Workplace mental health: How employers can better support stressed employees
June 8, 2026
By Treena Hein
New findings on maximizing psychological health and safety as we navigate new challenges in and outside the workplace.
Workers are under a lot of stress these days. We are still recovering from the restrictions and other strains of the pandemic. Return-to-office mandates have come into effect, disrupting routines and changing workplace dynamics. And new challenges are also rearing up from both within and outside of work, including the rising cost of living, worries about job security due to increased automation and the use of AI, and global energy instability.
So, as Sandra Koppert, director of mental health advancement at the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC), explains, “Creating and maintaining a workplace culture rooted in psychological [health and safety] is perhaps more important now than ever, as organizations and individuals face uncertainty and varying stressors. Whether these are work-related or external stressors, they impact the whole person.” Koppert further notes, “We bring our whole selves to work, and employers have a duty of care to support workers. Workers who feel seen and supported through the workplace culture (including policies, procedures, training and engagement) perform better, which results in better outcomes for organizations in terms of productivity, retention and recruitment.”
Michael Cooper, vice-president of data and partnerships at Mental Health Research Canada (MHRC) concurs. Indeed, recognition that workers always bring outside stress to work is one of the four pillars he typically flags as the most important in promoting mental health in the workplace. His others are good policy, having middle managers who are skilled at helping support employees, and an understanding that all workplaces present psychological hazards that must be recognized and managed appropriately.
A range of solutions
Cooper is the main author of a recent MHRC survey and report on stress and burnout in the workplace, created in partnership with Workplace Strategies for Mental Health and Canada Life. The research found that some solutions are better than others to prevent burnout. Paid time off, the availability of “personal days” and flexible schedules were found to be more effective supports than social events or stress awareness programs. Reflecting on these findings, Cooper notes that “there’s no magic button” managers can tap to improve mental health in the workplace. Instead, he says it’s a matter of “simply listening to what is working and doing what you can to accommodate in providing those supports.”
Experts at the Institute for Work & Health (IWH), a non-profit in Toronto, agree. “I don’t think there is a single ‘silver bullet’ for employers to use to address the multiple sources of stress inside and outside of work,” says IWH president Dr. Peter Smith. He just published a new study with IWH research analyst Marta Pienkowski in which they found injury rates are lower in workplaces where employees feel their well-being is prioritized. “My advice for employers is to think about their processes for how they identify psychosocial hazards, assess the risk of these hazards, put in place controls and check that controls are effective. As long as they are genuinely committed to the process, and have put in place opportunities for consultation with their employees, this puts in place the structure for impactful changes to be identified and implemented.”
Smith and Pienkowski note that managers should communicate with transparency – sharing how they decided which psychosocial factors to address, what changes are being made and how the effectiveness of the changes will be determined. Employees should be given opportunities to be part of the process.
The MHRC research also found that support from managers (and co-workers) has a strong impact on employee mental health, but only about two-thirds of managers surveyed felt equipped to help their subordinates in this area. However, there are now more resources than ever at their fingertips. “There is so much training available to support various levels of team members,” says Cooper, including many resources available through the MHRC offshoot mental health support provider, Opening Minds.
There is also a national standard that provides guidance for managers in Canada, first commissioned and then launched by the MHCC in 2013, now called ASC/CSA Z1003 Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace – Prevention, Promotion and Guidance. A second edition of the standard is currently being created in collaboration with the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) Group and will be released later this year. The standard was also updated in 2022 to reflect evolving research and best practices. Koppert says the standard “guides organizations in identifying psychosocial hazards, managing associated risks and implementing structures and practices.”
More about hazards
There have been several times experts in this article have mentioned psychological health and safety (PHS) hazards and risks in the workplace. So, let’s dig a little deeper with Dr. Olga Morawczynski, who was a panellist at the 2025 Psychologically Safe Workplaces Summit hosted by OHS Canada and Talent Canada. She is also the founder of Heal-3, a Canadian company that harnesses a large number of well-being practitioners to optimize workforce health in Canada and beyond.
Morawczynski explains that hazards (defined as anything that holds potential to cause harm) in the PHS sense range from excessive workload, exposure to trauma and unclear roles to lack of supervisor support and unmanaged conflict. When these structural hazards are not addressed, they increase psychosocial risk, she says, including the likelihood of burnout, anxiety, depression, errors, safety incidents and disability claims. These hazards should be addressed the same way physical hazards are addressed, says Morawczynski — they must be identified, their potential impact assessed and risk mitigation measures must be put in place.
She explains, “Leaders control workload, staffing, pace of change, decision rights and team climate. They are the primary lever for reducing exposure [to hazards], and at times, a key source of that exposure. Without leadership literacy on psychosocial hazards and risk, PHS strategies remain reactive and performative.”
Disclosure
One important way to boost psychological health and safety in the workplace is to ensure employees are comfortable in sharing their stresses and needs. This is not easy to do, as many workers are rightfully afraid that sharing challenges could lead to being looked over for a promotion, bullied as a troublemaker, or even being fired. Cooper stresses that even in 2026, “stigma, especially in talking about your own mental health challenges, remains pervasive in workplaces.”
He explains that some of the most effective ways to break down the barriers to disclosure are “to ensure middle management is there to listen (workers are more likely to disclose to them) and also to highlight champions in the organization who are willing to speak about mental health.”
Morawczynski explains it this way: “The objective is to normalize being human at work. When leaders appropriately acknowledge pressure, stress or difficulty, they send a clear signal that speaking up early is acceptable in the organization. That permission effect matters. When others raise concerns sooner and receive support sooner, outcomes improve, both for the individual and for the organization.” Indeed, silence at the top reinforces stigma, she says, and if employees don’t feel comfortable about challenges and therefore don’t receive support, the likelihood of employee disengagement increases, along with rates of extended leave, turnover, disability claims and more.
Managers can share challenges in various ways, in group settings or one-to-one. “It can be as simple as acknowledging a demanding period, naming the impact of workload, or recognizing that a situation has been hard,” Morawczynski says. “The key is authenticity within personal boundaries. Leaders should share to the level they feel appropriate and comfortable.”
But words must be paired with action. That means managers must be proactive in ensuring the organization itself is not exacerbating mental health challenges through how work is structured and managed.
In the end, a strong psychological health and safety program is a must, and it should offer flexible supports. Morawczynski says this might include both traditional and newer support methods, including things like access to a financial planner if that’s what an employee needs, structured recovery programs, wellness retreats, cold plunging and more. “Expectations around support are evolving,” she says, “so benefit design should reflect that reality by offering choice and autonomy, rather than a single narrow solution.”
And also, in the end, we must not forget that mental health is shaped by both work and life circumstances. “Employers have direct responsibility for one and meaningful influence over the other,” Morawczynski explains. “The most effective approach integrates both. Control what you can within the system of work so you are not contributing to harm, and design flexible supports so people can access the help that fits their needs.”
Courtesy OHS Canada