Running head: WORKPLACE CASE STUDY 1

Mental Health & Addictions: Workplace Mental Health Case Study

Ngoc (Megan) Vuong – N01238584

Humber College

Professor Sonali Sagare

November 25, 2020

WORKPLACE CASE STUDY 2

Workplace Mental Health Case Study: Dollarama

Part A: Dollarama’s Mental Health Policy Assessment

Dollarama was founded in 1992 in Matane, Quebec, by Canadian entrepreneur Larry

Rossy. The company is known as a Canadian value retailer with over 1,000 locations across
Canada. Dollarama’s mission is to provide customers with a range of general merchandise,
necessities and seasonal items at low and fixed price points (Dollarama, n.d.).

According to Dollarama Employee Handbook (n.d.), in terms of employee benefits,

Dollarama currently offers a comprehensive Group Insurance Plan (for full-time employees),
Pension Plan (optional), and Sick Pay (for hourly paid employees). Some policies considering
employees’ health and wellness include:

 Alcohol and Drug Policy: employees are prohibited to use, consume, possess, distribute,
sell or transfer alcohol, drug, and drug paraphernalia.
 Return to Work Policy: assisting employees who have been injured on the job to return to
work in a timely and safe manner.
 Modified Work Program: providing suitable modified duties or hours to an employee
who is unable to perform their normal duties as a consequence of injury, illness or
diminished capacity.
 Violence and Harassment Prevention Policy: Dollarama is committed to taking every
reasonable step to provide a workplace environment that is free of any form of
harassment and threats of physical violence. (Dollarama, n.d.)

The company also offers equal employment opportunities, break and meal policies, night
premiums, overtime pay, bereavement leave, maternity leave (Quebec only), paid
holiday/vacation/birthday pay (for eligible employees only) (Dollarama Employee Handbook,
n.d.). On each Dollarama store’s bulletin board, there are posters of:

 Harassment, Discrimination, Violence and Bullying Prevention and Accessibility

Standards for Customer Service Program
 Health & Safety and Return to Work Statement (referring to the Return to Work Policy)
 Employment Standards in Ontario
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Part B: Existing Mental Health Practice Evaluation and Recommendations

Dollarama aims to create and maintain a healthy and safe working environment for all
employees. However, other than the discussed policies and programs, Dollarama does not have
an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) or any specific mental health programs for their
employees. Employees’ mental health is not really discussed in the company’s current employee
benefits.

There are also some limitations with the company’s employee benefit packages. Firstly, full-
time employees are only eligible for the Group Insurance Plan after they complete their first
1,000 hours worked. To obtain full-time status, an employee needs to work for 25 hours or more
for a period of sixteen (16) consecutive weeks. Once successfully obtaining full-time status,
employees can automatically become part-timers if they work less than twenty-five hours for
four (4) consecutive weeks, excluding approved absences (Dollarama, n.d.). I have worked as a
part-timer at a Dollarama store for 13 months and currently among 27 employees, the store only
has 5 full-timers including 1 store manager, 1 assistance store manager, 2 assistance team
leaders, and 1 store associate. Therefore, it is a challenge to achieve full-time status at
Dollarama. Secondly, the Pension Plan requires employees to choose having 1%, 2%, 3%, 4% or
5% of their admissible earnings from each pay period saved to the Company pension plan and
they must remain in the plan until such time as the employee retires or they leave the company
(Dollarama, n.d.). Thirdly, the Sick Pay is only available to employees having more than one (1)
year of continuous service as a full-time employee and they receive only one percent (1%) of
their admissible earnings to compensate for days missed due to illness which is not a significant
amount to support the employees financially.

The recommendations for Dollarama workplace are to foster mental health and wellness
attitude and culture of health within the company by modifying the organizational climate and
management practices. The company can start with recognizing employees’ contribution
effectively such as offering in-store gift cards or one paid day-off for employee of the month as
an incentive to increase employees’ level of productivity, improves employee engagement and
reduces the employee turnover (CCOHS, 2020). Next, creating and maintaining open
communication about mental health in the workplace is important to build trust, promote
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employee- employer relationship and generate useful feedback for the organization’s growth
(CCOHS, 2020). Lastly, Dollarama can offer stress management techniques in form of
infographic attaching on the bulletin board in employee lunch room. This method can foster
mental health awareness amongst employees.

