2012-2013 Departmental Performance Reports

Performance Analysis and Lessons Learned

As a national institute, CCOHS undertakes a wide range of activities to achieve its objectives. These activities include the following:

• The provision of technical documents, data and related safety information to workers, workplaces and the health and safety community, Canadian workplace communities and the education system. An important element of these activities is to improve the coordination of the flow of occupational health and safety information.
• The promotion and evaluation of research on occupational health and safety issues.
• The provision of expert advice and training in occupational health and safety.
• Participation in meetings and conferences to contribute to improving prevention of safety and health problems.
• Other activities consistent with the mandate of promoting improved health and safety in the workplace and enhance the physical and mental health of Canadian workers.

Workplace health is an essential component of overall health of Canadians. CCOHS contributes to Canada's goal of a healthy population, sustainable development, improving workplace productivity, safe communities, and Canada's role in the world. CCOHS works closely with labour, business and all levels of government to establish high standards for occupational health and safety, to foster consultation and co-operation, and reduce or eliminate occupational hazards.

CCOHS organizes its activities to meet the expected results linked to our program activity and strategic outcome:

• Easy access to occupational health and safety information and services
• Application of occupational health and safety (OHS) information to improve workplace practices
• Increased awareness and understanding of occupational health and safety issues in the workplace
• Partial recovery of costs from user fees (raise other revenues)

Easy access to occupational health and safety information and services

This service is partially funded by contributions from Canadian provinces and territories. The primary risk to this goal is the funding provided as each jurisdiction has its own goals and priorities. Another risk is the large volume of information available from other sources free on the internet.

In order to mitigate this risk, CCOHS strives to distinguish itself as a trusted and reliable source of information by keeping information current and relevant to users. CCOHS also adds value by providing information web portals and partnerships with trusted organizations so users can rely on the credibility of the data provided.

CCOHS offers an Inquiries Service that has fully trained information officers who specialize in occupational health and safety and information retrieval. CCOHS has extensive publications, a worldwide database and an in-house library to provide current and relevant answers to Canadian inquiries. In addition, we have a self-serve website, OSH Answers that answers 7.5 million on-line inquiries to 4.5 million unique visitors. Our person-to-person service answered 8,226 inquiries directly. Our recent client satisfaction survey provided results as follows:

Inquiries Service Satisfaction Survey

Source: CCOHS survey of clients April 1, 2012 to March 31, 2013, 765 respondents.

CCOHS performs its own surveys on an ongoing basis as evaluations are done every 4 to 5 years. Our internal surveys are done within two to four weeks after service delivery.

CCOHS provides additional information through copyright requests resulting in 201,799 copies of CCOHS information being made available to the public through many institutions. These distributions are shared with many more users.

Our OSH Answers survey indicated 87.4% of respondents felt satisfied or very satisfied with the information available from CCOHS. The information from OSH answers helped directly or indirectly a great many more individuals. 27.7% answered between 21- 200 people and 23 % answered between 201-2000 people. The features of OSH Answers website were also very highly rated.

CCOHS developed and maintains several web portals on various topics such as workplace health, pandemic planning, CanOsh, and NAOSH.

CCOHS also publishes guides and other documents each year to reach workers as an on the job tool. There are currently 29 titles available. This year, two new manuals WHMIS (after GHS) Trainers tool kit and PPE for Workers were in production. Revisions were done to two other guides. Our satisfaction survey for publications indicates a 96% satisfaction rate and a 96% recommendation rate. Clients feel publications delivers good value for money, stating 96% satisfied or very satisfied. Over 96% said that the publication helped them improve their understanding of health and safety. Over 76% said this publication may lead to changes in the workplace that may improve occupational health and safety.

Application of occupational health and safety (OHS) information to improve workplace practices

The goal of providing information is to improve workplace practices which ultimately reduces workplace injuries. CCOHS provides many tools to assist with applying safe work practices. CCOHS promotes collaboration and exchanges through national dialogues, forums, and conferences to increase applications in the workplace and improve practices.

CCOHS has several internet portals that help improve practices through compliance and providing best practice information. Many of these web portals are developed through collaborations with several health and safety organizations. Some examples include Canadian School Board Safety Zone Web Portal, Advancing Healthy Workplaces, Pandemic Planning, Young Workers Zone, CanOSH, EU-Canada collaboration and Healthy Minds at work. Full details about the reach as well as content are included in our annual report

Recent research indicates that only 21% of employees receive training on a new job. New employees are at a higher risk of injury. Training and education is one of the most effective ways to improve employers' and workers' awareness of their rights and responsibilities for health and safety. CCOHS offers extensive training through e-learning, customized courses and traditional classroom courses.

