WorkShift

We all know that exercise is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. We also know that a lack of exercise can lead to a whole host of health conditions that can affect quality of life at home and at work. Research has found that organizations where employers work in sedentary environments, are seeing a decline in the health and wellness of their workforce. This decline not only leads to increased absences, lifestyle related diseases, stress and employee disengagement, but it can also impact occupational injury risks and contribute to less productivity, greater turnover and a loss of return on investment.Our prosperity as a province depends in large measure on the overall health and wellness of our people. Encouraging healthy behaviours isn't just the responsibility of healthcare providers. As leaders and employers, we have a role to play. In episode 7 of our Workshift podcast, former WCB CEO and Host Stuart MacLean talks to Dr. Jonathan Fowles and Dr. Robert Strang about the importance of physical activity and how leaders can help their workers be more active, and more healthy at work.Dr. Fowles is the director of the Center of Lifestyle Studies at Acadia University in Wolfville. His work is focused on the implementation of physical activity guidelines into practice. He spearheaded initiatives with many regional national and international organizations, such as Diabetes Canada, Nova Scotia Health, the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology and Exercise is Medicine.Dr. Strang is well known to all Nova Scotians as our Chief Medical Officer. His knowledgeable leadership and compassion has helped guide our province through the pandemic. Dr. Strang began his career in Nova Scotia’s health care system in 1999, as the Medical Officer of Health for the Capital District Health Authority. He then joined the government of Nova Scotia in 2007, as the acting deputy chief medical officer of health of the Department of Health Promotion, and then he eventually became the chief medical officer of health as we all know him today. Dr. Strang is a passionate advocate for physical activity as part of a healthy lifestyle, which in turn supports better health and wellness outcomes and reduces the incidence of preventable diseases. KEY QUOTES“If  we all move more and met the minimum guidelines of activity on a weekly basis, the impact we would have on the populations, physical and mental health would be quite profound.” - Dr. Robert Strang“It doesn't matter where your entry point is, moving a little bit more improves your health. You don't have to get to a threshold of 30 minutes in a day for it to suddenly be beneficial.” - Dr. Jonathan Fowles “People learn better when they have good nutrition, when they're active during their learning day. All of that promotes better learning outcomes.” - Dr. Robert Strang “One of the ways to relieve burnout tension is to give people control, and to invite social connectedness so that they have support and can build their resilience from their communities.” - Dr. Jonathan Fowles What they’ll talk aboutFor employers to be more healthy at work, leaders need to create and facilitate a culture that encourages physical activity in ways that are manageable for everyone. A little goes a long way, but it’s up to leaders to prioritize this. Dr. Robert Strang and Dr. Jonathan Fowles discuss the benefits of incorporating physical activity into daily routines, and how it can impact many areas of life - which will only lead to a stronger, healthier work environment. Dr. Strang and Dr. Fowles also talk about why the pandemic has forced leaders and employees to re-evaluate priorities, and why recognition is important in strengthening community in the workplace.WHAT YOU’LL LEARNPhysical Activity Is Impactful and ManageableMoving more in our daily life has positive impacts on physical and mental health. Encouraging employees to meet the minimum guidelines of activity can easily become a daily routine in any workplace or home life situation. Including Movement In Our Everyday Routines Improves Many Areas of LifeDoing a little is better than doing nothing. Doing more is better than a little. Overall, moving more in our daily life will have profound impacts across all areas, including physical and mental health, education, work, family and social connections in the long term. Wellness Creates Community and Recognition in the WorkplaceProviding a workplace culture that facilitates physical activity will strengthen social connections and support amongst employees. Rewarding and recognizing these efforts will build an even stronger community in the workplace as a whole.  Make sure you follow WorkShift, a podcast from the Workers' Compensation Board that helps to rewrite the narrative on what makes a healthy, safe and successful workplace.

