Here are some common questions people ask about Supporting Employee Success.

About Supporting Employee Success

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Supporting Employee Success is a step-by-step process that engages an employer and employee to develop solutions that support employee productivity and well-being using a fillable online tool. This process starts with the employer and employee reviewing the job description together and ends with co-creating a plan that supports the employee to meet the core expectations of their role. Supporting Employee Success can be used for onboarding, a return-to-work strategy, managing performance, and planning accommodation.

Supporting Employee Success was designed for all employers, including associations, governments, and institutions, regardless of business type. It is especially useful to anyone with responsibilities for:

  • Facilitating employee onboarding
  • Managing an employee’s sustainable return to work
  • Managing employee performance
  • Planning and monitoring employee accommodations

These roles can include leaders, managers, supervisors, human resources, occupational health professionals, and business owners. The resources are straightforward, accessible, and require no special training.

For the overall process to be successful, a few basic factors must exist. If they do not, the process may not be helpful and could have a negative impact on the situation. These factors are:

  • The workplace is committed to supporting employee success through an ongoing collaborative process.
  • The employee wants to stay at work or return to work and will strive to perform the job with necessary supports that are reasonable and acceptable to both the employee and the employer.
  • The job expectations and the needs of the employee regarding accomplishing the job requirements are clearly understood.

Like all tools developed by Workplace Strategies for Mental Health, compliments of Canada Life, the Supporting Employee Success tools and resources are provided at no cost, but dedicated time and effort are required for this process to succeed. Supporting Employee Success also includes ideas that are low-cost or free to implement. Most ideas require a small investment of time or a change in communication approach.

Supporting Employee Success is a flexible process where all or some of the steps can be used depending on the situation. Here are general time estimates for each step in this process:
  • Step 1: Review job description together – time depends on the situation
  • Step 2: Clarify specific job expectations and invite employee input
    • 2a: Employer selects and describes job expectations – about 5 to 10 minutes per expectation
    • 2b. Employer selects the level of expectation required and selects potential solutions – about 5 to 10 minutes per expectation
    • 2c. Employee assesses current abilities and potential solutions – about 5 to 10 minutes per expectation, but the time needed depends on the employee’s well-being at that moment and the amount of support they need to complete this section
    • 2d. Employer and employee prepare for the supporting success conversation – about 5 to 10 minutes per expectation
  • Step 3: Create a plan together – about 1 to 3 hours depending on the unique situation

Supporting Employee Success does not provide medical, financial or legal advice. This tool focuses on job expectations and supporting employees' ability to meet those expectations. It doesn't require information or a discussion about any medical diagnosis or symptoms, financial matters or legal matters. All information provided by an employee is done so on a voluntary basis. This entire process focuses on workplace function and issues and respects confidentiality by not requiring medical information. The process and conversation centres around abilities and strategies that support work success rather than diagnosis or symptoms.

Supporting Employee Success does not specifically address potential legal requirements. While this process can be part of an effective accommodation, it doesn't replace legal advice with respect to requirements under employment, human rights, accessibility or other legislation.

This resource is based on the consulting work of Mary Ann Baynton and was originally created by Dr. lan M. F. Arnold and Suzanne Arnold, PhD, with input from Dr. David Brown, Dr. David Posen and Susan Jakobson. Thanks to members of the Institute for Work and Health, Canadian Labour Congress, Human Resources Professionals Association, Donna Hardaker, Stéphane Grenier, and Judy Kerling for their valuable contributions. The 2024 update was informed by Addie Greco-Sanchez, Anne Nicole Sta. Ana, Jill Magis, Mariam Harutyunyan, Raelene Thorne and Sarah Jenner. Supporting Employee Success was commissioned, funded and adapted by Workplace Strategies for Mental Health, compliments of Canada Life, with technical development and support from the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety.

CCOHS protects the confidentiality of information submitted through Supporting Employee Success. CCOHS also hosts and maintains the website in English and French and provides client support related to any technical or account management issues.

Workplace Strategies for Mental Health, compliments of Canada Life, and CCOHS work together to increase the use of Supporting Employee Success by raising awareness of the free resource as a comprehensive process for developing effective work plans for accommodation, return-to-work, and other workplace needs.

This tool is part of a suite of free resources to help advance psychological health and safety at work. The suite includes:

  • Guarding Minds at Work: An online assessment tool and comprehensive resources to help employers assess and address psychological health and safety at the organizational level.
  • Psychologically Safe Leader Assessment: An online assessment tool and comprehensive resources to help leaders evaluate their current psychological health and safety strategies and engage in continual improvement.
  • Psychologically Safe Team Assessment: An online assessment tool and comprehensive resources to help team leaders assess and improve their strategies to support team cohesion and inclusion.
  • Supporting Employee Success: A tool to help employees meet job expectations, including those returning to work or needing accommodation.

