Sun Life research reveals Canadian small business owners rank long-term financial security above revenue growth as their top measure of success
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and business owners across Canada often must face a decision: invest in people or invest in growth? But recent Sun Life research suggests the two aren’t separate decisions at all.
Sun Life’s report points to a shift in how Canadian small business owners think about success, suggests Michael Van Alphen, senior vice-president of group retirement services at Sun Life, particularly as long-term financial security for themselves and their families ranks as the top marker, cited by 27 per cent of owners, ahead of revenue and profitability growth at 19 per cent.
“When owners and employees feel more financially secure, businesses are better positioned to plan, they’re better positioned to grow, employees have a stronger foundation to build financial security,” said Van Alphen. “When I think about financial security, employee well-being, and business growth, they're all very deeply connected. Supporting people and small businesses are all about helping to create the conditions for a stronger, more resilient business.”
Employee well-being is also integral to SME success as seventy-one per cent of owners say employee health and well-being is personal to them, and 76 per cent acknowledge that financial stress among staff can drag on both well-being and performance.
Beyond pay, what owners most want to offer their people is stability and job security at 41 per cent, a sense of purpose and belonging at 34 per cent, and greater financial security and the ability to save at 29 per cent. Those priorities point toward workplaces designed to retain people, not just compensate them.
For many owners, supporting employee health and financial well-being isn’t a separate line item from business performance but part of building stronger teams and more durable operations, the Sun Life report found.
For 70 per cent, helping employees build financial security doubles as an investment in the business itself but Van Alphen suggests many of those same owners still treat group retirement plans as a luxury they cannot afford.
Perception, not apathy, keeps SMEs from offering plans
That gap, between what owners believe and what they do, comes down to access, not apathy, Van Alphen said, particularly as many SMEs “want to support employees, but they actually perceive plans are costly. They perceive them to be complex or difficult to administer,” adding that perception pushes workplace savings further down the priority list at the exact moment owners are stretched thin trying to grow.
He agrees that the personal and professional stakes for small business owners are tangled in ways that larger organizations rarely face. Financial stress bleeds across those boundaries - but so does confidence.
What SME stability means for Canada’s workforce
Van Alphen frames the issue in macroeconomic terms. Small and medium-sized businesses account for over 8 million jobs and close to two-thirds of Canada’s private sector workforce, so their ability to grow and stay viable has consequences far beyond any single firm. He argues the industry has a responsibility to support financial security for both owners and employees, and that doing so strengthens the broader Canadian economy.
“Financial security really provides more room and more opportunity to invest, to innovate and think longer term because business owners and their employees can think about how to move the business forward if they feel more financially secure,” said Van Alphen. “Security really gives them greater capacity and confidence to take thoughtful risks.”
However, the flip side, he suggests, is that competing demands across the business, family, and workforce would eat into that room.
From intention to action on workplace savings
A workplace savings plan, in his view, helps restore it by giving both sides the stability to focus on longer-term goals. Employers are caught between rising costs and the need to hold onto talent, while employees are trying to manage present-day expenses without sacrificing future security.
Simplifying access, he argues, lets more small businesses participate and gives employees a realistic path to building confidence over time. That stability feeds back into the business itself, giving owners more room to plan and invest.
Looking ahead, he says the priority is clearing the obstacles that keep smaller employers on the sidelines.
“We need to focus on continuing to reduce the cost, the complexity and the administrative barriers facing small and medium-sized businesses,” he said, adding that means listening to employers, employees, and advisors to support “more Canadians moving from intention to actually driving practical action through the workplace.”