01-24

39:23

" When we started this podcast, we wanted to invite people into those meeting rooms, and give them a chance to hear directly from the change-makers and hopefully inspire leaders to continue these important conversations in their own workplaces." - Shelley RowanAfter 36 years with Worker's Compensation Board and 10 years as CEO, Stuart MacLean has retired and has moved on to a new position with Emera as Vice President of Safety and Environment.In this episode, Stuart MacLean speaks with Shelley Rowan, interim CEO of the Workers Compensation Board of Nova Scotia, who will be taking over the role of host of the Workshift podcast. Shelley gives listeners the opportunity to hear directly from leaders, while also inspiring those leaders to continue important safety conversations in their workplaces.Together, they discuss what makes a good safety leader, the value of podcasting to initiate conversations, Stuart's highlights as host and what lies ahead for Workshift, including an episode featuring Dr. Robert Strang and Dr. Jonathan Fowles.Make sure you follow Workshift, a podcast from the Workers Compensation Board, that's helping to rewrite the narrative on what makes a healthy, safe and successful workplace.To learn more visit: https://www.worksafeforlife.ca

12-26

10:28

Whether you’re a leader or someone who enjoys inspiring conversations, WorkShift will change the way you think about work. Shelley Rowan, interim CEO of the Workers Compensation Board of Nova Scotia, speaks with leaders in workplace safety about health, safety, but most of all, leadership in a world that is constantly changing. You will hear the stories behind their successes, and their failures, and how they’re meeting the same challenges you may be facing.It’s been said that we learn from experience. But we can learn a lot more when we add the experiences of others to our own.To learn more visit: https://www.worksafeforlife.ca/

12-22

01:43

In the face of new challenges in the workforce, leaders are being asked to do more today to ensure their workplaces are more physically and mentally safer than ever before. With the exiting of Baby Boomers and industry labour shortages, leaders are being tested in new ways.How do we ensure our skilled workers are healthy and safe at work? How do we have employees return to work in a meaningful way? How do we attract new workers with innovative technology on the rise?Many leaders are turning to innovative approaches to help them face these challenges.In episode 6 of our Workshift podcast, WCB CEO Stuart MacLean talks to MJ MacDonald, CEO of Construction Safety Nova Scotia about how leaders are leaning in to address our new workplace realities.Driven by a passion for workplace health and safety, MJ MacDonald is forging a new path for safety in the construction sector. She has worked as a senior leader in the public and private sectors for three decades. Two years into her role as CEO at Construction Safety, she has led the organization in the development of its new strategic plan.What they’ll talk aboutTo face new challenges, leaders need new ways to ensure safe workplaces to retain and attract new employees. MJ and Stuart discuss the changing landscape of safety with an added awareness of mental health at all levels. That means, in part, matching the right people with the right jobs, helping employees see their value, and ensuring they have meaningful work. MJ also stressed the importance of having a safety framework in place to make workplaces safer. What you’ll learnMental Health Awareness in the Construction SectorSafety Associations help to raise awareness, education and training at all levels by incorporating mental health supports and tools into all required courses. Normalizing this support provides a cumulative effect of awareness that will create open dialogue amongst workers.New Solutions to New Industry Challenges Obtaining a certificate of recognition makes companies 20% more safe than others, leading to greater work opportunities. Matching ability and knowledge to job openings across sectors will create work that is meaningful and will contribute to a prosperous economy.The Exciting Future of ConstructionEmbracing innovative areas of technology in the workplace will help alleviate a lot of the pressure and forces on workers and bring greater efficiency to worksites and administrative functions. Adopting innovation in construction will also contribute to attracting new workers to an exciting industry.A Safe Culture Starts with LeadersCulture needs to start with leaders. It’s critical that leaders have words and actions that are aligned with their team’s values, with safety being the top priority. If leaders put themselves in the position of workers, this helps to enforce a simpler approach to safety: if it’s not safe for our families, it’s not safe.Make sure you follow WorkShift, a podcast from the Workers' Compensation Board that helps to rewrite the narrative on what makes a healthy, safe and successful workplace.

