Corporate

©2021 Workplace Safety & Prevention Services. All rights reserved. 2 The events of the last twelve months have pushed organizations and individuals to the limit. Sadly, many families, communities, and businesses have been devastated by COVID. Many are still hanging on by a thread, trying to adapt to new health and safety requirements, continued lockdowns, and stay-at-home orders. And, we are all bracing for a possible third wave. This survey, quite unintentionally, has revealed just how devastating it can be when businesses are not committed to health and safety. By pure chance, we captured responses, pre-pandemic, that we can now compare with responses one year into the crisis. If ever there was a business case for investing in the health and wellbeing of employees, customers, stakeholders, and the community, it can be found in these pages. Having a health and safety culture has helped leading survey respondents to weather this storm, and 76% of them say they have experienced low or reduced infection rates because of their commitment to health and safety. The maturity of WSPS' health and safety culture allowed us to respond swiftly. When the pandemic was declared on March 12th, we moved into action. Our priority was to ensure the safety of staff and to stabilize operations. Virtually overnight, staff members, many of whom did not work at home on a full-time basis, were set up to do so and transformed into a remote operation. We weren't alone. Labour force figures released in January 2021 show that the number of remote workers in Canada has risen by 700,000 to 5.4 million so it's not surprising that remote work appears in the top five emerging issues this year. The number of respondents highlighting this issue grew to 49% — an increase of 31%. In the early days of the crisis, we made sure staff members were comfortable and had what they needed to do their work. When it became evident that we needed to do so, we made sure people had more permanent, ergonomic workstations in their homes. We were also mindful that the pandemic was affecting every one of our employees differently. They were learning how to blend their home and work lives, managing the natural fear and anxiety associated with a pandemic. Many were helping children adjust to online learning, or caring for aging parents, or both. And, sadly, some were attending to sick family members. Our Pandemic Response Team developed the tools and processes to make sure we could protect our staff from the risks associated with these realities, such as stress and anxiety, loneliness, isolation, and depression. LETTER FROM LYNN BROWNELL PRESIDENT AND CEO, WSPS LETTER

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