Which workplace factors have the greatest impact on employee well-being?

“There's just so many different things that impact your health from work. So, when you have a workplace that supports your health in any way, that's huge.”

So says Dylan Brennan, manager of health promotion at Magna International, in discussing the importance of employee wellbeing.

“A lot of times, when we talk to employees about some of the limitations that they have in seeking care for themselves, in the physical or mental health realm… they say, ‘Time, time, time, time’ is the limitation — and that's true in their personal life, it's true in their work life.

“So, when we work to eliminate that barrier and bring it on-site, bring it to them, there's a lot more engagement from the employees, and it's super important and helpful. So, definitely, the workplace has a huge role in supporting health.”

Magna is one of four Canadian employers — including the University of British Columbia, Y Law and Imagine Canada — featured in a recent report from CSA Group looking at the psychosocial factors that make a difference for employee wellbeing. The comprehensive study is based on an analysis of 750,000 Glassdoor reviews from 1,000 organizations across 25 industries.

Research for the report, Navigating the Mental Health Crisis in Canada: The Critical Role of Employers, also included literature reviews, interviews with 36 experts, and the case studies.

Psychosocial factors for well-being 

The review identified five key psychosocial factors as the most crucial in shaping employee experience and impacting mental health and overall well-being: compensation, interpersonal relationships, work–life balance, leadership, and organizational culture.

Positive experiences were primarily driven by good colleagues (98%), good benefits (89%) and a strong culture (56%). On the other hand, dissatisfaction was most often linked to poor management (88%), low pay (75%) and long hours (54%).

“We're in a really interesting place right now,” says report author Olga Morawczynski, founder of Heal-3, a corporate wellbeing solution, citing the push within workplaces to talk about mental health over the past 15 years or so.

But there’s much more that can be done, she says, including implementing programs that focus on psychological health and safety and the factors that make work mentally safe.

“There’s also the opportunity to align benefits to better support what people actually need,” says Morawczynski. “We all know how uncertain this next year will be, right? And it's that uncertainty that really doesn't play well on people's mental health and well-being.”

Barriers to workplace wellness initiatives

Despite growing awareness of workplace mental health, many employers struggle to implement effective wellness programs. Morawczynski identifies one main challenge: lack of resources.

"[Employers] don't know where to start. It seems overwhelming. And sometimes when they think about a program, it seems like it’s going to be a huge investment of time and money, and it doesn’t have to be that way," she says.

She points to smaller organizations such as Imagine Canada and Y Law, which had significant success with simple, low-cost initiatives like four-day workweeks, connectivity funds and employee retreats.

“They just took a certain structure, which, first of all, understood what the key challenges are within the workplace that could be impacting mental health, and then designed really interesting initiatives to address those factors,” she says.

Cost can also be a significant barrier in this area, says Brennan.

“If a company doesn't want to invest or doesn't have the cash flow to invest in a program or a resource, it's a tough road... but one of the ways around that barrier is you develop a business case for it,” he says, citing one that showed Magna’s wellness program avoided roughly $5 million in costs, delivering a 4:1 return on investment.

Stigma around mental health challenges is also an ongoing issue — but that seems to be improving with younger workers, he says.

“They have a little bit more of a health-conscious attitude, and so that is seen in some of the ways that we're breaking down the stigma. So, the younger employees will talk about their mental health a lot more openly than the older generations.”

Another challenge is leadership buy-in, says Natasha Malloff, executive director, health, benefits and pensions at UBC, emphasizing that leadership support is essential for mental health initiatives to succeed.

"You really need a senior leadership commitment because it can't become an isolated effort — it has to be a bottom-up and top-down, integrated organizational strategy because that reinforces that this is an organizational priority.”

Case study: UBC focuses on leadership training

UBC has long prioritized workplace well-being, integrating it into its strategic plans and institutional culture. With over 21,000 faculty and staff across its two campuses, UBC’s approach is guided by the Okanagan Charter, a global initiative promoting health in higher education, says Malloff.

“There's a couple of calls to action in that Charter that really help us with how we do our work, in that one of them is that we're embedding well-being into our policies, practices and procedures in our day to day and strategically, and also to share our learnings, both locally and globally.”

The school’s Well-being Strategic Framework targets six key areas, including mental health, food security, and physical activity, with progress tracked through annual surveys, says the CSA report.

UBC has also developed a dedicated well-being team across campuses, working closely with leadership, HR and well-being ambassadors at 53 faculties and departments.

