The Bank of Montreal is supporting employee mental health through an enhanced employee assistance program, an upcoming Indigenous cognitive behavioural therapy tool and an internal wellness conference.
In April, the bank launched an EAP service delivery model where employees can now speak directly to a trained clinician when calling the EAP, instead of waiting to be triaged. It’s also planning to launch an Indigenous CBT tool for employees that was developed using culturally-relevant therapeutic approaches.
“We wanted to ensure that specific demographic had something that helped them feel supported in their mental health,” says Amy Squire, senior manager of enterprise wellness at BMO. “It’s so important to support [Indigenous employees] and we’re excited to add that to our regular CBT. Of course, anyone can use both CBTs if they wish, but we wanted to [provide an additional resource] for Indigenous employees.”
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Through its benefits plan, BMO also offers its employees $7,000 in coverage for accessing licensed mental-health professionals. “We want to make sure we provide sufficient financial support for people when they need it,” says Sarika Gundu, head of Canadian benefits and enterprise recognition at BMO. “We also . . . updated our mental-health navigation guide and are continuing to amplify it.”
Gundu notes the bank has seen increased utilization with its mental-health coverage and noticed some distinctions in the different user populations. “When we look at the utilization and listen to people’s feedback, people aren’t just using this coverage as a reactive program, it’s become part of their self care, [especially for] younger professionals. It’s interesting how utilization has evolved over time, but then, of course, you still have people who are using it for a crisis or [immediate situation].”
Additionally, for Mental Health Awareness Month, BMO recently hosted an internal mental-health conference that focused on helping employees to thrive through different wellness resources. The conference was designed to foster open, authentic conversations about mental health in the workplace, says Squire.
“Last year, we focused on resilience and what building resilience looks like, and now we’re more focused on performance and how we’re bouncing back and thriving. We examined thriving and anti-fragility and what that means in our daily life. It’s like, ‘These are the challenges I face, so what am I doing with that now? What did I learn from this? What can I do better next time?’”
She adds when it comes to utilization for the EAP and wellness resources, the company tends to see bigger increases following events like the conference, because it’s being discussed openly and there’s less stigma around using the program.
It’s important to amplify the resources that are available, says Gundu, noting the bank has five generations of employees and everyone is going through their own life cycle, so it’s not a one-size-fits-all when it comes to amplification.
“We have to do it through things like the conference, communicating it by talking about thriving and linking it to our bank strategy. And we evolve our amplification each year . . . trying to do different things to hit people differently. We also recognize navigation can be hard because there’s so [much information]. We can amplify, but we have to let them know how to access the resources as well.”
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