- Where do we start to be compliant?
- How do we identify psychosocial risks in our organization?
- Which training courses are mandatory, and which ones can help our managers?
- What services and tools are available on the market?
- How do we turn the new requirements into concrete actions for our teams?
Beyond regulatory obligations, Bill 27 is also an opportunity to improve management practices, strengthen communication and build healthier, more collaborative work environments.
Let's look at how to approach it, step by step.
1. Bill 27: what has changed for employers?
Bill 27, officially titled the Act to modernize the occupational health and safety regime, notably modernized the prevention and participation mechanisms in the workplace.
Since October 1, 2025, new regulatory provisions have governed the prevention efforts of Quebec businesses. Employers generally had one year, until October 1, 2026, to develop and implement their prevention program or action plan.
The process must, among other things, take into account the risks to workers' physical and mental health.
Psychosocial risks therefore play an important role. Among the factors to consider, the CNESST notably identifies:
- Work overload.
- Lack of support from colleagues or managers.
- Lack of recognition.
- Low decision-making autonomy.
- Situations of organizational injustice.
The employer must also address risks related to violence, harassment and exposure to potentially traumatic events.
The goal is not simply to fill out a document, but to prevent risks and foster a healthier, safer work environment.
What are the obligations depending on the size of the establishment?
The mechanisms to put in place depend mainly on the number of workers in each establishment.
19 workers or fewer
The employer must generally:
- Develop and apply an action plan.
- Provide preventive measures suited to the risks.
- Have a health and safety liaison officer in place.
20 workers or more
The employer must generally:
- Develop and apply a prevention program.
- Set up a health and safety committee.
- Have a health and safety representative designated.
Exceptions exist, notably for employers that belong to a prevention mutual (mutuelle de prévention) and certain multi-establishment situations.
To determine your obligations precisely, consult the CNESST's prevention and participation mechanisms.
2. How do you put Bill 27 in place in five steps?
To avoid feeling overwhelmed, it's better to approach the process as a continuous improvement project.
Step 1: Determine your obligations
Start by establishing the number of workers in each establishment and identifying the mechanisms that apply to your organization.
Then check what already exists: a prevention program, a harassment policy, a health and safety committee, internal procedures or training.
That way, you can tell what is already in place from what needs to be developed or improved.
Step 2: Involve the right people
Prevention should not be carried by management or the human resources department alone.
The people designated for health and safety must take part according to their responsibilities. Managers and workers also have essential knowledge of day-to-day reality.
By involving them, you increase your chances of spotting the real risks and adopting suitable measures.
Step 3: Identify and analyze the risks
Several approaches can be used to identify risks: observing tasks, inspections, conversations with workers, incident analysis and tailored questionnaires.
Let's take an example.
In one team, employees report a heavy workload, sometimes contradictory instructions and a lack of support.
It isn't enough to conclude that the team needs to communicate better. You have to understand what is causing these difficulties.
Are responsibilities clear? Are the objectives realistic? Do managers have the resources they need? Can employees voice their concerns?
This analysis helps you favour measures that act on the causes of the risks.
Step 4: Build your action plan or prevention program
Once the risks have been identified and analyzed, document the necessary measures.
For each priority, specify in particular:
- The risk and its causes.
- The measures to eliminate or control it.
- The person responsible.
- The timeline.
- How to verify the effectiveness of the measures.
The CNESST offers a risk identification tool to help you structure this process.
Step 5: Apply, measure and adjust
This is where the process delivers its full value.
A prevention plan should not stay in a file. It must influence decisions, practices and working conditions.
Schedule follow-up meetings, check how effective the measures are and make the necessary adjustments.
The prevention program and the action plan must be updated at least once a year, and without waiting when a significant change calls for a review.
3. How do you tame Bill 27 without complicating day-to-day work?
One of the difficulties of Bill 27 is not only understanding its obligations. It is integrating them into an environment where managers already have to juggle operations, human resources and results.
To make this transition easier, three habits can make a difference.
Understand before acting
Take the time to explain to managers and employees what the law is trying to improve.
A team that understands the meaning of the process will generally be better placed to take part in it than a team that sees it only as one more administrative constraint.
