While she was a student in George Brown College’s Social Service Worker program, Stephanie Cole came up with an idea to help employers create workplaces free from sexual violence and harassment. A few years later that idea is becoming reality as she prepares to hire full-time staff and launch her business.
Stephanie developed the idea for Safepod in her second year at George Brown, when she worked with the Social Innovation Hub at the School of Social and Community Services—an alternative work placement opportunity aimed to help students develop skills to become social entrepreneurs .
After she graduated in 2018, she worked with the college’s entrepreneurship hub startGBC, where she received mentorship and assistance to get her business going, including building a website.
Fast forward to March 2020 and she’s preparing for Safepod’s soft launch happening April 23, 2020 at George Brown’s Centre for Hospitality and Culinary Arts. She also recently acquired an investor.
“I’m sitting in our new office space right now creating job ads,” Stephanie said. She plans to hire five full-time staff.
How does Safepod work?
Safepod was developed to help businesses, specifically ones in the hospitality sector, create work environments free of sexual violence and harassment from colleagues and customers.
"First, I talk to the business owner, or HR representative to find out what their pain-points are and find out how they rate their work climate—some business owners don’t think they have a problem at all,” she said. For a business with approximately 75 employees, the whole process should take about a year.
Safepod then conducts an organizational survey, and Stephanie says that step is “where you usually get the truth of what’s going on in the workplace.” Then Stephanie develops a plan for the client. Workshops, some mandatory and some voluntary, and mindfulness training are scheduled for employees throughout the year.
“We do a lot of team building exercises. Research tells us you’re more likely to intervene when you witness sexual harassment or violence if you have social bonding at work,” Stephanie explained.
After about six months another survey is conducted, followed by another at the end of the year to track progress. Select employees are also asked to anonymously share updates on changes they’ve seen through the year.
Businesses can become Safepod certified once they complete a certain percentage of the workshops. They get Safepod logos that can be displayed in their window and in their washrooms. Guests can also provide public star ratings on the soon-to-be-released Safepod app, as well as leave reviews that are seen only by Safepod staff. Safepod can then alert the business to positive or negative trends reported by guests.
“If you are at home and you want to find a safe place to eat, you can search our app,” Stephanie said.
Words of advice
Stephanie said the journey of creating her own business has been full of ups and downs and offered practical advice for budding entrepreneurs.
“Try to line yourself up with a college or university," she said. “That would be the smartest thing you can do to get access to the online libraries and research articles. The amount of resources and assistance I got from George Brown as part of startGBC was so essential.”
