What you need to know
Canada Post is committed to promoting a positive and productive work environment by ensuring a strong alignment between employees’ interpersonal and emotional competencies, their job skills and the position they hold.
Our organization upholds fair, transparent, and inclusive hiring and promotion practices, valuing diversity in all forms, including thought, identity and experience.
We are also conscious of the psychological demands of the workplace — elements of your job that could jeopardize your mental and physical health if not supported by the proper tools, training, and experience. Psychological competency is determined by the strategies and tools you utilize to handle work stress and demands.
To help our employees succeed, we are dedicated to offering the support they need for their career growth and development. We understand the importance of interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence for everyone, especially team leaders. Showing compassion, treating others with respect, and building meaningful relationships with colleagues while promoting inclusivity in a diverse workplace are essential qualities we value in our employees.
At Canada Post, we strive to identify and match individuals’ unique strengths with the requirements of their roles, promoting a harmonious and effective work environment.
Click to learn about the National Standard – Psychological Competencies and Demands
What you can do
3.0 Consider the benefits of emotional intelligence
- We strongly encourage you to take the Workplace Strategies for Mental Health emotional intelligence self-assessment to learn more about your own emotional intelligence.
- It will also be helpful to identify the resources available to help you build on the leadership competencies required for your role, including self-help books, podcasts, and online resources.
- Create an opportunity to share learnings from other team leaders/managers by adding an agenda item to an existing monthly meeting with your teams.
3.1 Discuss psychological demands
- View the National Standard video on Psychological Demands and then engage in active conversation with team leaders and peers on the subject of feeling prepared for the demands of the job.
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- Think of a time at work when you felt that your job demands did not match your emotional and interpersonal competencies. What did you do to maintain your mental health, while ensuring you accomplished necessary tasks?
- What do the psychological demands of your job mean to you? Is this different for you than it is for your coworkers(s)?
After this discussion, consider watching the Psychological Demands video again.
- Then ask participants:
- What could have been done differently in the scenario with Pierre and his manager?
- What are some strategies to help YOUR workplace respond to Psychological Demands?
- Write down different ways that YOU can help manage Psychological Demands in your workplace
3.2. Take the “Putting Psychological Competencies and Demands on the Agenda” workshop
- Psychological competency is determined based on the approaches and strategies used to deal with work stress. Psychological demands are the factors that create work stress.
- This workshop will provide the opportunity to reduce demands and improve competencies.
- The goal is to become aware of the sources of stress and put plans in place to manage it to the best of our ability.
- To access the workshop, click here:
3.3. Participate in the Building Stronger Teams workshop
- This workshop explores team building activities that tap into the wisdom of the team members.
- The goal of the workshop is to strengthen teams and build resilience.
- Activities are designed to learn more about participants and create processes that can make everybody’s job easier. Note: This workshop is suitable for both leaders and their teams.
The learning objectives include:
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- Connect with other team members in a practical and effective manner.
- Work effectively together to address obstacles.
- Learn from each other.
- Click the following for more information:
3.4. Access career-coaching resources
Canada Post’s Employee and Family Assistance Program (EFAP) offers career coaching through Life Smart Coaching services. Life Smart Coaching offers counselling for those who have concerns about their job or are feeling uncertain or overwhelmed. Counselling services can be offered face-to-face, virtually, or over the phone.
Review the following Homewood Health Career Coaching resource document here: Career Coaching
3.5 Explore self-development opportunities
- Training and development: Employers can provide training and development programs that focus on advancing employees’ psychological competencies, such as emotional intelligence, resilience, and stress management.
- Self-reflection: Employees can reflect on their own strengths and gaps in terms of their psychological competencies. Through this you can identify the areas in which enhancement would be beneficial.
- Seek support: Employees can seek support from colleagues, mentors, coaches, or counselors to help them address their psychological demands. Talking to someone can help them gain perspective, identify solutions to their problems, and cope with stress.
- Practice self-care: Employees can practice self-care activities, such as meditation, exercise, and other stress-reducing techniques to improve their psychological well-being. It is also important for employees to establish a healthy work-life balance and set boundaries to avoid burnout.