Leaders' Resources

We all have a responsibility to ensure our workplaces remain safe and our staff feel safe. Our goal is to ensure our workplaces are safe for staff who need or want to return by the start of August. Send urgent requests to returntoworkplace@phsa.ca to bring employees sooner, if needed.

Before anyone can return, leaders must ensure the mandatory steps below are complete. Staff currently working remotely should continue to do so until then.

Mandatory steps for all leaders

Designated leads complete a facility risk assessment (underway). (See Physical Health tab.)
Review and share your facility’s safety plan with your team (July). (See Physical Health tab.)
Communicate key safety principles and COVID-19 related guidelines to your team. (See Physical Health tab.)
Check-in with each of your team members to gauge their readiness, concerns and questions.(See Psychological Health tab.)
Familiarize yourself with the leadership development resources. (See Leadership Support tab.)

Printable version: Leaders’ Roadmap to Reintegration.

There is no “one-size-fits-all” solution. Apply the resources below in the context of your own team and work site to meet health and safety requirements.

Following the guidance of WorkSafeBC, B.C.’s Public Health Officer and our organizational polices and guidelines, we are focusing on supports in the three key areas listed below.

Physical health

As a leader, you are responsible for the health and safety of your team. Please ensure staff know how to keep themselves safe in the workplace.

Workplace safety plans

All facilities must complete a safety plan to support return to operations. It must be posted in areas that are easily accessible to employees, other workers and the public.

Operations, infection control, workplace health, and our joint safety committees are working to complete these plans in July.
PHSA’s Workplace Health and Safety team will support sites in drafting the final safety plans to be posted at the workplace.
The plans are based on the detailed facility-level risk assessments.

Learn about facility risk assessments

Designated leads in non-clinical settings will be conducting a risk assessment to ensure that:

They have assessed the workplace to identify where the risk of transmission of COVID-19 is present.
They have selected and put measures in place to minimize the risk of transmission, considering the hierarchy of controls.
Procedures and guidelines are in place to keep employees safe in adjusted working conditions.
Everyone entering the workplace, including workers from other employers, knows how to keep themselves safe while onsite.
Everyone stays alert for changing conditions and makes updates to procedures as required to ensure safety.

Note: Any measures that require hiring of contractors or consultants to complete, or will incur significant costs to implement, need to be reviewed with Facilities Management and approved by ELT prior to implementation.

Key safety principles, guidelines & procedures

Once our facility safety plans are complete, review this information with your team to ensure they are familiar with our workplace strategies to minimize the risk of transmission.

Key safety principles for return

Personal hygiene: Frequent hand washing, practice cough etiquette, no handshaking. Non-medical masks are not required in a non-clinical setting, but can be worn if desired.
Stay home if you are sick: Check for symptoms before coming to work and leave work immediately if feeling unwell.
Environmental hygiene: Ensure more frequent cleaning, conduct enhanced surface cleaning in high touch areas, and avoid sharing materials or documents.
Safe social interactions: Maintain distance and smaller meeting sizes in larger rooms.
Physical modifications: Ensure appropriate spacing, room design, barriers or plexiglass, movement of people within your spaces.

COVID-19 guidelines & procedures

Please share the following COVID-19 documents with your team:

Download the key safety principles one-page handout and leader email template to share the information with your team.

Supporting resources

For additional information on minimizing transmission at our workplaces, please review:

If you have any questions, please contact Workplace Health at workplacehealth@phsa.ca and/or our nurses supporting the COVID Resource Line at 1-833-875-2155.

Psychological health

As leaders, we want to support employee needs in a systematic way – considering their safety, security and psychological health – with the goal of a renewed, supported and engaged workforce.

Check in with your team members prior to return/reintegration

Download the Leaders’ Resource: Employee Readiness Check-in Guide. This is a scripted conversation guide to support your mandatory readiness check-ins with employees returning to the workplace and for employees who have remained at work.

The readiness check-in conversation focuses on practical concerns, physical and psychological safety.
Information from your conversation will support planning for a safe reintegration process.

Register for a leader or team session

Several courses and resources have been developed to support the psychosocial needs of our workforce.

Employee Psychosocial Check-In: Training for Leaders - This 45-minute session will give you a step by step guide to provide a first-line response to staff experiencing psychological distress in the workplace. Register on Learning Hub or request a session for your leadership/management team by emailing psychhealthsafety@phsa.ca.
Co-existing with COVID-19: Team sessions - Facilitated by Psychological Health and Safety leaders, these didactic and experiential sessions address topics including: Coping with Uncertainty, Connection and Communication, Trauma-Informed Practice: Caring during COVID-19. Leaders and teams can also request specific topics. Facilitators are also available to provide a general psychosocial ‘check-in’ with your team including access to relevant resources. Request a team session by contacting psychhealthsafety@phsa.ca.
Resilience in the Workplace - Co-Existing with COVID-19: What is your plan? - Adapted from Resilience@Work, this session covers the seven factors of workplace resilience in the context of co-existing with COVID-19. Participants will identify their strengths and develop strategies for ongoing resilience. This 1.5-hour interactive session is available on Learning Hub or by request to psychhealthsafety@phsa.ca.

Supporting resource

Workplace Reintegration: A Framework for Readiness and Response: This resource identifies key activities, considerations and resources to address, including physical safety, security, psychological safety, recognition, and renewed employee engagement.

Leadership support

As we emerge from our COVID-19 response efforts, one of the most integral first steps we can collectively take as leaders at PHSA is to recognize that we’ve all been through a significant experience. Being able to reflect and learn from this experience can be a game changer—we have the potential to enhance our impact as leaders going forward.

Register for Co-Existing with COVID-19 Workshop for Leaders

Did you know that 70% of what and how you learn happens from experience? You have learned significant things about yourself, your team, and your operations during this COVID-19 experience:

How are you going to embed this learning and ensure that you come of out of this experience as a more effective leader?
How do we turn these lessons into best practice? This leadership workshop will help you achieve this.

Learning Bursts: Leading your team

After you’ve taken the Co-Existing with COVID-19 workshop, there are additional courses to support you as you move forward. We’re calling them “Learning Bursts” because they are 45-60 minute sessions to fit into your busy schedule.

Learning burst courses

Learning burst topics:

Effective Communication
Resilience at Work
Team Charter
GROWing your Coaching Skills
Creating your Leadership Guide
Building Trust ( ELearning)
Introduction to Co-Existing with Covid-19
Intentional Conversations
Leading Change
Unconscious Bias
Strategic Planning
Experience Cube
Conflict Management – Systems & Self
Peer to Leader

Please check The PHSA Leadership Academy for upcoming and ongoing Learning Burst offerings. [You must be on the network to follow this link.]

Connect with your Leadership Coach

The Leadership Coaches are part of the Leadership Development team at PHSA. They exist to provide dedicated support to leaders, with a vision to “ignite the passion for leadership.” This can look like a variety of things such as:

One-to-one coaching
Facilitating leadership development programs
Supporting leaders with their teams
Facilitating 360 reviews
Supporting our annual processes such as performance management and our talent review/succession planning program.

Our aim is to be proactive instead of reactive in our leadership support. Each area of PHSA has a dedicated Leadership Coach who is your main point of contact for all the resources we offer through the PHSA Leadership Academy. [You must be on the network to follow this link.]

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