January 2023 Issue
A monthly forum to share diversity, equity, and inclusion resources.
Welcome to the next installment of Read.Watch.Listen. This month, we explore how companies can support the mental well-being of their employees. With the New Year upon us, it is a good time for reflection and resolutions. Resolutions often revolve around health improvements, and a meaningful resolution for SE firms would be to incorporate new tools and policies that promote employee mental health. This issue shares resources that provide concrete examples of these tools and policies that companies can employ.
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Read.Watch.Listen is a monthly forum hosted by the NCSEA SE3 Committee to share and promote conversations on diversity, equity and inclusion within the structural engineering profession. Each month, we will curate a series of articles, audio-visual and digital media to facilitate self-education in matters that affect our professional practice as structural engineers. Whether you choose to read, watch, or listen (or all three!), we hope you will join us in this important conversation.
Share your thoughts and/or recommended resources for the next issue at ncsea@ncsea.com.
7 tools and techniques to support employee mental health - intelliHR
Specific techniques for supporting mental health are discussed in this resource, including: (1) offering flexibility based on employee needs, (2) Have a mental health conversation during check-ins, (3) encouraging leaders to walk the talk, (4) promoting a healthy culture around taking leave, (5) digging deep into employee sentiment, (6) reviewing your diversity and inclusion policies, and (7) investing in mental health training.
Mental Health in Engineering - Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE)
OSPE led a panel that “focused on mental health in engineering, its importance, the challenges of addressing it in workplace settings or institutions, and the opportunity to create a robust response to mental health that prioritizes empathy and de-stigmatizes mental health challenges across the engineering sector.”
*If you are short on time, the video from 37:00 to 44:32 focuses on specific actions that employers can use to help support their employees. The discussion is also summarized in this article on Understanding the Mental Health Needs of Engineers.
What You Should Have in your Corporate Mental Health First Aid Kit - Recruiting Daily
This podcast interviews Katie Urtnowski, who is the Vice President of People and Culture at CNY Group -- a construction and development firm headquartered in New York City. She describes opportunities for employers in the ACE industry to provide mental health support including updating onboarding policies, revisiting employee benefits, and incorporating training on mental health.
This article was originally published in the January 2023 issue of NCSEA's Structural Connection newsletter. For more information, check out NCSEA's DEI Resources.