CCOHS reached over 35,000 employees through its e-learning program and our awareness program has been accessed over 118,000 times. There are currently 94 topics available on a wide range of health and safety topics. These courses help workplaces achieve compliance, train staff, managers and Health and Safety Committee members and improve health and safety in their workplaces. The courses have an overall approval rating of 97.6% and 65% stated the information would be used to make changes in the workplace in order to improve occupational health and safety. Students find the courses very beneficial. Here is a recent quote: " It was interesting because I have not taken manual materials handling before. So it brought to my attention the details that I should be paying attention to. For example, lifting and moving boxes as simple as that sounds it can turn into an injury if the proper precautions are not taken."

Our goal is to reduce injuries and illnesses. Education has a direct impact on that goal.

Increased awareness and understanding of occupational health and safety issues in the Workplace

CCOHS has a broad awareness and communications strategy that encompasses a wide variety of communications methods including social media, conferences, media relations, membership programs, web portals, podcasts, webcasts, newsletters and other events.

The Health and Safety report is a free monthly e-newsletter to those who sign up for the service. The content is widely reproduced by other organizations to enhance their own health and safety programs. There was a 4.8% growth this fiscal year and a 98% satisfaction rating, the report is distributed to over 33,000 readers and with the share rate the monthly reach is almost 600,000. The content from the Report was also heavily repurposed by other organizations and publications this year, resulting in an exponential audience read of 2.4 million.

Our poster program aims to help raise awareness of workplace health and safety issues. We currently have 23 posters on a wide range of topics. Recent poster topics include Chemical Entry Points to the Body; Three Basic Rights of Workers in Canada and GHS pictograms. These posters have been downloaded 31,825 times and 3,105 posters were sold.

Webinars and podcasts are also available that reach a broad audience. Free podcasts are a cost effective way to reach over 40,077 listens. There are currently 111 active episodes to choose from. They are carried on iTunes, the CCOHS website and we upload RSS feeds onto 12 podcast directory listings. Several organizations, educational institutions and companies have requested permission to list links to CCOHS podcasts from their own sites. The French language podcasts have become popular with 25-30% of English listen rates.

There are many other communication initiatives such as Workspace Web Discussion Board, North American Occupational Safety and Health Week (NAOSH) , public Forums and the National Day of Mourning.

CCOHS monitors trends in workplace health and adapts programs to meet the needs. Recently a new web portal was launched promoting Healthy Minds at Work, to help workplaces recognize, understand and address mental health issues. Mental health issues at work have a negative impact on Canadian workplaces. Employers, large and small are increasingly investing in workplace programs, policies, and practices that help prevent and manage poor mental health. Additional resources were added to this portal during fiscal 2012-13 and Mental Health was also the focus for Forum IV.

Forum IV – Better Together was a national tripartite forum held in Nova Scotia in October 2012. This was launched as part of our goal to undertake initiatives that lead to increased impact on Canadian workplace health and safety. Participants responded that 91.3% were satisfied with the knowledge enrichment from the event and the same percentage indicated that they would consider attending a future Forum.

CCOHS uses social media to broaden its reach and dissenminate information. This includes Twitter, Facebook and our Blog (Health and Safety matters). We have had a 46% increase in our twitter followers, 88% increase in "fans' and 5,373 views of our blog. CCOHS recently added Linked In, Pinterest and Google+ profiles to the social media mix further expanding its social media presence. The result is a Klout Score of 52 . A Klout Score is the measurement of someone's overall online influence. The score ranges from 1 to 100 (the higher the score, the better). Klout measures True Reach, Amplification Probability, and Network Score to represent ones sphere of influence.

Given the widespread reach of CCOHS materials and reproduction rates increased awareness and understanding can be attributed to these activities. This has been established through our independent evaluation reports which can be found at: http://www.ccohs.ca/ccohs/reports/other_reports.html

Lessons Learned

Clients want information on demand and in many different formats to meet their needs. Through continual client feedback through our performance management systems, CCOHS is able to address needs and identify trends quickly. Our feedback identifies emerging issues that are relevant for Canadian workplaces, and CCOHS has identified free and paid services to support future health, safety and wellness needs. Recent examples include mental health, workplace wellness and changes to WHMIS due to the implementation of the Globally Harmonized System for Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS). Emerging issues drive development of new webinars, e-learning, OSH Answers, web portals, podcasts and articles for our health and safety report.

We have learned that traditional database services are not in demand, but that clients expect to find resources instantly through web-based, App-based and social-media resources. When there are changes in legislation, current events and best practices we need to respond quickly. In order to expand our reach we need to adopt new technologies quickly. It is also critical to keep our employees engaged since improved engagement leads to improved employee health, workplace health and wellness.