Focusing on personalised solutions 'enables HR leaders to deliver timely, impactful support and build more resilient teams'
Canadians’ well-being is on the decline, and employers are being urged to take a more active role in supporting employee wellness.
The overall state of well-being among Canadians is rated at 43.7 out of 100—on a scale where anything below 50 indicates poor mental health—according to a new report from Dialogue Health Technologies.
Factors such as lack of sleep and low levels of physical activity across all age groups contribute to this trend, the report notes.
Organisations across the world face the risk of a leadership exodus in the wake of rising stress among leaders due to time scarcity, according to a previous report.
The Dialogue study—based on assessments from 13,000 people across Canada between July 1 and December 31, 2024—evaluates five key dimensions: mood, stress, sleep, activeness, and sense of purpose.
Among these, “sense of purpose” showed the most significant decline, falling by 15% in the second half of 2024. This drop was linked to increased stress and a deterioration in mood, indicating an urgent need for workplace intervention.
“Declining sense of purpose poses significant organisational risks, including reduced engagement, increased absenteeism, and lost productivity,” says Dr. Marc Robin, Medical Director at Dialogue.
Major stressors cited by employees include financial instability (70%), mental health challenges (48%), poor work-life balance (33%), and negative global events (33%).
“Employers can help reverse this trend by promoting purpose-driven roles, embedding wellness into the workplace, and simplifying access to care,” says Robin.
Despite these challenges, the report shows promising signs of resilience. According to Dialogue, 85% of employees adopted at least one healthy habit after completing their Well-Being Score assessment.
Rather than treating wellness as an afterthought, employers should make prioritising employee well-being a fundamental part of how work is done, Dialogue advises. Employers can reinforce this connection by creating opportunities for employees to engage in initiatives that align with their personal values and passions, offering mindfulness programs, and providing mental health training for managers.
“Prioritising accessible, personalised solutions… enables HR leaders to deliver timely, impactful support and build more resilient teams.”
The world of work in 2025 “isn't necessarily a positive place,” says Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Oxford Professor of Economics and Behavioural Science, in a World Economic Forum.
Addressing these issues is paramount to ensuring workers’ wellbeing, he says.
"You can throw a mindfulness app at people and you can organize yoga classes and those things are good and important. But if ways of working are so bad or there's bullying or there is just stress from overload of work and burnout, then adding yoga classes onto the agenda while not withdrawing some of the actual workload is just going to compound negatively onto people's stress and will have counterproductive effects.”
Overall, just 22% of employees globally are “thriving” at work, according to a previous Indeed report.