11-24

21:55

Storytelling is one of the most compelling forms of communication and often the best way to ensure vital information is absorbed by the people you are trying to reach. In episode 5 of our Workshift podcast, WCB CEO Stuart MacLean talks to Martin Lesperance about the effectiveness of storytelling in workplace safety, especially for those in leadership roles, and for young people who are just entering the workforce.Martin Lesperance is a firefighter/EMR and paramedic who has become one of the leading safety speakers in North America. He deals head-on with the topic of workplace safety with a unique and humorous style and light-hearted approach, effectively conveying the message that safety is vital. He sees first-hand and on a daily basis the results that happen from a split second of carelessness, so he has dedicated his time to prevent injuries from happening in the first place, rather than respond to and attend to the injured person after they have been hurt.Key quotes“So you have to ask questions. And if you get that gut feeling like this is dangerous, don't let peer pressure force you into doing something that can ruin your life, or it can end your life.” Martin Lesperance“Understand the impact that storytelling can have on leaders, being more authentic and creating these safe workplaces that we all would like to see for the families of people who are going to work. We want them all to come home safely at the end of the day.” Stuart MacLeanWhat they’ll talk aboutStorytelling has always been fundamental to nations, societies, and culture because stories help us make sense of what's happening around us. Within organizations, stories can bring dry, abstract concepts and numbers to life, and make them more relatable. They can also help leaders, and in particular safety leaders, communicate better with the people that they lead. Impactful StorytellingStories can often help those in leadership roles make connections and have influence when it comes to leading change. When it comes to conveying the importance of following safety protocols in the workplace, oftentimes, a compelling story is the only way to get the message through to workers.Characteristics of a Good Safety StoryThe most memorable stories are often short and have elements that made the news or have a famous person in them, so if you are able to tie a safety message into your story, you will have a better chance of ensuring it is getting through to your workers.How to Add Stories to Your Leadership ToolboxManagement should work to create a culture where people aren't afraid to share their stories and own experiences of personal injury in order to get their employees thinking about the impact on their own lives and families if they didn't make it home today or ended up seriously injured.Make sure you follow WorkShift, a podcast from the Workers' Compensation Board that helps to rewrite the narrative on what makes a healthy, safe and successful workplace.

10-18

22:00

Safety culture in the workplace guides what your people do when no one's looking. It’s shared perceptions, it’s beliefs, it’s attitudes. For industries that are grappling with labour shortages, building a strong safety culture has never been more important. But what does it mean to have a strong safety culture? How do you build one and more importantly, how do you measure and improve it?  We invite you join us for a conversation around creating a strong safety culture with WCB CEO Stuart MacLean and his guest Dr. Mark Fleming, an internationally recognized researcher who aims to provide best practice guidelines and criteria for more successful safety programs.Dr. Mark Fleming has been enhancing industrial health and safety management through applied psychology research for over two decades. He joined the Department of Psychology at Saint Mary’s University (SMU) in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2001, and in 2002 he was instrumental in founding the CN Centre for Occupational Health and Safety. He supervises the work of the safety culture team at SMU where researchers work in partnership with local, national, and international organizations to study and address safety issues. He's currently involved in researching safety culture in a wide range of industries, including rail, petrochemical, construction, and power generation, and he turns usable practices and guidelines from these industries into practical tools such as his Changing Minds Guide and the Cultural Maturity Model. He also advises several Canadian international organizations on safety, culture assessment and improvement, including the International Atomic Energy Agency.  Key quotes“They want their employees to go home safely, and they want to do the right thing. But they often are working in this wrong framework where they're seeing safety as the absence of injury, and they don't sometimes see the conflicted messages that they themselves are sending.” Mark Fleming“It's more important to reframe how you think about safety. So rather than thinking about it as the absence of injuries, to think about it as a presence of defences, the presence of the controls that are in place within our organization.” Mark Fleming“What they need to do is go and ask the question about how are you doing this job safely? And how can I help you be safe?” Mark Fleming“If an organization is having a safety challenge, they probably have some other challenges as well.” Mark Fleming“Safety improvement is not a wham bam, let's get better in a one-off event, because it never lasts, it's about getting a little bit better every day.” Mark FlemingWhat they’ll talk aboutResearch has shown that a safe environment makes workers happy, and happy workers are more productive. As our province embarks on an aggressive growth strategy to double our working population over the next four decades, businesses who make a visible commitment to safety and creating a safety culture will be the ones that attract and retain employees. What you’ll learnThe Role of Senior LeadershipSenior leaders need to understand safety in a different way. Even if safety practices and guidelines are in place, if leaders are not talking about the importance of safety in the workplace, then they are not sending a clear signal to their employees. Productivity vs SafetyInstead of thinking about safety as something you do, business need to think about safety as a way you do things. An organization that is safe is also efficient, and organizations that do safety very well, do planning and organizing very well too. Don’t Focus on Injuries of the PastOrganizations need to start looking at the extent to which the controls are present within their workplace, rather than focusing on the limited number of injuries that happened in the past. You can learn from them, but if you only look at past injuries, you tend to miss the high potential injuries and are very unlikely to prevent future serious injuries and fatalities.Make sure you follow WorkShift, a podcast from the Workers' Compensation Board, that's helping to rewrite the narrative on what makes a healthy, safe and successful workplace.To learn more visit: https://www.worksafeforlife.ca/

