Two people's lives are cut short everyday in Canada by preventable work-related injuries. Companies must be able to prepare and respond compassionately and professionally to the loss of a valued employee. Employees always look to the organization for cues on how to respond to the loss.

Dealing with grief in the workplace is a balancing act that must take into account the normal human response to grief and to the realities of the business need. According to the National Safe Workplace Institute, the cost of workplace death to Canadian business is greater than $4.3 billion per year in lost productivity, on-the-job errors, sick time and trauma-related injury. Taking a positive and structured approach that supports employees who are dealing with the loss of a co-worker provides short term benefits and ultimately long term gain.

A caring, professional organization can take some well thought out steps to ensure that all employees are supported throughout the aftermath of a workplace death. Here are some concrete tips:

• Prepare to respond immediately. When an employee dies, it's important to respond quickly. If the death occurred on the job, strike a balance between spending time with bereaved employees and finding out what happened. If needed, get others to ask witnesses to provide an accurate account of the facts. If the death did not happen at work, seek permission from the family to report the details of their loved one's death.
  
  
• Find out what resources are available. Make sure you know what kinds of support your company offers so that you can provide the information quickly when the need arises. Refer employees to your organization's EAP services for individual support after the loss, and if necessary, use your organization's EAP to conduct a critical incident debriefing with work groups in the event of a death at work.
• Let your employees know immediately. Communicate openly and honestly. Try to inform your managers first to give them an opportunity to tell their employees personally, either face-to-face, by phone, or in a meeting. If they can't do this with everybody, it gives them time to tell the employee's supervisor and closest co-workers. Follow up with an immediate memo or e-mail message to others. After sending out the communication, post a copy of it on the company bulletin board.
• Make arrangements to give employees time to attend visitation or the funeral. It's essential to give everybody who cared about the employee an opportunity to attend. During such an emotional time, it is not "business as usual." Should employees be required to miss the funeral for work reasons, it can affect their loyalty. If needed, try to arrange transportation to and from the funeral, hire temporary workers to answer the phones or fill in at the reception desk and offer night-shift workers time to attend evening visitation. This gives all employees a chance to grieve and keeps feelings of favouritism from developing.
• Express your sorrow to the employee's family. Find out the family's wishes regarding memorial contributions so that you can communicate these to your employees. At a minimum, send a card and some form of tribute. Helping Your Team Grieve
• Acknowledge people's feelings and expect to face many emotions. • Let people know that you share their sense of loss and remember that you and your employees may have feelings that shift from one day to the next, including guilt, sadness, anxiety, numbness, anger, or relief that someone's suffering has ended. Remember these feelings are a normal part of the healing process.
• Keep your expectations realistic—companies may see a lower level of productivity or motivation for some time but often find that the loss of a co-worker can lead to employees pulling together, and can give them a new awareness of how much they value their jobs and co-workers. Healing takes a long time. It may take your employees weeks or even months to adjust fully to the loss of a co-worker but taking a structured and supportive approach will help to alleviate a lot of the initial distress and help in the healing process over the long term. Ways to honour the memory of a lost co-worker
• Organize a "memory book" by inviting employees to record their fondest memories in a book to give to the family
• Have a fund-raiser for a cause the employee or his family supported
• Encourage employees to share their memories in a company newsletter
• Bring the entire team together to hold a remembrance ceremony (especially if the family has requested a private funeral for close friends and family only)
• Post a bulletin board tribute to the employee
• Let employees put flowers or other tokens of affection on their co-worker's desk or another designated area
• Observe a moment of silence to honour the memory of lives lost on the job