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What is the #momentsmatter campaign?

• #momentsmatter is a three year, province-wide campaign that celebrates Alberta leaders who are taking a personal role in building positive and respectful workplace cultures that promote health and safety – and help stop sexual harassment.

• At a time when organizations are facing various challenges, and all are prioritizing the psychological and physical health of their staff, and building more inclusive workplaces, this campaign is designed to help. 

• Despite efforts, sexual harassment remains a problem in Canadian workplaces. In Alberta, 1 in 5 workers have been sexually harassed. 

• We know from research that a caring and inclusive workplace culture is an important primary defence against sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is less likely to occur in a positive and respectful workplace environment.

• Most people understand that a positive workplace culture is important for personal well-being, team success, and job performance.  But how to create positive cultures can be a bit of a mystery.

• Through simple, relatable stories, we’re showing Alberta leaders how easy it can be to strengthen and grow positive workplace cultures that help people feel safe and supported, help them grow and succeed – and help stop sexual harassment.

This campaign encourages people to use positive work stories as a vehicle for influencing workplace culture. Hearing or telling real life stories that demonstrate the power of simple, everyday, respectful and caring work relationships encourages people to continue to emulate these positive behaviours--leading to more of the same.

What are the campaign values?

We believe that:

• Addressing sexual harassment is an important part of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts that support safe and healthy workplaces.

• Positive workplace cultures that are healthy, inclusive and safe effectively address sexual harassment.

• Respected leaders build workplace cultures of trust that help stop sexual harassment, one moment at a time, by:

o   protecting and defending employees;

o   helping employees grow and succeed;

o   showing employees they care; and

o   preventing and addressing sexual harassment.

• We can be inspired by stories inside or outside the workplace, from the past as well as the present.

• We know that no workplace is perfect. By joining the campaign and working together, we can all get better. And it’s never too late to start.

  
  
  

How does my organization participate? 

Participation is easy and free. Here’s how it works:

1.     Review and commit to our campaign values (above).

2.     Join our leaderboard by providing your logo (PNG format).

3.     Use and share our free campaign assets which come with a toolkit and instructions.

4.     Share and create your own moments that matter stories. Organizations often start off meetings with safety moments. #momentsmatter stories are similar to these safety moments, but also speak to psychological health and safety, and protection from sexual harassment.

• Begin meetings with a #momentsmatter conversation;

• Capture and share stories weekly via intranet, newsletters; and

• Share your stories with us so we can amplify them across the province.

5. Help us grow and evolve the campaign over the next several years by offering your feedback to AASAS as we evaluate and refine over the life of the campaign.

What about not so happy stories?

This campaign is focused on prevention. But remembering positive workplace moments can also trigger people to remember workplace moments where they felt unsafe, disrespected and harmed. People may remember moments when someone sexually harassed them.  This campaign will help enhance access to support through: 

• Alberta's One-Line for Sexual Violence:

  • available province-wide by talk and text 1-866-403-8000, or webchat www.aasas.ca; 

  • where people who have experienced workplace sexual harassment can access sexual violence specialized, confidential, neutral support and connection to resources, and help employees make supported and informed decisions around their next steps.

If your workplace concern is related to harm or discrimination other than sexual violence, visit the Workers’ Resource Centre or the Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre. To access public legal information visit the Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta.

Why now? 

Despite efforts, sexual harassment remains a problem in Canadian workplaces. In Alberta, 1 in 5 workers have been sexually harassed.

The research points to various issues in workplace sexual harassment training and grievance procedures:

• By vividly showcasing bad behaviour, content has reinforced negative norms by de-sensitizing viewers and making the behaviour seem more acceptable and less risky.

• Focusing on forbidden behaviours suggests that people need ‘fixing’, which leads to defensiveness, resistance, disengagement, and increased use of humour about both harassment and training. 

• Programs often ‘tick the box’ rather than change culture – evidenced by the fact that little follow up research has been done to measure the effectiveness of the training. 

Alberta data suggests that change is needed (Source Leger Research commissioned study, Oct. 2020):

• 22% of Albertans have experienced sexual harassment at work. 24% have witnessed it. 42% have heard of it. With 2.2 million employed Albertans, that's nearly 1.5M workers affected by this issue.

• Roughly one-third of workers would report a workplace incident of sexual harassment. Only 15% would report to Human Resources.

• Employees expect leaders to reinforce positive workplace cultures. However, respect for and trust in organizational leaders sits at just over 60%.

• Training is not inspiring, and is not perceived to be taken seriously or to produce behaviour change.

How is our approach different?

We all want to work in environments that are positive, respectful, safe, inclusive – and free of sexual harassment. Simply educating people about how to behave at work doesn’t usually lead to new behaviour. Emotions, rather than facts, are better at inspiring change. We tend to SEE-FEEL-CHANGE, rather than ANALYZE-THINK-CHANGE. Giving people a chance to experience the benefits of a positive workplace culture through story can trigger feelings that motivate inclusive and respectful behaviour.

What outcomes can campaign partners expect?

If you choose to participate in the #momentsmatter campaign you can expect, over time, you and your employees to:

• Understand how positive, respectful workplace cultures can help prevent and address sexual harassment

• Recognize yourselves as having a personal role in influencing a positive and respectful workplace culture

• Have access to specialized, confidential sexual harassment support and connection to resources 

• Experience greater workplace well-being and fewer incidents of workplace sexual harassment

What are the next steps?

For more information, go to momentsmatter.info:

• In June, we’ll be hosting a series of online #momentsmatter campaign information sessions that will let prospective partners get information on the campaign research, approach, tactics and how to join. 

• Sign-up for scheduled sessions can be done through the ‘info sessions’ tab on the website.

• We’ll keep in touch over the next several months as we prepare to formally launch the campaign in early fall.

THANK YOU!