Identifying relevance is key as Canadian organizations look to trade some benefits for others to keep costs under control
Stephen Taylor, director of talent acquisition at Global Relay, heads a team that has helped his organization grow from roughly 300 employees to about 1,700 over the last decade. Over the course of that rapid growth, he has come to appreciate the importance of an organization’s benefit plan.
“Benefits and total rewards are more a function of the HR generalist side of HR, but [the talent acquisition team] works very closely with them and I'm included in those conversations,” he says. “I think what we offer in terms of benefits is competitive, but there's lots of room for improvement there too.”
A recent study by Robert Half indicates the role benefits can play in attracting talent. It found that 39 per cent of professionals surveyed said health and wellness programs could convince them to switch employers if their base salary remained the same.
For Canadian employers, compensation and benefits planning for 2026 is becoming a knife-edge exercise involving the juggling of labour costs, benefits, pay transparency, and regulation, as they look to manage expenses and productivity for the next year.
At the same time, it seems that employees are more informed about their benefits yet less satisfied with what they’re getting.
When matching doesn't help: Pier 4
For HR leaders like Pier 4’s Director of Human Resources, Janet Bray, that disconnect isn’t theoretical. She learned that the hard way with what she thought was a slamdunk financial wellness initiative last year. “We introduced an employee savings plan with matching [from the company] and I was so proud of it,” she says. “I thought this is just so good, but it had zero pickup.”
A frontline manager had to spell out the problem to Bray: young staff fresh out of school could barely cover rent and student loans, never mind locking up cash to earn matching contributions, she says.
“Even though we're paying the premiums and all that, if it doesn't support their life, then it really isn't much of a benefit,” says Bray.
Rachel Wong, Vice President, Total Rewards and HR Technology at Symcor, agrees that successful benefits have to start with relevance to employees. “You can put a lot of investment in all these big initiatives, but if it's not something that employees asked for, it's not going to be impactful,” she says.
Top choices balance cost with usefulness
On paper, benefits are still a core element in the total rewards mix. Business consulting firm Grant Thornton, in its compensation planning trends for 2026, singles out the “use of employee benefits to differentiate” as one the central trends in the coming year, alongside managing cost of labour and the push toward next-gen pay transparency. In practice, though, many organizations are looking into tradeoffs with certain benefits increasing in cost.
Wong is wrestling with these circumstances under tight financial scrutiny. “How can I continue to evolve but also stay within my budget?” she says. “Every year, we look at how we can self-fund our offerings by shifting some of the things that are no longer relevant and repurpose those investments to other areas.”
Bray has been digging into those choices and finds that one of the top benefits in demand is mental health support. “It’s surprisingly inexpensive, so that’s a big win for me,” she says. “For example, life insurance is a significant cost, and if we make our program a little more dynamic, I think we can get the younger people on our team, because life insurance isn't that significant to them and we can make it up somewhere else [like mental health].”
Mental health, virtual care, flexible options lead the way for 2026
“We have seen an uptick in mental health well-being offerings in our under-30 group,” says Wong. “So that means more of our younger generation are being proactive to look for the psychotherapist, psychiatrist, or just mental health support — this is an area we are continuing to monitor closely and see if we need to continue to expand or provide more support in this area.”
Lyra Health’s 2026 Workforce Mental Health Forecast bears out the rise of mental health support as a key part of benefits strategy. Nearly all U.S.-based organizations with global workforces say comprehensive mental health benefits are essential to attracting and retaining talent and 65 per cent report a rise in mental health leaves. In the same study, nearly seven in 10 benefits leaders say mental health challenges are significantly affecting employees’ ability to do their jobs.
Wong also says that her organization is increasing virtual care as part of its benefits package, a trend that goes hand-in-hand with investing in technology. “Everything is mobile now, everything is online now, so we want to make sure employees can access the benefits tool online or on the mobile app,” she says.
In addition to mental health support, Bray believes benefits that help employees with their financial future are in demand, despite her experience with the savings plan — a disconnect she attributes to poor communication strategy.
“I think the employee savings plan is a big one — my target was off a little bit, but think that's important, even if everybody isn't taking advantage. It at least raises awareness of the importance of people's financial health,” she says.
Changing demographics warrant flexible options
Wong believes that flexible benefit designs, such as options to reinvest benefit dollars into RRSPs or personal spending accounts, and a willingness to kill legacy perks that only serve a narrow slice of the workforce, is also something employees are looking for and organizations are moving towards, including hers.
“Having flexibility to the health, dental, and overall well-being approach is a must-have,” she says. “For example, giving the option of reinvesting your benefit dollars, maybe in your RSP or in your personal spending account, because the younger generation may have a bigger need for personal care benefits, while the more mature generations may need different supports."
Having the flexibility in different buckets within the benefits plan will help support the different demographic groups in the workforce, adds Wong.
Data can determine relevance of different benefits
For Bray, using data in benefits and total rewards strategy is now non-negotiable. “Information is knowledge - when you know, you can make better informed decisions,” she says, adding that she uses benefits usage and demographic data for Pier 4’s workforce to tweak the organization’s benefits package. “Who's using what? What does that look like? How can we refine that? What's going to work for you?”
In that environment, Bray believes HR teams need to stay at the forefront of their organization’s benefits and total rewards strategy.
“You have to be visible, you have to be vocal, and you have to make sure that you're represented,” she says. “Decisions get made, and if you're not at the table, it can make our job as HR leaders very difficult.”
Taylor acknowledges that having a relevant benefits plan isn’t just about organizational strategy — he understands it from a personal standpoint.
“I have four kids and for most of the time, I've been the sole breadwinner for my family of six,” he says. “I've had to ensure that where I've invested my time, there's a good return for my family, and our benefits plan is a part of that.”