This suite of tools is offered through a partnership between Canada Life’s Workplace Strategies for Mental Health and the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS).

Using Supporting Employee Success

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Supporting Employee Success assesses job expectations and finds solutions that help the employee meet them. The tool does not assess any aspect of a person’s health, nor does it provide medical advice. The tool prompts employers to create an “assessment” to help review and clarify job expectations. The process and conversation are centred on finding strategies to support the employee’s success at work. As part of this process, the employee engages in a self-reflection or assessment of their current abilities in relation to job expectations.

Yes, you can have multiple assessments on the go at the same time. After signing into your account, add each employee to the employee list and then go to the Create Assessment tab to create a new assessment for each employee.

No, only the employer or employer representative who is planning to administer Supporting Employee Success needs to sign up for an account.

Each account can only have one set of login information - one email address and one password.

After the employer completes their fields in the fillable tool and activates the assessment, a link will be generated to help the employee access the assessment. This link automatically expires six months from the time it’s generated. This won’t matter if the process is completed before then. To start the process again after the link expires, the employer should review the job description and expectations as they may have changed and create a new assessment to capture the current expectations.

Yes, a French version of Supporting Employee Success is available. Select the Français link in the top right corner. You can run a bilingual survey using one survey link. You will need to instruct your employees to open the link and then toggle to the French view to complete the survey.

For a printable version of Supporting Employee Success, a fillable PDF is available.

The employer will receive suggested text they can email to the employee to support them through the process. The employee will also receive instructions directly within the tool. Note, when completing the potential solutions section, employees should describe in detail the potential solution that could help them meet the job expectation.

For example, if the employee selects flexibility in work hours as a potential solution, they should specify whether this means a different start and end time, needing a longer mid-day or mid-shift break, time off for regular appointments, etc. (in addition to how this would help them meet the job expectation).

Employers can delete draft assessments. Once employers select the Activate assessment button, the assessment cannot be deleted, unless the employer removes the employee from the Employee list.

Employers can edit their selections in a draft assessment until they select the Activate assessment button. After this, they will not be able to edit anymore.

Employees can edit their input until they submit the assessment. After submission, they will not be able to edit anymore.

Note that, employers and employees cannot edit each other’s sections.

Yes, you can remove an employee from the Employee list and delete all their associated information. Always save any completed assessments before removing the employee from the list.

Note that removing an employee will delete their associated assessment(s), however any custom job expectations and/or custom solutions will remain available to the user for future assessments.

After submitting their input, the employee will be taken to a page where they can view and print the completed assessment.

After the employee submits their input, the employer can view the full assessment by selecting View responses in the Ready for review section in their account.

To maintain employee privacy on this digital platform, no personal identifying information appears on the completed assessment. However, workplaces can use internal procedures to associate employees and downloaded assessments as needed. You can also find the link to each employee's assessment in your account's Assessments page.

Once you receive the employee’s assessment submission, review their input and schedule a meeting with them to create a work plan together. From your account dashboard, you can access resources to support next steps, including information to help you prepare for the supporting success conversation.

Yes, you can create more than one assessment for the same employee to capture changes in job expectations or employee abilities. You can only have one active assessment open at a time for an employee and it must be completed before you can create a new assessment for them.

If you have multiple employees with the same job expectations, you can avoid completing the job expectations more than once by using the duplicate feature. To duplicate an existing completed assessment, find the assessment in the Completed assessments section of your dashboard and select Copy assessment. You can then find it in the Drafts section where you can make edits.

Yes, you can duplicate any assessment once it’s completed. This feature is helpful when there are multiple employees with the same job expectations so you can avoid completing the job expectations section more than once.

All existing inputs, selections, and custom expectations and/or solutions you provided will be included in the copied assessment. Any inputs provided by the employee will not be included.

To duplicate an assessment, find it in the Completed assessments section of your dashboard and select Copy assessment. Then, add or select the employee. Once created, you can edit, add, or delete any inputs as needed. You’ll find the assessment in the Drafts section of your dashboard.

You can update your account information or transfer your account to another person by updating the relevant details on the Account details page in your Dashboard. If you transfer your account, the new account owner will have access to all existing assessment information and employee responses.

Data, privacy, and security

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The Supporting Employee Success website is hosted by the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS). All personal information created, held or collected by CCOHS is protected by the Privacy Act. This means that you will be informed of the purpose for which your personal information is being collected and how to exercise your right to access that information.

Any information provided by a user will be kept on a secure server in Canada and is strictly confidential. This data will be kept for up to seven years. After seven years without activity, records will be securely deleted.

Read the full Privacy Notice.

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