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:

Note: The Prevention part of the program applies to the entire Defence Team and is outlined in the following DAOD and 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:

Designated Recipients (DR) are required to complete:

In addition, a training addendum provides information specific to the culture, conditions and activities of the DND workplace.

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Roles and Responsibilities

Next, we will look at some of the roles and responsibilities within the WHVP program.

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:

Note: CoC/manager refers to someone who has the authority to act on the committee’s recommendations.

CoC/ Managers

Defence Team members (Including Principal Party (PP), Responding Party (RP) and witnesses)

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:

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WHVP Assessments

Next, we are going to look at the WHVP Assessment, specifically:

Purpose and Applicability

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:

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:

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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.

Caption

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

Caption

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:

The following is a useful list of questions the committee can ask when reviewing the preventive measures (PMs):

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.

Caption

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.

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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:

The following records are kept by the Designated Recipient (DR) section and must be kept for a period of 10 years:

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:

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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