We will prevent workplace injury.

Strategic Plan Goal:

Reduce time loss workplace injuries by 17%.

By 2030:

We will have established best-practice approaches in the prevention of psychological injury, fostering workplaces that are both physically and mentally safe.

Be working with much stronger, crisper, more powerful data. This is a fundamental building block that will enable new connections, customized outreach, better planning and predictive analytics. While perhaps challenging to imagine based on where we are today, it will lay the foundation for new solutions based on generative AI and other technologies yet to come.

At the same time, we will make progress on the ground today in workplaces. Building upon our proven service model to workplaces and together with partners, we will connect differently, digitally, and in an industry-first manner. We will build leadership communities to inspire safer workplaces, and continue to grow the number of workplaces who certify their commitment to safety.

Key Performance Indicators (Reported annually, WCB Annual Report)

TARGET: Injury Rate

year end 2023: 1.40

2030: 1.16

We will support healthy, safe, timely return to work.

Strategic Plan Goal:

Reduce the time lost from work due to injury by 35%, becoming one of the top three jurisdictions in Canada for this outcome.

By 2030:

  • Have established an entirely new area of focus and service in psychological injury, driven by innovative approaches, new ideas, and earlier connections. We will be a leader in serving workers and employers in protecting them from the impacts of psychological injury, both as a result of trauma, and those which occur more gradually.

  • We will be working in a fundamentally redesigned return to work process, with the worker at the center of all activity. The new approach will lead to much better protection from the impact of workplace injury, and much-improved service.

  • We will be immediately informing workers how we can help, and they will know the importance of the early days of a claim. Early and frequent contact from the moment of injury forward will be the norm. Workers, and their families, will know we are here to help.

  • We will be experts in supporting workers and their families impacted by Psychological injury and new approaches and learnings (GOS), and we will be a leader across Canada in achieving positive outcomes, through the application of innovative, best-practice approaches.

  • Generally, in psychological injury and all of what we do, we will ensure we have the right health services partners, governed by the right agreements, in shared service beliefs and philosophies, and most of all, effectively and efficiently managed, with the worker at the center of all considerations.

  • We will be looking forward, differently and in new ways, to ensure our programming and planning into the future is aligned with what that future will bring.

ACCOUNTABILITY: Protecting more working time

TARGET: Protect more working time

Year End 2023: 259

2030: 174

TL Days per 100 covered workers        

TARGET: Support more timely RTW

Year End 2023: 68%

2030: 80%

% workers back at work within 90 days

TARGET: Reduce work disability  

Year End 2023: 91.7%

2030: 94.5%

% Return to workforce

We will deliver exceptional service.

Strategic Plan Goal:

80% of workers and employers believe the WCB provides exceptional service.

By 2030:

We will better measure our service, closer to when it is delivered.

Our service experience will be built around the people we serve. They will be at the centre of what we do, and every day, we will work to help them… whatever we’re able to do, for what help looks like for them.

We will have improved our use of technology, in all its forms, across the organization, and we will be leveraging its capacity to improve outcomes for those we serve, streamlining and simplifying interactions.

We will have clear, understood, promises when it comes to our service, And we will deliver on those commitments, every day, in an accountable way. When you work with the WCB, you will know what to expect.

We will reimagine the long-term benefits function, improving service to those we are supporting and their families, often over a lifetime.

ACCOUNTABILITY: Protecting the service experience

TARGET: Timely Contact

2023: 42%

2030: 80%

First contact in two business days

TARGET: Timely Decisions

2023: 38%

2030: 80%

Decisions issued within 7 days of claim open

TARGET: Timely Payment

2023: 42%

2030: 80%

Claims paid within 15 days of claim open

TARGET: Responsive Service

2023: 66%

2030: 80%

Message response within two business days

TARGET: Service Quality

2023: N/A

2030: 80%

We will enable our employees.

Strategic Plan Goal:

By 2030, 80% of WCB employees will indicate that their leader, and their work environment, enables them to do exceptional work.

By 2030:

In 2030, our employees will be even more empowered, supported, and inspired than they are today.

  • They will have clear expectations, with performance management tools and processes that are grounded in our Key Performance Indicators.

  • They will be provided with the right tools, and the right training, from the day they begin their service with us.

  • They will be doing the right work, in the right roles for them, in an efficient and effective way, driven by the overall principle of exceptional service.