Prioritize rather than transform everything
An organization may identify several risks at once.
What matters is to assess their severity, their likelihood and their consequences, then determine the priority measures while meeting regulatory requirements.
For example, if unclear responsibilities contribute to work overload, the first measure might be to review how tasks are distributed and what the operational priorities are.
Involve managers in the solutions
Managers play an important role in applying the measures day to day: clarifying expectations, listening, supporting, recognizing, following up and resolving difficulties.
Training and supporting them can help turn intentions into lasting practices.
4. Bill 27 training: which one to choose, and for whom?
When a company searches for “Bill 27 training,” it may actually need three very different types of training.
A. Mandatory occupational health and safety training
This training is for people who hold specific roles in the participation mechanisms:
- Health and safety liaison officers.
- Members of the health and safety committee.
- Health and safety representatives.
The CNESST and its partners offer the required training, with content, durations and deadlines adapted to the role performed.
This training leads to the required certificates. It is not replaced by general training in management or in developing collective skills.
See the CNESST's official training courses.
B. Training to understand psychosocial risks
This training is aimed in particular at HR managers, managers and people responsible for developing a prevention process.
Among the options identified:
- The Université de Sherbrooke offers training on preventing psychosocial risks.
- The Université du Québec en Outaouais offers an introduction to psychosocial risks.
- Vubiz offers an online course on the requirements of the modernization of occupational health and safety.
Content, rates, formats and upcoming dates must be verified with each provider.
This training can help you understand the risk factors and guide appropriate interventions.
C. Experiential training: develop skills and improve organizational practices
A third approach deserves organizations' attention: experiential training that lets managers and teams put into practice the skills essential to a healthy, collaborative work environment.
It can aim, among other things, to:
- Improve the quality of communication and active listening.
- Strengthen support among colleagues and managers.
- Develop leadership based on trust and recognition.
- Clarify responsibilities and expectations.
- Foster cooperation, engagement and accountability.
- Develop collective reflexes that make problem-solving easier.
Unlike mainly theoretical training, experiential learning puts participants in concrete situations that lead them to observe their behaviours, share their experiences and identify possible improvements.
This training can thus contribute to the prevention and organizational-practice improvement goals associated with Law 27, when it responds to needs identified in the company.
It does not, however, replace regulatory training or the measures needed to eliminate or control risks at the source.
The question to ask is therefore not only “Which training should we take?” but also “Which skills and practices do we need to develop to improve our work environment in a lasting way?”
5. How do you move from identified risks to concrete change?
Bill 27 invites organizations to go beyond identifying risks and to implement suitable preventive measures.
Experiential training can support some of these efforts by developing the skills of the people involved.
Let's take three examples.
Situation 1: A lack of support and collaboration
An assessment reveals that employees feel a lack of support and struggle to work together.
After analyzing the causes and making the necessary organizational changes, experiential training can allow participants to develop mutual help, listening and collaboration.
Through role-plays followed by structured discussions, teams can become aware of how they interact and identify the behaviours to reinforce day to day.
Situation 2: Communication difficulties
Imprecise or contradictory communication creates tension and hinders the team's functioning.
The organization must first act on the causes: poorly defined responsibilities, inefficient processes or conflicting expectations.
Experiential training can then help managers and their colleagues practice active listening, clarifying messages and constructive communication.
The goal is to develop reflexes that carry over into professional activities.
Situation 3: A lack of recognition and trust
Employees express a lack of recognition and low trust in certain management practices.
The company can review its feedback mechanisms, its expectations and its recognition practices.
In parallel, experiential leadership training can support managers in developing behaviours that foster listening, trust, accountability and recognition.
In each of these situations, training becomes a lever for skills development in service of clearly defined prevention goals.
7. How can Latulippe contribute to the goals of Bill 27?
At Latulippe, we are convinced that lasting improvement of organizational practices comes not only from understanding the issues, but also from experience, awareness and action.
Bill 27 leads companies to pay closer attention to preventing psychosocial risks and to the conditions that influence psychological health at work.
Many of these issues directly involve human and collective dimensions: support among colleagues, the quality of communication, professional relationships, trust, recognition and leadership practices.
