The impact on the psychological health and safety of employees matters throughout the employment lifecycle, but can be especially critical at times of hiring, orientation and termination. Even before then, looking at how job design impacts psychological health and safety can be helpful. What follows are tips and strategies to protect all those involved in hiring and firing.
Job design
When designing jobs, consider the following approaches that can help protect and promote psychological health and safety at work:
- Describe detailed task completion processes in ways that have been tested and timed. Include physical and psychological competencies required for each task.
- Provide a realistic estimate of time commitments, including when overtime or additional hours might be required and if or how the employee will be compensated.
- Clearly define the purpose of the role and how it contributes to organizational goals.
- Clearly outline performance metrics and how, when and by whom success will be measured. Avoid unrealistic or constantly changing targets, as these can create stress.
- Specify how and when work contributions will be recognized and rewarded.
- Be clear about expectations for behaviours and language at work, and consequences for violations.
- Specify the policy and processes for dealing with those being served (customers, patients, other departments) including how the employee would be protected from unfair or inappropriate actions.
- Specify any options and processes for flexible work hours, hybrid arrangements, or remote work if applicable.
Recruitment strategies
- Write job descriptions that are clear, relevant, and capture the essential skills and abilities necessary to succeed on the job.
- List essential skills as the requirement rather than credentials, where not a regulatory requirement. This can help ensure those who have work experience versus formal education have an opportunity to be successful candidates.
- Be transparent about contract type, compensation, duration, and any probationary periods.
- Clearly define the purpose of the role and how it contributes to organizational goals.
- Use job titles and pronouns that are gender neutral, such as “server” rather than “waiter” or “waitress”.
- Create an application process that is accessible to all candidates, including those with disabilities, by providing alternative formats or technologies and offering space for candidates to state their accommodation needs.
- Highlight any family-friendly benefits such as flexible scheduling, childcare support, or paid parental leave.
- Remove personal information such as names, gender, and age from resumes during the initial screening to reduce unconscious bias.
- Ask standardized interview questions, meaning all candidates get asked the same things.
- Ask interview questions that centre around behaviours or work samples, rather than opinions or self-assessments.
- Where relevant, use inclusive employment agencies and resources, such as:
- Access Employment Services. Employment services for newcomers and employers
- Autism Ontario. E-learning and other resources for building inclusive workplaces
- Canadian National Institute for the Blind. Employment services for people who are visually impaired, and employers
- The Inclusive Workplace. Employment services dedicated to inclusive workplaces, for people on the autism spectrum or who have an intellectual disability
- March of Dimes. Employment services for people with physical disabilities, and employers
- Ready Willing & Able. Employment services for people with intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorder, and employers
- Mental Health Commission of Canada. A toolkit to help employers build an inclusive workplace
- Ontario Pay Equity Commission. Provides guidance on how you can ensure job ads aren’t excluding people based on gender
- Alberta Workforce Essential Skills Society | PDF. A workbook you can use to consider how your organization can build an inclusion plan for newcomers
Job interview tips
Before the interview:
- Ensure interviewers are aware of how their body language, eye contact, interpersonal skills and interviewing techniques can be optimized to be supportive of all candidates.
- Give each candidate::
- an idea of how long the interview will be
- the style of interview:
- in-person, on the phone, or online/virtual
- with one interviewer or more
- on their own or with multiple candidates
- a single or multiple interview process
- how the information they provide might be shared, why and with whom
- sample questions that will be asked
- any job-related testing that will be requested
- clear and complete instructions to successfully log in (if the interview is virtual)
- The interview location should be comfortable in terms of seating, lighting, ventilation and temperature
- In both in-person and online settings, minimize distractions and interruptions.
During the interview:
- Welcome the candidate by name
- Introduce them to everyone in the room or online
- Have them introduce themselves
- Offer a brief overview of the interview process
- Ask if they have any questions before you begin
- When you have concluded your questions, ask if they have any questions for you
- Give the date by which they can expect a decision from you
- Thank them for being part of the interview
Hiring decision tips:
- Use recruiters and hiring managers trained to understand diverse cultures and backgrounds, recognize unconscious bias in hiring decisions or processes, and conduct fair assessments.
- Conduct regular audits to assess the diversity and inclusivity of the recruitment process and make data-driven improvements.
- Evaluate only those skills necessary for the job when assessing the candidate’s ability to perform on the job.
- Consider volunteer and internship experiences along with job history.
- If checking foreign employment references is tricky, accept local references (for example references from local schools, community organizations, volunteer roles, etc. that have worked with the candidate in this country).
Orientation strategies
Psychologically safe orientation strategies has tips to enhance the orientation process for new employees or current employees taking on new roles. Ideas and strategies that foster connection, provide clear expectations and support each employee’s growth within the organization are included.
Performance management
Performance management has many resources for supporting performance in a psychologically safe way, even when mental health is an issue. These strategies focus on solutions that also support employee well-being.
Termination
Terminating employees can be done in a psychologically safer way. Termination of an employee will always include some level of stress for all concerned- certainly for the employee who is being let go, but potentially also for the person responsible for letting them know, their leader and their co-workers. Termination and layoff planning has many strategies to help minimize the risks to psychological safety.
Additional resources
These are just a few of the issues employers and human resources professionals deal with. Many more strategies, tools and resources are available in Organizational strategies which focuses on policies and programs, and People leader approaches which focuses on employee concerns and team building.