  • They will work in an environment defined by connectivity, connection and collaboration, where technology enables and informs their work – not makes it more complicated.

We will honour diversity and inclusion, in the organization we are, and in how we do business.

Strategic Plan Goal:

By 2030, 50% of Nova Scotians will indicate the WCB is an inclusive organization.

Nova Scotia is a diverse, beautiful province, and people. Our service and our organization will change to better reflect that. We will recognize diversity in the communities we serve and in our own organization, becoming more inclusive all we do.

  • We will be guided by a multi-year roadmap, informed by consultation with all of our employees and those we serve.

  • We will deliver service in languages that better reflect the society Nova Scotia is today.

  • We will ensure our online resources and environments are accessible and inclusive to all users.

We will proudly continue our outreach and engagement.

Strategic Plan Goal:

By 2023, 80% of workers, employers and partners will indicate they feel engaged by and trust the WCB.

  • We will continue finding spaces for, and supporting, the valuable voices on our Board of Directors to drive the success of our Strategic Plan.

  • We will be a leader in Nova Scotia’s workplace safety community, in particular. We will continue to support leadership conversation and connection, championing the human and business value of protection from workplace injury.

  • Although we will continue to embrace digital technology, we will also value face-to-face conversations, as we are in the business of helping people. Human contact will be important to us, and a principle of our service.

We will be defined by end-to-end efficiency.

Strategic Plan Goal:

By 2030, 80% of those we serve will agree the WCB provides efficient service.

By 2030:

  • We will have stronger, improved relationships with service providers to enable efficiency.

  • We will ensure we capitalize on technological opportunities, like straight-through processing.

  • We will have the right people, providing the right service, trained and able to do it well.

  • We will ensure that online services, and electronic connection, are offered to all of those we serve, and used wherever possible to improve connections and efficiency.

Nova Scotians will understand the value WCB Nova Scotia provides.

Strategic Plan Goal:

By 2030, 80% of Nova Scotians will understand the value of workers’ compensation.

Sometimes, you don’t notice how much you value something until it’s gone. Work is one of those things.

As we deliver on this Strategic Plan, we will inspire and engage Nova Scotians, who will come to understand just how important the work we do is in protecting the incredible value of safe, healthy work.

  • We will have stronger, improved relationships with service providers.

  • We will ensure we capitalize on technological opportunities, like straight-through processing.

  • We will have the right people, providing the right service, trained and able to do it well.

  • We will ensure that online services, and electronic connection, are offered to all of those we serve, and used wherever possible to improve connections and efficiency.

Nova Scotia will gradually continue to reform the workers’ compensation system.

Strategic Plan Goal:

By 2030, we will have supported a transformation in Nova Scotia’s workers’ compensation legislative, policy, appeal and rate framework.

By 2030:

We believe there is great opportunity to improve the workers’ compensation system in our province.

Informed by the first review in 20 years, we will continue to improve the things we can control.

And as we deliver on this Strategic Plan, we hope to do so against an evolving backdrop of progress, where benefits improve for workers, and where rates can be reduced, in a financially sustainable way.

In Halifax, a line cook in a busy restaurant amputates a fingertip with a knife

A nurse in Yarmouth is injured after a patient lashes out

In Whitney Pier, a paramedic cannot revive a young victim in a car accident

WCB Nova Scotia’s new Strategic Plan sets a bold path to protect more Nova Scotians from injuries like these, and when they do, from their human and financial impact.
It’s our call to action to protect more.

Protect more

Our 2024-2030 Strategic Plan is a vision for a Nova Scotia where our people are more protected from workplace injury than they 
are today.

With a more sustainable funding environment than ever before, there is incredible opportunity for all of us to make a difference in the lives of the workers and employers we serve.  



Protecting against more kinds of workplace injury, especially psychological injury. Protecting more employers, who will choose to work with us. Protecting more Nova Scotians, earlier and better, from the often devastating human and financial impact of workplace injury and illness, in all of its forms.

It is an ambitious, optimistic, and inspiring plan for change.


And it starts now.

What we will do

Preventing injury, supporting workers in returning to work, and providing exceptional service. These are the pillars of our Strategic Plan. But that's only part of the story. Empowering and enabling our journey forward are guiding principles about how we'll do it.