Practically speaking, as a business, Dollarama will look into cost-saving solutions. These
strategies are simple, easy to apply and, at the same time, support the employees holistically
(considering their working environment, work-family balance, workplace dynamic, and self-
awareness). The implementation would require the cooperation and practices from the
management levels. Therefore, it can be a good start if the company considers to provide mental
health support to their employees.

Part C: Mental Health Commission Canada Toolkit Checklist

The Mental Health Commission Canada Toolkit Checklist was developed by Mental Health
Commission of Canada and Canadian Mental Health Association . According to the Toolkit
Checklist, Dollarama has already adopted some of the strategies including:

 A policy on accommodation
 An anti-bullying policy
 A harassment policy
 A staff code of conduct
 Previous experience implementing other standards
 A critical incident process or program
 An employee training program/ a management program where a mental health module
might fit

Among 18 checklists, there are 11 tactics the company can consider to implement to address
psychological health and safety in Dollarama workplace. Therefore, my suggestion is that
Dollarama should begin with developing mental health support strategies from the existing
programs. As the company already have an employee training program, they can include a
mental health section including substance related, mood related, anxiety and trauma related, and
psychotic disorders to equip employees with sufficient knowledge to recognize symptoms and
interact confidently about mental health with their co-workers. The organization can also carry
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an employee mental health survey to gather feedback and provide necessary support. Dollarama
can also enhance and add mental health services (such as psychologist consulting session with
70% fee coverage per session) to the current Group Insurance Plan and facilitate the accessibility
to the benefit plan for more employees (giving competent employees enough hours to help them
obtain full-time status.)

Part D: Policies and Practices Recommendation

Based on the recommendations I made in part B and C, the first thing Dollarama should
do is to execute a policy that train qualified employees (store managers and assistance store
managers) to assist other employees who are experiencing mental health challenges or illnesses.
Instead of paying external health specialists to train their employees, the train-the-trainers
approach can help Dollarama save costs in a long-run. The training session can be proceeded
based on the Plan-Do-Check-Act Procedure:

1. “Plan” Stage

Through Employee Mental Health Survey, Dollarama gathers feedback and data on the
prominent and common mental health issues. With the help of an external health
specialist, customized Mental Health First Aid training materials will be developed.

2. “Do” Stage

All managers and assistance managers from Dollarama stores will be trained and
equipped with skills and knowledge about workplace mental health issues so they can
assist their direct subordinates (store associates and assistance team leaders) when they
are in need.

3. “Check” Stage

During the first eight months, a quarterly survey will be handed to the employees via
emails to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of the policy. Any feedback from
employees will provide the company an insight to further improve the practices and assist
employees better in mental health aspects.

4. “Act” Stage
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Implement the policy and make it mandatory for employees to complete training sessions
before they are promoted as a manager or assistance manager. In this stage, the previous
managers will train the new managers using the customized Mental Health First Aid
training materials to save costs for the company.

Overall, the policy will promote and enhance the psychological health of the workplace
including efforts to build employee resilience, create a respectful workplace, and eliminate
stigma around mental health topics.
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References

Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety. (2020). Mental health – how to address and
support. OSH answers fact sheets. Retrieved from
https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/psychosocial/mentalhealth_address.html

Canadian Mental Health Association, Mental Health Commission of Canada. (2020). Toolkit
Checklists [PDF]. Retrieved from https://learn.humber.ca/webapps/bb-social-learning-
BB5e73d824c25b6/execute/mybb?cmd=display&toolId=AlertsOnMyBb____AlertsTool

Dollarama. (n.d.). About us. Retrieved from https://www.dollarama.com/en-ca/corp/about-us?

origin=footer&c1=dollarama&c2=about-us&clickedon=about-us

Dollarama. (n.d.). Dollarama code of conduct and ethics [PDF]. Retrieved from
dollarama.com/en-CA/corp/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/COC-EN.pdf

Dollarama. (n.d.). Employee Handbook. Quebec, Canada