In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Mary Ann Baynton, a workplace relations specialist, consultant, speaker and author, who has been called “the godmother of psychological health and safety.” She’s the principal of Mary Ann Baynton & Associates and Director of Strategy and Collaboration at Workplace Strategies for Mental Health.

Mary is on a mission to reduce unnecessary workplace stress, distress or conflict, and in this warm and wide-ranging interview, she helps safety professionals understand the key ways they can help identify and mitigate psychosocial risk.

The starting point is an overview of Canada’s National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace (which Mary helped develop). The Standard is a set of voluntary guidelines, tools and resources intended to guide organizations in promoting mental health and preventing psychological harm at work - the first of its kind in the world.

Mary then shares evidence-based approaches to help safety professionals address 10 key workplace psychosocial factors. She describes each factor’s risks, provides practical solutions, and suggests how EHS professionals can secure leadership support to implement these strategies.

You’ll learn about organizational culture, work-life balance, workplace civility and respect, change management, building trust, personal development, involvement and influence, psychologically supportive environments and managing workload stress. 

For every element, Mary shares compelling evidence for adopting workplace psychological health and safety.

Mary’s consultancy:

Mary Ann Baynton & Associates Corp. – The Workplace Relations Specialists

Workplace strategies for Mental Health:

Organizational strategies (workplacestrategiesformentalhealth.com)

Canada’s pioneering National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace:

National Standard - Mental Health Commission of Canada

Mary Ann is also the author of several books (Publications – Mary Ann Baynton & Associates Corp.) including:

The Evolution of Workplace Mental Health in Canada: Towards a Standard

Building Stronger Teams

Resolving Workplace Issues

Keeping Well at Work

Mindful Manager

Preventing Workplace Meltdown: An Employer’s Guide to Maintaining a Psychologically Safe Workplace (with Dr. Martin Shain)

Drive by Daniel H. Pink, the book exploring motivation recommended by Mary:

https://www.amazon.com/Drive-Surprising-Truth-About-Motivates/dp/1594484805/

Mary Ann Baynton on LinkedIn:

Mary Ann Baynton | LinkedIn

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