Culture of Care
We are always striving to create and maintain a psychologically healthy and safe culture here at Lethbridge Polytechnic. Our Culture of Care embraces a workplace that both protects and empowers employees by creating an environment that promotes psychological, cultural and physical safety.
This cultural safety is defined as an environment that enables employees to be seen, valued and respected and protected as their authentic selves.
Physical safety is defined as preventing bodily injury or illness to a person or damage to property or the environment by assessing and controlling hazards. Hazards can be further classified as physical, biological, chemical and psychological risks.
In workplaces where physical safety is ensured:
- Management takes appropriate action and offers training to protect physical safety.
- Employees have the equipment they need to perform their job safely.
- Employers respond to incidents in a timely manner.
Psychological safety is defined as an environment where employees feel free to express themselves without fear of judgement or negative consequences. Overall, it is about creating a supportive, respectful and safe work environment that fosters individuality, teamwork and positive mental health.
Key elements include:
Open communication, feeling heard, trust and candor, support and respect, risk-taking and learning, collective responsibility, clear expectations and support, and mental health and well-being.
All of us need to feel safe and respected to work and learn at our best, and ensuring a respectful campus is the responsibility of everyone in our community. We each contribute to a safe and respectful campus by being accountable for our actions and words. When someone refuses to live up to this shared responsibility, the employer should have a process to hold them accountable.
Here are Lethbridge Polytechnic, we have a Respectful Campus Policy and Procedure that set out both the principles and standards of professional conduct that is expected of all members of the polytechnic community that includes employees, visitors, volunteers, third party contactors and their employees engaged in activities related to their contracts with the institution.
Here at Lethbridge Polytechnic, we have many programs and training opportunities to ensure our employees are contributing to our culture of care. These include Cert training through Headversity, Resolving Conflict, Coaching and Mentoring programs, Crucial Conversations and Crucial Accountability.
This training is a modern, practice-based certification program that focuses on mental health, respect and psychological safety. These self-paced courses support our Culture of Care and will provide employees with a clear understanding of their responsibility in contributing to a healthy, safe workplace and the tools and resources to help facilitate conversations about workplace concerns and needs.
These programs all support a healthy workplace, individual development and support for employees, but each of them has a different focus. Resolving Conflict provides the opportunity to work one-on-one with a conflict advisor, to give the tools to address the conflict directly with the third party. Coaching provides the opportunity to partner with someone to unlock an employee’s personal and professional potential by reflecting on and exploring their own skills. Mentoring allows employees to work one-on-one with a mentor to supplement ongoing development initiatives by reinforcing capabilities and behaviours.
These programs, offered to all employees, help them learn various strategies and tools for managing conversations effectively and respectfully while being aware of their emotions. These skills will help participants increase team engagement, create space for innovative solutions and build team resiliency. Crucial Conversations has a number of benefits including the promotion of equity and inclusion, agility and adaptability, ideation and innovation, decision-making, and engagement and teamwork. Crucial Accountability, a follow-up course, teaches a process for managing performance, strengthening trust and reliability and eliminating inconsistency. It provides skills for holding peers accountable – regardless of position or authority.
The safety and security of our campus are shared responsibilities. Each of us on campus has a part to play in ensuring a safe working and learning environment.
All students and employees should download the SAFE at Lethbridge Polytechnic app to ensure they receive accurate, reliable and updated information quickly about any urgent matters on campus. This mass notification system will alert you in the event of a fire, power outage, unexpected closure of campus, evacuation or security matter. It also offers other safety features, and information on important safety procedures.
Campus Security personnel are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The office is located at CE1303, near the main campus entrance. Our Campus Security team can:
- support emergency response
- provide Safewalks
- provide access to campus spaces
- respond to duress alarms
Lethbridge Polytechnic uses the REES platform for secure, online reporting of gender-based and sexual violence on campus. The system lets you create a name and password that is completely separate from your polytechnic identification.
Employee Wellness
Our health and dental benefits are comprehensive, with particularly generous coverage for paramedical services. This includes up to $2,000 a year for psychologist visits and $1,500 a year for massage and physical therapy for each member of the family.
Consult+ is a virtual care program for employees and dependents to access non-urgent medical care, get prescriptions or refills, ask health questions or access a directory of health services available locally. Consult+ is accessed through our Canada Life website. Go to Coverage and Balances, select Health and scroll down to “Other coverage.”
The Employee and Family Assistance Program (EFAP) is our confidential support service for employees and their families and includes counselling services available face-to-face, online or by phone. Our EFAP can be accessed through TELUS Health. This website or mobile app is like a personalized wellness site. You can take assessments on your physical, mental, social or financial wellness, and TELUS Health will provide curated content based on your needs.
We have access to flexible spending accounts and can choose annually how our allotment is split between:
- A Health Spending Account that covers expenses that would qualify for a medical expense tax credit under the Income Tax Act, such as adult braces, hearing aids or eyeglasses. Claims are made through the Canada Life website.
- A Wellness Spending Account that covers eligible expenses that help keep you well, such as a fitness club membership, hockey gear or athletic footwear for you or your family members.
At Lethbridge Polytechnic we recognize the importance of flexible work/telecommunting arrangements. These arrangements allow employees to achieve a better balance between their work and personal lives.
Canada Life provides optional life insurance, accident insurance and critical illness insurance for our employees. This cost is typically at a lower rate than you will pay if purchasing on your own.
For the fifth year in a row, Lethbridge Polytechnic has received the Canada’s Healthy Workplace Month Great Employer Award. This award, presented by Excellence Canada, celebrates organizations where employees feel they are valued, engaged and can thrive.
The four elements used to identify what a healthy workplace is include:
- Healthy lifestyles
- Mental health and workplace culture
- Physical environment
- Corporate social responsibility
You can read more about the standards for a healthy workplace here. The selection team, comprised of business experts, evaluates applicants on their own merit against the awards criteria and also looks at employee engagement surveys when determining winners. Applicants are asked to provide examples of how their organization supports employees in developing and maintaining healthy behaviours; encourages respect, trust and inclusivity; creates a sense of belonging among employees; and supports their involvement in giving back to the local community.