In most workplaces “wellbeing” means something like: the individual employee is coping adequately with the conditions of their work.
Wellbeing at work isn’t just a nice-to-have or a soft priority. Canadian organizations are facing a growing crisis of disconnection which affects the bottom line.
The Scale of the Problem: Burnout and Disconnection in Canadian Workplaces
According to talent solutions firm Robert Half, in 2025 nearly half of Canadian workers — 47% — reported feeling burned out, a figure that has risen steadily from 33% in 2023. In Canada, 500,000 workers miss work every week for mental health reasons, costing the economy $51 billion annually (Manage2Retain). Employees in organizations with high-trust are 76% more engaged and report significantly lower rates of stress and burnout — yet a third of Canadian workers report lacking trusted relationships at work (Benefits Canada).
Why Individual Wellness Programs Aren’t Enough
The typical response to improve employee wellbeing — individual wellness programs, resilience training, mental health accommodation — puts the burden on employees to cope with conditions that are often, at their root, cultural and systemic. As one leading HR voice recently put it, burnout is not just an individual problem. It is an organizational and economic one (People Talk).
The focus on individuals doesn’t take into account the ways that our contexts affect how we feel and work. I’d like to offer a different definition to wellbeing that is more holistic and contextual.
A Better Definition of Wellbeing at Work
Wellbeing is feeling like you belong, that you are contributing, and that you can imagine a good future.
I adapted this definition from a UNICEF Canada report called “My Cat Makes Me Happy: What Children and Youth Say about Measuring Well-being.” (There is a lot to be learned from kids, including how we might think about wellbeing!)
With this approach to wellbeing, all three parts matter. The belonging and contributing now — which are about relationships, respect, being seen, and having responsibility and commitments. And the imagining forward — which is about hope, possibility, and agency.
What This Looks Like in Practice
Considering how you or your team belong and are welcomed at your organization is rooted in the quality of relationships. How is feedback given and received? Who is heard during meetings? How do people interact outside of formal business while at work?
The idea of meaningful contributions at work has to do with the quality and clarity around those contributions, and the use of one’s skills.
Imagining a future has to do with the ways individuals see themselves within the company over the longer term. But imagining a future can also relate to how someone envisions or understands the ways their contributions affect future work (how does work contribute to the bigger picture?), or whether their present work develops their skills or career as forward looking.
If we consider this approach to wellbeing – that it depends on a sense of belonging, meaningful contributions, and imagining a future – a lot of workplaces are generating the opposite of wellbeing. Not because the people are broken. But because the conditions make it genuinely hard to belong, contribute, or imagine forward.
Wellbeing as a Cultural and Organizational Opportunity
Especially in this particular moment, after years of instability through the pandemic as well as feelings of social, economic and political uncertainty, workplaces hold potential to be places of community, where people can be resilient and loyal.
Wellbeing can be supported through a strong work culture, where people want to be and where they can do their best work. You can find more about building a strong work culture for collaboration here, and how starting with workplace culture can help to address wellbeing here.
