DND/CAF WHVP Program Safety Committee Training
Background
The Department of National Defence (DND) has a robust Workplace Harassment and Violence Prevention (WHVP) safety program.
As a member of your Safety Committees or as the safety representative you play a key role in the Prevention of Workplace Harassment and Violence by participating in the evaluation of preventive measures through the WHVP Assessment process.
This training will aid you in conducting , monitoring and reviewing WHVP Assessments.
DND WHVP Program
The functional authority for the WHVP program lies with The Chief of Professional Conduct and Culture (CPCC). The program is administered under the Director General Conflict Solutions and Services (DGCSS) through the WHVP Center of Expertise.
The WHVP Program consists of three main components:
- prevent;
- respond; and
- support.
Note: The Prevention part of the program applies to the entire Defence Team and is outlined in the following DAOD and policy manual:
- DAOD 5014-0, Workplace Harassment and Violence Prevention; and
- ISBN 978-0-660-47829-6/30-2, Workplace Harassment and Violence Prevention Policy Manual.
Mandatory Training
Mandatory training on the prevention of harassment and violence in the workplace is available through Canada School of Public Service (CSPS) for all Defence Team members (PSE and CAF) must be completed within the first three months of employment and at least once every three years:
All Defence Team members are required to complete:
All Defence Team CoC, supervisors and managers, Safety Committee members, and Health and Safety representatives are required to complete:
- (WMT101) and
- Preventing Harassment and Violence in the Workplace for Managers and Health and Safety Committees (WMT102)
Designated Recipients (DR) are required to complete:
- (WMT101),
- (WMT102) and
- Preventing Harassment and Violence in the Workplace for Designated Recipients (csps-efpc.gc.ca)
In addition, a training addendum provides information specific to the culture, conditions and activities of the DND workplace.
Roles and Responsibilities
Next, we will look at some of the roles and responsibilities within the WHVP program.
- Safety committees: Workplace Health and Safety Committees (WHSC), Health and safety Representatives (HSR) and Canadian Armed Forces Safety Committees (CAFSC)
- Defence Team: Public Service Employees (PSE) and Canadian Armed Forces Members (CAF)
- Chain of Command(CoC)/Managers
- Designated Recipient(DR) (established within CPCC, DGSCC)
Safety Committees
Safety Committees play an important role in the WHVP program at both the national and local level.
At the national level, the National Health and Safety Policy Committee (NHSPC) jointly identifies risk factors that contribute to workplace harassment and violence and jointly develops DND’s WHVP policy.
Local Safety Committees or Health and Safety Representatives participate in WHVP assessments and make recommendations to the CoC/manager on preventive measures.
Jointly with CoC/manager, a committee must:
- conduct the WHVP assessment and make recommendations for changes, as required;
- monitor and, when necessary, update the WHVP assessment when there is a change to the risk factors identified or a change to the effectiveness of the preventive measures developed and implemented;
- review and, when necessary, update the WHVP assessment every three years;
- develop, review and, when necessary, update the emergency procedures; and
- determine which of the recommendations set out in an investigation report are to be implemented.
Note: CoC/manager refers to someone who has the authority to act on the committee’s recommendations.
CoC/ Managers
- Establish WHVP activities within their organization that are consistent with the WHVP Program as outlined in the DAOD 5014-0 and the policy manual.
- Promote the prevention of harassment and violence in their organizations and implement measures to minimise risk of incidents occurring.
- Work jointly with the WHSCs or Health and Safety Representatives to develop, monitor and update workplace assessments and implement investigation report recommendations.
- Advise the WHVP CoE within seven (7) consecutive days when a Notice of Occurrence (NoO) is received within their area of responsibility.
- Respect the confidentiality of the information shared throughout the resolution process of an occurrence. The disclosure of information about the occurrence must be in keeping with the need-to-know principle.
- Make every reasonable effort to resolve an occurrence of harassment and violence through negotiated resolution.
- Implement preventive measures derived from negotiated resolution and conciliation as well as any additional preventive measures warranted.
- Cooperate with an investigator and the investigation process.
- Support employees affected by workplace harassment and violence.
Defence Team members (Including Principal Party (PP), Responding Party (RP) and witnesses)
- Respect and adhere to the expected behaviours found in the DND and CF Code of Values and Ethics.
- Report occurrences of workplace harassment and violence, experienced or observed.
- Report risk factors that may contribute to workplace harassment and violence to the CoC/manager.
- Co-operate in the resolution of workplace harassment and violence occurrences.
- Respect the confidentiality of the information shared throughout the resolution process of an occurrence.
- Refrain from real or perceived retaliatory behaviour against the PP, RP, witnesses, and any other individuals involved in the resolution process of an occurrence.
Designated Recipient (DR)
The DR is a team of highly skilled individuals who can receive and respond to Notices of Occurrences within DND. They do the following:
- Respond to all NoOs within seven days of receiving the notice;
- Ensure that the parties are aware of their rights and obligations in the resolution process;
- Initiate negotiated resolution with the PP within 45 days after the day on which the NoO is received;
- Conduct a review of every NoO with the PP against the definition of harassment and violence;
- Make every reasonable effort to resolve an occurrence of harassment and violence for which a NoO is submitted;
- Give the principal and responding parties the option of voluntarily participating in conciliation/Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and agree on the assigned practitioner; and
- Provide notice of investigation to the principal and responding parties if an investigation is requested by the PP.
WHVP Assessments
Next, we are going to look at the WHVP Assessment, specifically:
- purpose and applicability;
- frequency; and
- the WHVP Assessment Guide and its 4-step process.
Purpose and Applicability
- Purpose - The purpose of the WHVP Assessment is to assess a workplace for preventive measures corresponding to the identified risk factors and make changes to or implement preventive measures, as needed. The WHVP Assessment should be a part of a workplace’s overall Hazard Prevention Program.
- Applicability - WHVP assessments are mandatory for all workplaces within the DND/CAF (including CAF only workplaces) and must be jointly completed and reviewed by CoC/manager in collaboration with the local safety committee or the health and safety representative (if no committee exists).
Frequency
Every three (3) years (commencing in 2021) WHVP assessments are to be reviewed to ensure preventive measures are effective and whenever the following apply/occur:
- There are changes to the risk factors within the organization that may warrant a reassessment;
- An occurrence is not resolved through the negotiated resolution process and the PP decides to end the resolution process;
- There is a change that compromises the effectiveness of a preventive measure developed and implemented;
- The RP is not a member of the Defence Team;
- A NoO was submitted anonymously; or
- A WHVP investigation recommends changes.
Guide
The WHVP Assessment Guide provides detailed guidance to assist CoC/managers and safety committees in completing WHVP Assessments. First, we will look at the tabs, then we will go over the four-step process while looking at an example.
The guide consists of five (5) tabs:

