Corporate Resources

Support to Human Resources

Janus Associates has been offering assistance to employees referred by human resources and occupational health personnel since 1976. Prompt intervention and counselling can turn a situation around, so that health, productivity and morale are returned to satisfactory levels.

Do you know the costs to an organization of anxiety and depression?

    • Costs are mostly indirect (63%)
    • People with depression have 5 times greater increase in lost work time
    • 8/10 Canadian workers experience more than two months of decreased productivity due to       anxiety and depression
    • Symptoms of psychological problems are associated with higher absenteeism
    • Absenteeism declines with successful diagnosis and treatment
    • Drug and alcohol abuse costs Albertans $1 billion and $1.6 billion respectively

Early intervention can also save the organization money through the reduction of short- and long-term disability claims. Janus Associates has helped Human Resources personnel successfully manage a range of critical issues including:

    • Assessing and coordinating treatment for drug and alcohol issue
    • Managing threats of violence including verbal abuse and psychological harassment
    • Managing workplace harassment
    • Providing psychological insight to emotional and physical problems in the disability       management process
    • Assessment of workplace stressors and the management of presenteeism

Support in Critical Incidents

Janus Associates provides a 24 hour/7 day a week emergency call line for critical incidents. If your company experiences a workplace injury, death, or a distressing incident, Janus Associates can provide you with psychological incident management and crisis counselling to your employees, their families and their community. Our medical answering service forwards emergency calls to the on call professional.

Support to Occupational Health and Disability Management

Click here to view articles on disability management.

Janus Associates has a comprehensive approach to disability management that follows a three stage model: Formulate, Follow, Finalize. We emphasize collaborative problem solving among professionals on a disability management team including the employee. Janus treatment professionals will provide a thorough psychological assessment including, where indicated, psychological testing. Our professionals will then provide recommendations as to anticipated time off work and specific accommodations required upon return to work. We will continue to follow the employee and engage with the disability management team until return to functional capacity has been achieved.

Support for Substance Use Management

Janus Associates has some of the most qualified substance use assessment and treatment experts available. Our treatment professionals are available to assess the degree of impairment related to substance use and to provide and coordinate treatment. We have a comprehensive two-year follow up process that ensures the maximum possibility of success for an employee and their company.

Support to Safety

Click here to read the Guarding Minds at Work paper on the legal and regulatory case for psychological safety at work.

Click here to see the 10 Elements of a Safety Culture.

Click here to view the psychological foundations of safety.

Click here to take the Fatigue Severity Scale.

In Canada 1,097 workers were killed in job-related activity (illness and accidents) in 2005. That is an average of five deaths per average working day, making Canada’s workplace fatality rate one of the highest in the industrialized world. In addition, according to Statistics Canada in 2007, workplace injuries were reported in well over half a million Canadian Workers. According to the Workers Compensation Board, factoring in direct and indirect costs, the total costs of occupational injuries to the Canadian economy, can now be estimated to be more than $19 billion annually. It is critical to economic, physical, and mental health that workplaces address safety.
 Our practical experience in the drivers of safety behavior in workers reflects research findings in the past year.  We know that simply measuring behavior and providing consequences is not enough to change safety behavior. Research shows that a combination of strategies is needed to create a positive safety culture. These include: daily observations, focused on workgroups, and the utilization of participative goals with multiple feedback mechanisms. The use of such combinations is suggested to reduce injuries by 50-60% and realize average financial benefits of about $260,000.00 per 200,000 hours worked. It is clear that such processes require strong management support, leadership that cares about people, and modeling of safety behavior.   Research providing insights in 2010 includes:

• Attention to safety is increased with a style of leadership called ‘transformational leadership.’ This style of leadership is comprised of four leader behaviors: high standards of moral conduct, communication of positive, value-based vision for the future state of the organization and its employees, encouragement to challenge organizational norms and think creatively, and recognition of the unique needs of followers. This type of leadership was shown to improve employee safety behaviors and safety outcomes.

• Individuals in hazardous occupations often feel the least empowered at work because of the high degree of behavioral control required in these settings. Research has shown that supervisors have significant influence in helping employees feel empowered by soliciting suggestions through exchanges with employees that show interest in employee well-being and through supervisor’s own modeling of safety practices. Employees who see themselves as having an influence on the administrative, strategic, or operating outcomes at work and who identified with their organization reported being more likely to perform safety behaviors. These behaviors often involved attempting to influence the behavior of others in the organization and getting involved in the management of safety.

Another study demonstrated that two approaches are required to positively impact safety. The first is to provide the resources to complete a job safely and ensuring that the demands of the job are reasonable. Where job demands are high, safety violations are likely to occur when there is an effort associated with it. A tired worker will take short cuts and a tired worker is a distracted worker. Distraction is a significant cause of workplace accidents as is fatigue. The second approach required is ensuring that management commitment to safety is visible. This means that management must be visible on sites, talk with workers about their concerns, and provide resources for a safe work site. This means providing programs that assess and provide skills to manage attention and focus, fatigue, and substance use.