Canadian Organizations Gain Innovative New Pathway to Crisis Readiness with Excellence Canada and Crisis-Ready Workplace
Rising workplace stress, burnout, presenteeism, and mental health related absenteeism and disabilities are increasing demand for earlier identification and intervention. At the same time, evolving Human Rights legislation, Collective Agreements, Employment law, and OHS duty of care around psychological health and safety requires employers to demonstrate proactive risk mitigation. Employers are now expected to protect and support employees beyond traditional occupational health and safety programs and outsourced mental health solutions.
The partnership connects Excellence Canada’s nationally recognized workplace excellence frameworks with Crisis-Ready Workplace, an internationally accredited certification program, to create a practical pathway for organizations to build crisis readiness within existing occupational health and safety (OHS), psychological health and safety (PHS) and workplace mental health programs.
For more than 30 years, Excellence Canada has supported Canadian organizations through frameworks focused on organizational excellence, healthy workplaces, and mental health at work, helping leaders assess performance, implement improvements, and sustain cultures of continuous improvement.
The Crisis-Ready Workplace program complements these frameworks with evidence-informed training designed to align with the CSA Z1003 Psychological Health and Safety (PHS) Standard. A Crisis-Ready Workplace promotes the benefits and value of “Humans helping Humans” with Crisis-Ready Interventionists (CRI) trained to recognize early warning signs of psychosocial risk, and employee distress. These trained CRIs are prepared to confidently and safely defuse, de-escalate and support employees at risk or in crisis.
Since launching in January 2024, Crisis-Ready Workplace has already demonstrated strong demand across sectors. Early adoption includes five cohorts delivered, more than 240 Crisis-Ready Interventionists trained, 24 certified trainers, and five strategic partners supporting implementation.
“Organizations are increasingly aware that risk management and employee well-being can no longer be treated as separate priorities,” said Dr. Bill Howatt, founder of Crisis-Ready Workplace and an internationally recognized PHS and workplace mental health expert. “Frameworks help organizations understand what good looks like. Crisis-Ready Workplace builds the practical capability inside organizations by certifying employees who can recognize risks early and intervene safely as a bridge to professional mental health support.”
“Organizations striving for excellence are already committed to building environments where people can perform and thrive,” said Sean Slater, President and CEO of Excellence Canada. “By partnering with Crisis-Ready Workplace, we are strengthening the pathway from excellence frameworks to practical workplace capability, helping organizations translate standards into meaningful action that supports both performance and employee well-being.”
Together, Excellence Canada and Crisis-Ready Workplace will support organizations across sectors including healthcare, education, first responders, construction, government, manufacturing, financial services, and technology to strengthen prevention, early risk identification, and workplace readiness for Canadians.
To learn more, please visit: www.excellence.ca/crisis-ready-workplace/
About Crisis-Ready Workplace
Crisis-Ready Workplace is a training and certification organization focused on prevention and early intervention in the workplace. Founded by Dr. Bill Howatt who has over 30 years of applied clinical work and research in the field of human behavior, mental health and crisis intervention alongside Brooke Robinson and Denise Waligora, the organization certifies employees as Crisis-Ready Interventionists, empowering workplaces with trained upstanders who can identify risks others may miss and take responsible action before issues escalate.
About Excellence Canada
Excellence Canada is an independent, not-for-profit organization that champions organizational excellence and competitiveness across Canada. Through standards, certification, consulting, and recognition programs, it supports businesses and institutions in improving their performance and achieving sustainable success. Excellence Canada's sole purpose is to help other organizations be better at what they do.
Media Contacts:
Brooke Robinson
Crisis-Ready Workplace
brooke@crisisreadyworkplace.com
416-886-5706
Sean Slater
Excellence Canada
sean@excellence.ca
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