Caption
A row with 5 columns or tabs: workplace details, process, WHVP Assessment Template, Psychosocial »Risk Factors and Preventive Measures Examples.
Workplace details
The first tab – Workplace Details, is where the workplace name and date are entered along with who is doing/reviewing the assessment, the type of review that is taking place.
Types of reviews are:
- Three-year cyclical review;
- Changes to risk factors that warrant a reassessment;
- Changes that compromise the effectiveness of a preventive measure;
- Unresolved occurrence (negotiated resolution, PP ends resolution process;
- The responding party is not an employee or CoC/manager
- A NoO was submitted anonymously; and
- When a WHVP Investigation recommends changes.

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A screenshot the Workplace Details tab. It shows where to enter the following information: Workplace Name, CoC/manager representative, HSC representative, Date, Initial Assessment, Review, Review Type, Date of next review.
Process and template
The second tab – Process, outlines when the WHVP Assessment is to be done (frequency) and the 4-step process used on the template (tab 3).
The third tab - WHVP Assessment Template, contains the template for conducting the actual assessment.

Caption
Screenshot of the Step 1: review identified risk factors, step 2: analysis of preventive measures, step 3: recommendations and step 4: accountability of the WHVP assessment guide template.
Psychosocial risk factors
The fourth tab – Psychosocial Risk Factors, has a list of risk factors and associated psychosocial factors.

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A screenshot of Psychosocial Risk Factors tab in the WHVP assessment guide giving two examples of risk factors: Balance and Civility and Respect.
Preventive measures examples
The fifth tab – Preventive Measures Examples, has a list of possible preventive measures, resources, and training for each of the identified risk factors.

