider whether they can foster and maintain healthy working relationships. Strong emotional intelligence can contribute to psychologically safe leadership strategies.
  
  • Leaders should be able to manage emotions and relationships and solve interpersonal problems at work.
  • Consider potential and existing leaders’ approaches to inclusion. Ask the questions in Are you an inclusive leader?
  • To improve your hiring and promotion approach, leverage the Interviewing template | PDF from the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction.
  • Find interview questions that focus on emotional intelligence on www.positivepsychology.com. 
• Ask team members to list the most relevant people skills for a team or leadership position, and their reasons. This information can help with recruiting and identify any existing team dynamics to address. 
• Provide guidelines on how to evaluate psychological competencies an applicant needs for the specific position.   
  
  • Refer to these strategies and tips from human resources professionals on emotional intelligence. This is especially important when interviewing for a supervisory or management position. 
• In your orientation process, make sure to include the expectation that every employee must contribute to a psychologically safe workplace. 
  
  • Employees' role in psychological health and safety is a free resource that can help you do this and track completion. 
  • Provide ongoing feedback, training and support during the probationary period for new hires. There are resources to make onboarding more effective. For example, the Immigrant Employment Council of B.C. offers this toolkit for Onboarding newcomers | PDF. It offers strategies that can help all new employees. 
• Let employees explore internal positions that may better match their interpersonal and emotional competencies, when possible. This can include job-shadowing or career-development discussions.  
• Keep in regular contact with employees, even those working remotely, by using this 1:1 template | PDF to review their current work experience.
• Let employees explore internal positions that may better match their interpersonal and emotional competencies. This can include job-shadowing or career-development discussions. Share this Career review outline with an employee or discuss it with them.

Ensure job descriptions include accurate psychological demands. 

• Make required interpersonal and emotional competencies part of all job descriptions. Ask employees already in these jobs to review and confirm that these competencies are accurate and complete. 
  
  • The Government of Nunavut | PDF uses a helpful template. 
  • Once created, allow potential candidates to review the detailed competency requirements. 

Review organizational policies and processes from a trauma-informed lens. 

• The information in Trauma in organizations can help reduce the negative mental health effects from exposure to both expected and unexpected traumatic incidents at work. 

Employees’ job demands are always changing. Help them develop and maintain the psychological competencies they need. 

• Review the psychological demands of the job regularly with each employee. Ensure that any risks or threats to psychological safety are identified and mitigated. Use the tips in Protect your team from psychological injury to help.
• Prepare employees to handle both the usual and the less familiar psychological demands of the job. For example, those who deal with the public such as librarians, bus drivers, baristas or store clerks may need to deal with someone who’s violent. While this may only happen sometimes, it’s still a possibility. You're more confident facing unexpected events when prepared. 
• Name, claim and reframe: Personal stress tools includes a presentation, facilitator guide and participant handouts. You can facilitate a workshop that helps improve the ability to identify and respond to stressors.
• Perform regular and collaborative performance evaluations. Provide constructive feedback about interpersonal and emotional behaviour.  
• Refer to Performance management for tips on how to do this. 

Offer ongoing opportunities to leaders and employees on social and emotional skills development.

• Social and emotional skills are developed through lifelong learning and evolve with circumstances, such as job demands. While formal training programs may be effective, they can also be expensive and time consuming. Share information available for free online and in your community. Here are a few ideas:  
  
  • Team activities help build resilience and emotional intelligence. 
    
    • Team building activities include various exercises that can help employees: 
      
      • Respond more effectively to workplace stressors 
      • Help resolve issues 
      • Support each other  
  • Develop a culture that understands and values emotional intelligence – make it a criterion for: 
    
    • Recruitment 
    • Selection 
    • Recognition or reward 
    • Promotion  
    • Emotional intelligence in organizations has helpful resources. 
  • Provide ongoing training in interpersonal and emotional skills – especially for highly demanding positions. 
    
    • Building stronger teams has a section on Supporting effective team leaders | PDF. 
  • o    Discuss how values align with each employee’s role by taking the top three to six results from a Personal values assessment.  Identify and understand how personal values can impact stress at work. You could do this with the Identify your values team activity.
  • Discuss your organization’s professional values with employees. This can help them better understand how their values contribute to their work. By being aware of others' values, you can get a better understanding of their behaviours. If someone is required to compromise their values at work, it can lead to stress and conflict.
    
    • Fill out the work values test.  
    • Once values are established, discuss how you can improve alignment in the workplace. 

Additional actions and resources  

• Psychological health and safety policy recommendations – review to see where you can improve psychological health and safety. 
• Evidence for psychological health and safety – learn how factors that impact psychological health and safety also have a positive impact on business goals and objectives. 

Putting psychological competencies and demands on the agenda – materials to support a team discussion on approaches to psychological competencies and demands, and policy review and development.

Adapted from Guarding Minds at Work™

Guarding Minds at Work™ was commissioned by Canada Life and additional resources are supported by Workplace Strategies for Mental Health.

Share this tool with anyone who want to ensure their team is their employees are prepared for the psychological competencies and demands their roles may require.