Staff Health and Well-being Strategy
The heart of SickKids is the people who work to carry out its mission, bring its vision to life, and live its values every day. The pandemic exacerbated existing challenges in the health sector and, the longer it drags, the higher the demands on teams already stretched to the limit.
We can’t take care of the community we serve without also taking care of the physical and mental health of our staff. It’s time to find novel solutions to reduce overload, model well-being behaviours in our leadership, culture, and daily activities, and create environments where teams and individuals can thrive. SickKids has seen the struggles, listened to ideas, and developed this strategy to restore the holistic health and well-being of our remarkable team.
“If we don’t choose to place a focus on wellness, we’ll be forced to place a focus on illness.”
– Feedback from Health & Well-being Strategy focus group
Our staff health and well-being strategy map
Our strategic directions
Foster holistic health and well-being in our people
- Identify physical and mental health risks and establish service pathways to meet employee needs
- Improve literacy and destigmatize mental health in the workplace
- Expand equitable, inclusive access to in-person and virtual well-being programming and resources
Optimize workload to improve balance
- Develop a menu of tactics to help teams and individuals reduce overload and after-hours work
- Embed opportunities to assess workload and promote well-being in organizational programs
- Phase out unnecessary bureaucracy, over-collaboration, and inefficient legacy practices
Create a safe, inclusive work environment
- Ensure everyone is acknowledged and respected through a focus on equity, diversity and inclusion
- Eliminate harm through physically and psychologically safe workplaces
- Champion civility, respect, and compassionate service excellence
- Maintain flexible work arrangements, ensuring connectedness and belonging
Embed a culture of well-being
- Build visible well-being leadership at all levels of the organization
- Establish a channel for staff to provide input on well-being efforts
- Integrate well-being programming across the enterprise and create a one-stop shop for resources
- Amplify recognition of staff efforts and achievements