This is where our expertise in experiential training and collective performance can contribute.
Training that lets people learn by experience
Our approach is based on experiential learning (learning by doing).
Participants go through structured situations that highlight how they communicate, collaborate, make decisions and exercise leadership.
These experiences are followed by debriefings that connect them to professional reality and identify concrete ways to improve.
The aim is to foster a better understanding of individual and collective behaviours so that more effective and constructive practices can be developed.
Support adapted to your organization's issues
Every company has its own challenges.
When an organization has identified needs related to communication, support, collaboration or leadership, we can propose an experiential training approach adapted to those priorities.
Depending on the objectives chosen, our interventions can help to:
- Develop trust and mutual support.
- Strengthen communication and listening skills.
- Foster collaboration between people and departments.
- Improve leadership and accountability practices.
- Encourage engagement and recognition.
- Support the adoption of behaviours that lead to more constructive working relationships.
These dimensions can contribute to certain prevention goals targeted by Bill 27 and fit into initiatives to improve organizational practices.
From awareness to action
The true value of training is also measured by what participants take from it and can then apply in their work.
That is why debriefings and collective reflection have an important place in our approach.
They turn a lived experience into learning, then into action steps.
Our ambition is to help organizations move from understanding the issues to developing the skills and behaviours that support their prevention and collective performance goals.
Latulippe thus acts as a partner in developing human and organizational skills. Compliance obligations, the regulatory assessment of risks and mandatory occupational health and safety training remain the responsibility of the employer and qualified professionals.
Discover our approach in Collective Performance.
8. Where do you start right now?
Whether your organization has already developed its prevention program or is still structuring its process, here is a simple way to move forward.
Take stock
Check your obligations, the mechanisms already in place, the designated people and the required training.
Set your priorities
Based on the identification and analysis of your risks, determine the priority prevention measures and the skills needed to support their application.
Develop skills and support change
Involve managers and employees, choose training suited to your needs and encourage the transfer of learning into everyday practices.
Compliance remains an essential responsibility of the employer. But the process can also become an opportunity to strengthen collective skills and to improve how the organization functions in a lasting way.
Frequently asked questions about Bill 27
Does Bill 27 apply to small businesses?
Yes. The prevention and participation mechanisms vary with the size of the establishment. An action plan and a liaison officer are generally required for establishments with 19 workers or fewer, subject to the applicable exceptions.
Do all managers have to take Bill 27 training?
The mandatory regulatory training mainly targets the people designated for the participation mechanisms. Other training aimed at managers may be necessary or relevant depending on the risks identified and the measures provided for in the prevention program or plan.
How can experiential training contribute to the goals of Bill 27?
It can help managers and employees develop skills in communication, collaboration, leadership and mutual support.
When it responds to needs identified in the organization, this training can support certain prevention measures and contribute to improving organizational practices.
Where can I find the official tools for applying Bill 27?
The CNESST provides guides, risk identification tools, prevention fact sheets and information on mandatory training.
Conclusion: from obligation to action
Bill 27 should not be approached only as one more administrative requirement.
It invites organizations to better understand the risks present in their workplace, to involve the people concerned and to put concrete measures in place to protect their health and safety.
The resources exist. So does the training. What matters is choosing the right means for each organization's reality and sustaining the improvements over time.
At Latulippe, we believe experiential training is a relevant lever for supporting organizations that want to develop the human and collective skills needed to improve their practices.
By fostering learning through experience, reflection and action, we help managers and teams develop behaviours that can contribute to achieving certain prevention goals targeted by Bill 27.
Would you like to know how our experiential training could support your organization's goals?
Contact our team to discuss your needs.
This article provides general information and does not constitute legal advice. To interpret your regulatory obligations, consult the CNESST or a qualified professional.
Main references and resources
- CNESST: Modernization of the occupational health and safety regime
- CNESST: Prevention and participation mechanisms
- CNESST: Psychosocial risk factors
- CNESST: Training related to participation mechanisms
- Fasken, Gowling WLG and Lavery: Legal publications on the modernization of the occupational health and safety regime.
- RCGT, MNP and Hub International: Specialized resources on psychosocial risks and organizational support.