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Screenshot of the preventive measures examples tab in the WHVP assessment guide.
Step 1- Review identified risk factors

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Screenshot of the Step 1- review identified risk factors.
In this step we will look at the identified risk factors and their associated examples/description. These are the risk factors that have been identified as being in DND workplaces, your individual workplace may have or not have all these risk factors (example - if no one ever works alone then that would not be a risk factor in your workplace) however your workplace may have a risk factor not on the list and if it does then the template can be modified to add it to the list of identified risk factors.
Note: Although these risk factors may occur in isolation, they often overlap and mutually reinforce each other. Thus, workplaces with a combination of risk factors may produce a heightened risk.
Example - Reviewing the below identified risk factor and its description the CoC/manager (in this case the Commanding Officer of the unit) and the WHSC note that although they may not have seen occurrences of discriminatory comments/behaviours it is possible for this risk factor to be present and there should be preventive measures in place.
Step 2 - Analysis of preventive measures

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Screenshot of the Step 2 - Analysis of Preventive Measures.
Example – The CoC/manager (CO) and committee must look at all the preventive measures (PMs) currently in place for that risk factor and list them. Next the PMs need to be reviewed to see if they are effective or if anything else needs to be done. In this case it was decided that posters were not enough, further PMs should be put in place.
PM review drop down menu choices:
- Reviewed need to develop PMs;
- Reviewed - no action required;
- Reviewed PMs need to be modified; and
- Not reviewed.
The following is a useful list of questions the committee can ask when reviewing the preventive measures (PMs):
- What is currently in place?
- Have there been any reported occurrence or incidents involving the risk factor?
- Are any other measures required?
- Have orientation and training programs been modified to deal with the risk factor?
- Are there any new risks that are not on the list of identified Risk factors?
- What else can be done?
- Have workers been adequately informed about the situation?
Note: Not all risks and associated PMs will need to be reviewed every time a review is done. Example if a WHVP investigation recommends changes due to an occurrence involving working with public (risk factor 2.4, working with public), then only that risk factor and its PMs would have to be reviewed. However, all risk factors and PMs are to reviewed during the three-year cyclical review.
Step 3 - Recommendations
Example – After looking at Tab 4 - PMs and resources, the committee decided to recommend that inappropriate jokes in a workplace setting needed to be discouraged and that supervisors need training on diversity and inclusion.
Note: A workplace does not have to use the resources and PMs listed in Tab 4, it is not an exhaustive list. If a workplace has had no issues with the risk factor in question the current PMs may be sufficient.

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Screenshot of Step 3 - Recommendations.
Step 4 - Accountability
Example – The CO (CoC/manager) and committee agreed on the recommendations. The CO assigned an OPI.
Note: Once recommend PM actions are complete the completion date can be entered into the WHVP assessment.

Caption
Screenshot of Step 4 – Accountability.
Record Keeping
The following records must be kept for a period of 10 years, are kept by the workplace/unit (normally kept with Safety Committee records), and are to be made available to the workplace:
- Documents that form part of the WHVP Assessment;
- Documents that form part of each review and update of the WHVP Assessment; and
- A record of the CoC/manager’s decision in the matter and the reasons for that decision for instances where the safety committee or Health and Safety Representatives are unable to agree on a matter that is required to be jointly done by them.
The following records are kept by the Designated Recipient (DR) section and must be kept for a period of 10 years:
- A record of each NoO submitted to them and of each action taken in response to the NoO;
- For each instance where the one-year time limit is not met and a document that sets out the reasons for the delay;
- Each report that is prepared by an investigator; and
- Each fatality report.
Note: All NoOs as well as supporting documents must be kept in a safe and secure location (Protected B).
Where to find more information?
For general information on the WHVP Program, please visit the Workplace Harassment and Violence Prevention Program website. It contains a lot of valuable information such as:
- How to report an incident;
- How to contact the WHVP Centre of Expertise;
- Applicable Policy and Regulations;
- Tools and templates for CoC/manager and employees/members including communication templates and letters, process charts and videos;
- Training requirements;
- WHVP assessment guide and information; and
- Emergency procedures and support services information.
Thank you for completing this self paced training.
Please contact de CoE for further questions or guidance: WHVPCoE-PHVCE@forces.gc.ca
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