As the son of a superintendent, Zeke Smith literally grew up in construction. Now as the head of the People Operations at a large Houston commercial construction company, Satterfield & Pontikes, he’s seen the ugly side of construction rear its head in recent years: suicide. Suicide is now the leading cause of fatality in construction, an industry that prides itself on worker safety. This episode dives into why construction has been hit so hard with suicide, and some ways Zeke is lending his voice to build awareness of mental health in the industry. 

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Leigh-Ann Ing is the Director of Global Wellness and Benefits Strategy at OMERS. Beyond her professional experience in employee mental wellbeing, she has lived through burnout at various points in her career. In this episode, she walks us through handling burnout in high performance cultures and how organizations can better support employees dealing with excessive stress to build a culture of psychological safety.

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Dr. Scott B Patten is a professor at the University of Calgary and one of the leading Psychiatric Epidemiologists in the world. Dr. Patten’s research focuses on Major Depressive Disorders, and in this episode he talks about how machine learning is influencing his field, how the pandemic has impacted his work, as well as the research around how our mental health has been affected through the pandemic. 

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Stephane Grenier is a Canadian veteran, Mental Health Innovator, and author of "After the War: Surviving PTSD and Changing Mental Health Culture". Stephane is known for his efforts to rehumanize workplaces through peer support, as well as for coining the term Operational Stress Injury to describe psychological injuries caused by military service. In this episode, Stephane discusses his transition out of the military, social support and its impact on mental health, how to develop a support network within your organization, and shares more details about his experiences. 

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Do you ever wonder how athletes like Andre De Grasse deal with immense stress so they can perform consistently under pressure? How they appear so calm in the big moment despite the gravity of the situation? Elite athletes are not just physical specimens - they put in serious work on the mental side to prepare for big performances. This special episode we had a special chance to visit with 10x Olympic and World Championship Medalist, Andre De Grasse, in his last hours on North American soil before the Olympics in Tokyo. He takes us through what it takes to perform mentally and some of his routines that have led to him becoming the most decorated Canadian male Olympian of all time. 

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Gregory John is the President of Four Peaks Development, a company built around creating opportunities for Indigenous people in the energy sector. As someone who is Metis, Gregory has done amazing work brokering relationships between First Nations and organizations, particularly in resource development. Gregory speaks with us about Indigenous relations with corporate partners in the oil & gas sector and the important work of building bridges that is being done in this space. 

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Andrea Hardie is the Director of Health & Safety at Petroleum Services Association of Canada (PSAC), an organization that looks after important health, safety, and environmental initiatives in the Oil & Gas sector, working with over 200 organizations in Canada. She and Ryan discuss the progress of mental health in the Oil & Gas sector, how stigma still affects change, and how mental health now sits front and center in the health & safety discussion.

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A special episode of Beyond the Checkbox took place live at the HRD HR Mental Health 2021 conference on May 11th, where Ryan had the opportunity to moderate a panel that included Nabeela Ixtaban, EVP of People & Corporate Affairs at Walmart Canada, Sandy McIntosh, EVP People & Culture and CHRO at TELUS, and Sapna Mahajan, Director, Genomics and Society and Genome Canada. This group of powerhouse leaders discussed how to shape the workplace of tomorrow by building a strong foundation for mental health and employee wellbeing. 

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Rob Vanstone is a Sports Editor and Columnist with the Regina Leader-Post, where he is well known for covering the Saskatchewan Roughriders football team. On Bell Let's Talk day in January of 2021, Rob disclosed to the world that he has been suffering from mental illness for much of his life, living in the shadows of stigma, where it took years to even admit to his wife what he was going through. Rob discusses his mental health story, how he's lived with anxiety and depression, and how it's impacted him since disclosing to the world. 

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Gethin Nadin is an award-winning psychologist and employee wellbeing expert. His book, titled A World of Good, saw him travel around the world and glean lessons from what organizations are doing - or not doing - when it comes to engaging with employees on a human level. This episode covers the shift to putting employee experience front and center for organizations and why this is now so critical. 

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