Most Canadian workers are disengaged, according to research. But one HR leader has 100 per cent of employees on board
In a Canadian labour market where just one in five workers are fully engaged at work – a figure that has remained essentially flat for more than a decade, according to Gallup's 2026 State of the Global Workplace report – most employers continue searching for the formula that turns culture from a talking point into a competitive retention advantage. The answer is simpler than one might think: treat people as human beings first, and the results will follow, according to Phil Warren, Managing Director at SFA Saniflo Canada in Cambridge, Ont.
Warren leads the Canadian subsidiary of the SFA Group, a France-based global sewage pump manufacturer. Despite operating as a small-to-mid-sized team in Ontario, SFA Saniflo Canada has achieved something that eludes most large organizations: 100 per cent of its Canadian employees say it is a great place to work, compared to 62 per cent at a typical Canadian company, according to Great Place to Work Canada. That figure is the product of a deliberate and sustained people strategy built on values, trust, and genuine empowerment, says Warren.
Warren is clear that culture doesn’t live in policy documents or annual engagement surveys. "It's about the everyday environment that you create," he says. "It's how you lead, how you communicate, and how well a team can work together."
That grounding is something that can’t reside just with HR – it needs to run through the entire organization, says Warren. "Ideas are valued, initiatives are encouraged, and we generally care for our employees, our customers, and our partners, and it truly guides our team – how we lead, how we innovate, and how we grow together as a unit," he says.
Universal connection with the organization’s goals
The approach reflects a deliberate departure from what Warren describes as the "microfocus" model of traditional management, where leaders monitor individual outputs within narrow roles. He believes that today's workforce needs context, ownership, and a clear line of sight to the organization's broader purpose.
“It's about empowering our employees to look beyond their immediate roles and their managers to truly understand the organization,” he says.
The results of getting this right are significant. McLean & Company's Employee Engagement Trends Report 2026, based on survey data from more than 254,000 employees across 240 Canadian organizations, found organizations that are highly effective at delivering a strong employee experience are 2.3 times more likely to report high workforce productivity and nearly twice as likely to achieve their strategic goals.
"When people feel trusted, valued, and understand their contribution and their impact to the greater picture, they take a greater ownership in their success, but also in [the organization’s]," says Warren.
However, employers and employees remain disconnected on company culture across the country, and it’s a gap that Warren says his organization has been actively working to close.
Protecting culture during growth
According to Warren, growth is one of the most dangerous moments for any organizational culture and one of the most revealing tests of whether stated values are genuine. He says he’s faced this challenge directly, as SFA Saniflo Canada has expanded its national business development and marketing teams in recent years, and a focus on the people at the centre of the growth has fuelled the organization’s culture success.
"We focus on bringing in people who are the right fit," he says. "People who share our values, respect others, and simply believe in being a good human being. That's how we protect our culture.”
Warren believes the distinction matters because cultural dilution during periods of expansion and transformation is one of the most common failure points in Canadian organizations navigating change. He identifies a broader pattern in how transformation is typically managed and where it so often goes wrong.
"I just find organizations today are trying to impose change instead of creating true ownerships," he says. "Transformation is also often designed by senior leadership, senior managers, and then just communicated down."
Accountability for employees and leadership
SFA Saniflo Canada has taken the opposite approach, according to Warren: building ownership from the bottom up, encouraging employees to contribute to the direction of the business rather than simply receive instructions from above. Leadership accountability can drive high-performance culture, so this shift in responsibility is increasingly central to how effective people leaders approach organizational resilience.
"If you truly want to think about a business vision, a horizon plan, or even the pipeline or the legacy you're trying to leave behind, it's not a unilateral decision or approach that brings a leader into this kind of commitment,” says Warren. “It's about really empowering and getting the ideas from the team – and that's the change I've seen that brought our success here in Canada."
What culture actually delivers
Warren also believes a highly successful workplace culture – such as one that shows unanimous employee agreement about being a great workplace – doesn’t come from any single program or initiative, or just HR alone. Instead, it belongs to the collective, he says.
"It's truly a success of everybody – our culture is a collaborative effort,” he says. “I would recognize all the employees at this company who contribute every day to their commitment, the innovation, our teamwork, and to strengthen our values — not only from the Canadian way, but through SFA Group's core values on driving our success here in Canada."
The philosophy extends beyond the office. SFA Saniflo Canada has invested in community-level initiatives, including scholarships and engagement with trade schools – a recognition that corporate responsibility and talent strategy can and should intersect, says Warren.
On the challenge of making the business case for culture investment – a perennial difficulty for HR leaders in conversations with finance teams and boards – Warren offers a reframe that cuts through the noise.
"Not everything is always measurable in an ROI," he says. "It's also measurable on the involvement and the engagement of your staff, which I think is one of the true meanings of having people work with and for an organization and the impact that they bring to the company."
In Canada, just 21 per cent of employees are engaged at work, compared to the U.S. and Canada regional average of 31 per cent, according to the Gallup report. With more than half of the country's workforce neither committed nor actively resistant – simply disengaged – the cost of treating culture as secondary is compounding quietly across Canadian organizations. Organizations that genuinely invest in trust see stronger retention, higher productivity, and deeper employee commitment over time.
"I always say in life – and this is a true statement – that being human starts with one thought at a time," Warren says. "And with that thought turns into actions, and what we can create is a positive impact well beyond our businesses."
