Health and wellness take top priority at EDC

Mohammad Al Jarrah, a risk analyst for Export Development Canada (EDC), was on his honeymoon in Jordan when COVID19 hit and the couple had to cut their trip short to catch the last flight back to Canada. As they adjusted to a new normal working from home in their one-bedroom apartment, tragedy struck.

Four months into the pandemic, they went through a miscarriage.

“It was a crazy, crazy year and I realized it was time to reach out for help,” says Al Jarrah. “I knew support was there but never needed it until we had such big life events happen in such a small time period. It was tough mentally for both of us.”

Besides his manager’s support, Al Jarrah tapped into EDC’s Employee Family Assistance Program. Given that there were so many people stressed by the pandemic, he expected a long queue, but connected with a counsellor within the week.

EDC, an Ottawa-based Crown corporation and national export credit agency that helps Canadian businesses expand internationally, had increased support for mental health and wellness at the start of the pandemic. This includes enabling employees facing extenuating circumstances to take paid special leave, making additional wellness resources such as Virtual Healthcare available through a flexible benefit plan, and providing a separate allotment to support health and wellness in the past year.

“The support system to speak to a counsellor extended to my wife as well,” says Al Jarrah. “If my wife isn’t doing well, I won’t be doing well, so it was nice that help was available to both of us for as long as we needed it.

“On that first call, my wife and I opened up about things that we hadn’t spoken about before, so it was instrumental to our healing.”

By sharing his story, Al Jarrah hopes to inspire others to get mental health support when they need it.

“I grew up in a culture where you just don’t speak about these things,” says Al Jarrah. “I’m sure other people are going through similar crises so if this helps someone reach out, I’d feel really good about that.”

Al Jarrah says these supports are essential to any company that wants to help employees with work-life balance.

“I’ve always felt EDC is a place where you can thrive at work and life, simply because they set you up to succeed at both.”

President and CEO Mairead Lavery says EDC changed its wellness and benefits program because this year was challenging for a lot of employees in terms of mental health – and “you can’t just have all words and good feelings” without backing it up with concrete action.

“My human resources team ensured there was frequent communication, that leaders were briefed and employees were provided with necessary support,” she says. “We also enhanced the overall benefits we offer. For example, we never had access to doctors online before, but now we have that as part of our health benefits program.”

“Making sure our workforce is healthy is our number 1 priority because we can’t continue to support Canadian companies unless we actually achieve that,” says Lavery.

“Crisis is the mother of invention. We’ve learned some positive things during this time that we shouldn’t forget, such as how we can come together as a community, how we can change our policies on a dime to make it a bit easier to work, how we rely on the flexibility and the passion of our employees and to never forget that.

“In the darkest moments, that’s when you need to come to the table and demonstrate your values.”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's Canada's Top 100 Employers winners, published November 12, 2021 in The Globe and Mail. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.