One of the many things Horizon School Division strives to achieve is a good working environment for all of their staff so they can better assist all the students in their studies. At the most recent board meeting on Jan. 23, Robbie Charlebois, associate superintendent of Human Services at Horizon School Division, announced the progress that has been achieved.

“Horizon has made increased efforts to focus on staff wellness,” said Charlebois. “We did the work survey, we had 346 staff participate in the survey which we were thrilled about. We got some really valuable data from that survey. We partnered with Edcan Well at Work advisors to go through the data. They created a report, focusing on our strengths and areas that we might need to grow. One of the comments was that we had some of the most positive results that they have seen across Canada as far as workplace wellness data. We took that as a very positive — of course, there’s always work to be done so we’re pulling back the layers and looking for more data to improve in some areas to make sure that Horizon is taking care of our employees and making sure we have the most positive and healthy workspaces.”

With the data, Horizon is able to better pinpoint what exactly needs to be worked on to improve the mental well-being of its staff. Charlebois touched on some of the exact aspects that they will be looking at.

“One of the things that we might focus more on through an advisory committee focus group (is) balance in the workplace, workload management, recognition, and reward areas. Obviously, some areas take a longer time to get to or improve than others and then there are others that we can make very quick improvements on. We’re looking at all of those things and want as much staff feedback as possible as we move forward.”

Additionally, the data also reveals some of the elements the school division has been exceptional in.

“One thing that we were really celebrating was the level of staff engagement,” said Charlebois. “Our staff are highly engaged, they’re committed to working in Horizon School Division, and contributing to the success of our students, and the success of Horizon School Division. We are going to leverage that engagement by including that employee voice in feedback as we look to improve wellness and Horizon.”

Ian Croft, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Taber Times