“These are folks that are engaging within their own workplace to promote well-being and mental health initiatives across UBC and bringing them into their workplaces. And they could be either managers or leaders or employees on teams that help support that work, because building capacity across the institution is not something that can be done with a small team in HR,” she says.

Malloff highlights the importance of psychological safety and mental health literacy training for managers. In 2023, UBC launched a required training program to ensure supervisors were equipped to handle mental health concerns in the workplace.

"We developed it through broad consultation. So, this is informed by faculty, staff, managers, leaders. We have internal experts that supported us, so it was really relevant and responsive to the UBC context," she says, citing the program’s practical tools and resources in creating a supportive work environment.

“We did ground it in evidence-based, practice- and equity-centred approaches very much aligned with the National Standard [of Canada] for Psychological Health and Safety.”

There is also a UBC pharmacist clinic to do biometric screening, along with individual-level supports, such as access to psychologists, social workers and counselors through an Employee and Family Assistance program.

UBC has also focused on financial stress and food security, launching a Food Hub Market, which provides groceries at cost and offers nutrition education.

Case study: Magna connects physical and mental health

Magna International, a global automotive parts manufacturer, employs 175,000 people worldwide, with 18,000 in Canada. Recognizing the impact of workplace health, it launched its wellness program in 1995, initially as a quarterly newsletter, later expanding to on-site education, health screenings and coaching, says the CSA report.

Temporarily halted during the 2008 financial crisis, the program was reintroduced in 2010 as Magna Wellness, incorporating targeted health initiatives based on benefits and disability data.

The program provides employees with screenings for cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer. Magna Wellness is managed by a team of health professionals and delivered on-site to more than 60 locations in Ontario on a six-week cycle.

“Physical health is a big driver and [there's] a big need from a disability and benefit spend perspective, but we also have a focus on mental health,” says Brennan, citing the importance of coaching as part of wellness.

“It's one thing to identify the problem with the screening, but it's another thing to now try to find a solution or to change that problem… because we do it throughout the year, we have this fingers-on-a-pulse relationship with the health of our employees far better than anyone else. If we ever use an external vendor, the information sharing would never be 100% clean.”

Magna’s approach includes Mental Health First Aid training to key personnel, including supervisors and HR professionals.

"We offer specific training for health issues that might be more division-specific; for example, suicide awareness training at some of our more rural divisions outside the GTA,” he says.

“At the same time... we will be rolling out, in May, a mental health campaign focusing on general mental health awareness for our employees, to educate them, and build the literacy around mental health, break down that stigma slowly over time.”

The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) has released two resources to help employers cater to the mental health needs of their workers.

Measuring success to drive wellbeing

All well-being initiatives should begin with a clear set of objectives that are tracked over time, according to the CSA report in offering best practices for workplace mental health.

Morawczynski emphasizes that tracking results is critical, often to keep the program alive: “You want to be able to show impact over time, that these things really worked.”

Plus, it’s important to take those measurements as organizations evolve, she says.

“New people come in and new problems crop up, so you want to make sure that what you’re doing is still responsive to the needs and the challenges that employees are facing.”

Each year, Manga evaluates its program with a survey of employees, asking about their familiarity and preference with the program, and what they’d like to see in next year.  They also request feedback from the HR leaders at each plant, says Brennan.

“Because we're in-house staff, we want our program to be directly applicable to the people who are consuming it. It's not about what we think employees want to see, it's what they want to see,” he says, citing as an example a strong request for healthy recipes.

“It wasn't something that was even on our radar… but when 80% of your people surveyed are saying, ‘Give me recipes,’ it's like, okay, we'll adjust.”

Magna has also found thatTop of Form

 program participants have experienced lower blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes risk, leading to fewer absences and reduced disability claims, says the CSA report.

"We can prove that these programs work. It’s not just about doing the right thing — it’s also about business impact," Brennan says.

Long-term approach to wellness success

Often, people have a very short-term focus when it comes results and wellbeing initiatives, says Malloff.

“This requires long-term investments and sustained commitment. You can't treat supporting workplace mental health or well-being as a one-time initiative. It has to be an ongoing priority, and it has to be an evolving priority.”

Without having data-driven evaluation or a continuous improvement approach, it really does become difficult to track measures, refine initiatives or sustain momentum to any of the work, she says.

“There are times where you do have to say, ‘You know, some things aren't working anymore.’”

Since implementing these initiatives, UBC has seen an 8% improvement in work-life integration and a 7% rise in job satisfaction, says Malloff, citing an annual workplace experience survey.

“That survey in itself is very much aligned with the National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety, so that really helps us monitor for those factors.”