Where will that exceptional service come from?

What makes it real?

Four key principles will apply to all we do. They're in the background, enabling our progress toward our goals.

We will prevent workplace injury.

The face of workplace injury is changing. And by 2030, it will change even more. The days of safety meaning hard hats and work boots are gone.

Today the hazards are different. The risks are psychological, not just physical. They are often human, too: People we’re caring for, or things people say, or violent attacks.

Enabled by better data and improved technology, our approaches to workplace injury prevention will become much more targeted, grounded in the voice of those we serve. And our outcomes will continue to improve.

In all we do, we are driven by a vision for a Nova Scotia where no one dies at work, or because of their work.

Read More About Our Goals

We will support healthy, safe, timely return to work.

Every day, people get hurt on the job. From a sprain or a strain injury to a deep psychological scar, when Nova Scotians experience this type of impact on their lives, we are there to help.

And it’s our job – our responsibility – to help, wherever we can. It’s our job to support Nova Scotians in protecting the safe, healthy, important role that work plays, in the lives of the people Nova Scotians are.

Empowered by exceptional service, we are driven to protect Nova Scotians from workplace injury’s impact through better outcomes in return to work, where work is, almost always, part of the recovery process.

Read More About Our Goals

We will deliver exceptional service.

Strategic Plan Goal: 80 percent of workers and employers believe the WCB provides exceptional service.

It is time to re-think service at WCB Nova Scotia. We help people, every single day. We protect them from workplace injury’s impact – from supporting a physio provider to helping someone stay at work following an injury, to lifelong impact of more severe workplace injuries. In these cases, we’re there for Nova Scotians.

By 2030, we will be there, even better. We will protect more of the “whole people” Nova Scotians are through service that suits their lifestyles, their communications preferences, and their overall well-being.

We will be easier to do business with. We will engage early, and communicate often. We will be reachable, accessible, human, open and authentic. Always.

Read More About Our Goals

What we will do.

Preventing injury, supporting workers in returning to work. These are the pillars of our Strategic Plan. But that’s only part of the story. Empowering and enabling our journey forward are guiding principles about how we’ll do it.

Where will that exceptional service come from?
‍
What makes it real?

Four key principles will apply to all we do. They’re in the background, enabling our progress toward our goals.

We will enable our employees.

In 2030, our employees will be even more empowered, supported, and inspired than they are today.

  • They will have clear expectations, with performance management tools and processes that are grounded in our key performance indicators.
  • They will be provided with the right tools, and the right training, from the day they begin their service with us.
  • They will be doing the right work, in the right roles for them, in an efficient and effective way, driven by the overall principle of exceptional service.
  • They will work in an environment defined by connectivity, connection and collaboration, where technology enables and informs their work – not make it more complicated.
Read More About Our Goals

We will honour diversity and inclusion, in the organization we are, and in how we do business.

Nova Scotia is a diverse, beautiful province, and people. Our service and our organization will change to better reflect that. We will recognize diversity in the communities we serve and in our own organization, becoming more inclusive in all we do.

Read More About Our Goals

We will proudly continue our outreach and engagement.

In 2030, the WCB will be a trusted, respected partner to more employers, labour unions, worker support organizations, and all levels of government.

Read More About Our Goals

We will be defined by end-to-end efficiency.

We recognize our service to employers and workers can be less than efficient. Sometimes, we create steps where there don’t need to be steps. Wait for things we don’t need to wait for. Do things manually that could be automated. By 2030, we’ll be different. Across our business, we will be much more efficient in how we deliver service, leveraging technology and processes to do what we do today, but better.

Read More About Our Goals

Nova Scotia will gradually continue to reform the workers’ compensation system.

We believe there is great opportunity to improve the workers’ compensation system in our province.
‍
Informed by the first review in 20 years, we will continue to improve the things we can control.
‍
And as we deliver on this Strategic Plan, we hope to do so against an evolving backdrop of progress, where benefits improve for workers, and where rates can be reduced, in a financially sustainable way.

Read More About Our Goals

Nova Scotians will understand the value WCB Nova Scotia provides.

Sometimes, you don’t notice how much you value something until it’s gone. Work is one of those things.

As we deliver on this Strategic Plan, we will inspire and engage Nova Scotians, who will come to understand just how important the work we do is in protecting the incredible value of safe, healthy work.