08-22

36:34

Over the last 10 years the construction sector has seen significant progress in reducing injuries.  In fact, they had over 1500 time-loss injuries at one point, and now have less than 500 on an annual basis. We're seeing improvements because people want to see real change. And in construction, leaders have moved from knowing about safety, to really caring about it.  A shift in safety culture doesn't come easy. But when it does, we can point to one thing that’s made the biggest difference, and that's strong leadership.Make sure you follow Workshift, a podcast from the Workers’ Compensation Board that helps to rewrite the narrative on what makes a healthy, safe and successful workplace.

07-06

29:19

There's a role for all of us in creating psychologically safe workplaces."Organizations need to be very deliberate in making sure that people's psychological strength and fitness is supported and developed." Dr. Jackie Kinley.Join us today in this amazing conversation with some amazing leaders around workplace psychological safety. Dr. Jackie Kinley, the Atlantic Institute for Resilience, and Corporal Deepak Prasad, with the RCMP, are here to share their perspectives about Psychological Safety In The Workplace."The number one thing that we have to remember, is that a person coming through a door, that person coming into your office ... stop and remember that they are a human being." Cpl. Deepak Prasad.This is WorkShift, a podcast from the Workers' Compensation Board of Nova Scotia.To learn more visit: https://www.worksafeforlife.ca/

06-09

40:39

May 9, 2022 marks the 30th anniversary of the Westray mining disaster where 26 Miners lost their lives.The disaster left an indelible mark on the province and prompted major changes to workplace health and safety. Today, we have half the number of workplace injuries. We have better awareness, better safety programs, better adherence to safety legislation. A shift in focus that puts safety before profits. If there's a silver lining in Westray it's that it gave us a deeper understanding of what can happen when we don't put safety first. One of the biggest changes to come from Westray was Bill C 45. It made gross negligence, that leads to grievous bodily harm in the workplace an offense under the Criminal Code, punishable by jail time. In this episode we're going to talk about the legacy of Westray and what we can do to eliminate workplace tragedies. Danny Cavanagh, President at Nova Scotia Federation of Labour, and Alex Keaveny, Senior Crown Counsel at Public Prosecution Service, join us today to discuss the Westray mining disaster, the changes it brought about and opportunities for continued safety commitment and improvement. To learn more visit: https://www.worksafeforlife.ca/

05-09

33:01

Whether you’re a leader or someone who enjoys inspiring conversations, WorkShift will change the way you think about work. Stuart MacLean, CEO of the Workers’ Compensation Board of Nova Scotia, puts leaders in workplace safety on the mic – to talk health, safety, but most of all, leadership in a world that has changed forever. Hear the stories behind their successes, and their failures, and how they’re meeting the same challenges you may be facing.It’s been said that we learn from experience. But we can learn a lot more when we add the experiences of others to our own. To learn more visit: https://www.worksafeforlife.ca/

04-13

01:00