Read More About Our Goals
Download plan at a glance

LOOKING FORWARD

When we get there

In 2030, we know that the impact of workplace injury will look different than it does today.

We also know we’ll be there, to protect more Nova Scotians from its deep and lasting hurt.

We will be there for nurse, who will receive physiotherapy, and be back on the job the next week. Instead of their usual work tending to patients, they are helping with scheduling, while their shoulder fully recovers after the patient violently yanked on their arm. On their phone, they get a notification by SMS for their next appointment.

We will be there for the cook, taking care of health care appointments, and calling them to see how reattachment surgery went. We’ll encourage their employer to stay in touch for the few days they need to ensure infection doesn’t set in. And when they are ready, we’ll be there to guide them, and their employer, about what they can do – because it turns out, while they can’t chop garlic for a few days, they can help scope out what’s on the menu, by visiting local farms… who, incidentally, are also covered, as are all workplaces in the province.

And we will be there for the Cape Breton paramedic, who needs some time, but with the right help and support, can gradually go back to work. They have PTSD, but working with our team and the right service provider, they’re able to manage it. And before long, they’re able to get connected to the work again, starting with light calls but working their way back to full duties.

All of their employers are paying less for coverage.

And all of them are receiving improved benefits, in a revamped system that has heard from Nova Scotians about improvements, and has listened.

Are you covered?

Ask your employer if your workplace has WCB coverage. Learn more about its value.

Learn more

We will be there for the nurse, who will receive physiotherapy, and be back on the job the next week. Instead of their usual work tending to patients, they are helping with scheduling, while their shoulder fully recovers after the patient violently yanked on their arm. On their phone, they get a notification by text for their next appointment.

We will be there for the cook, taking care of health care appointments, and calling them to see how reattachment surgery went. We’ll encourage their employer to stay in touch for the few days they need to ensure an infection doesn’t set in. And when they are ready, we’ll be there to guide them, and their employer, about what they can do – because it turns out, while they can’t chop garlic for a few days, they can help scope out what’s on the menu, by visiting local farms… who, incidentally, are also covered, as are all workplaces in the province.

And we will be there for the Cape Breton paramedic, who needs some time, but with the right help and support, can gradually go back to work. They have PTSD, but working with our team and the right service provider, they’re able to manage it. And before long, they’re able to get connected to the work again, starting with light calls but working their way back to full duties.

Annual Plans

OUR 2024 Plan

In the first year of our new Strategic Plan, our change-related work will focus on the three pillars: Prevention, Return to Work, and Service Excellence, aligning our investment of resources to tackle our most important business problems.

Gradual onset psychological injury. Perhaps our most significant priority in 2024 is the preparation for compensability of gradual onset psychological injury. When the legislation is implemented on September 1, we will be ready. Our service model for gradual onset stress will be different from our typical case management practices.

We are hiring a new team, with new roles, to deliver an exceptional service experience, complete with customer excellence and trauma-informed services. Approaches and processes will focus on innovation, keeping client needs at the forefront, with return to work considered and initiated even before the claim is accepted.
‍
‍Preventing psychological injury. Our prevention focus will be on supporting Nova Scotia’s workplaces in creating psychologically healthy and safe workplaces – an increased priority for all of us, with the coming compensability of gradual onset psychological injury this fall. A major project will deliver resources, education and awareness for both workers and employers, leveraging best-practice from other jurisdictions.

‍Improving return to work. Meanwhile, we’ll turn a great deal of our efforts to improving on return to work. A comprehensive multi-year project will put its 2024 focus on improving the first 30 days of a claim, for everyone involved. We’ll focus on getting better at early contact, at supporting transitional work, and better training for health services providers, and our own people. We’ll also make entitlement decisions more quickly.

‍Better data for better outcomes. We will also invest in improving our processes and our data. This will help support better measurement of our own performance, and to track progress when it comes to our people’s efforts in meeting our strategic objectives, by supporting them in meeting their own goals as employees.

‍Improving service over the long term. We’ll improve the way we serve those workers who are receiving long-term benefits and hearing loss benefits, building a better service experience.

‍Improving our technology. To drive efficiency, we’ll invest in a number of projects such as electronic signatures and required updates to enterprise software.

More details on the 2024 plan, and specific operational goals, will be posted here when data from 2023 is finalized.

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