A new checklist reveals how many small employers still lack the basics
Only 67 percent of managers feel equipped to support employees dealing with mental health issues, according to Mental Health Research Canada's 2025 workplace research.
Peninsula Canada releases new checklist for small businesses suggests many employers lack the basic infrastructure to back them up.
Released during Canada's Mental Health Week (May 4–10), the Small Business Mental Health Action Checklist asks employers to review whether they have foundational policies and programs in place.
The Mental Health Research Canada data found that co-worker and manager support have the strongest measurable impact on employee mental health, and that employees ranked paid time off, personal days, and flexible schedules as more effective than standalone awareness programs.
Awareness campaigns, the data suggests, do not substitute for structural supports.
Michelle Ann Zoleta, health and safety manager at Peninsula Canada, said unclear systems leave employees without direction, managers without guidance, and resources “unused.”
The checklist is organised around what employers already have — or don't.
On the policy side, it asks whether a workplace has an accommodation policy, a corporate policy on mental health, a workplace violence, harassment, and anti-bullying policy, a staff code of conduct, an occupational health and safety committee, a joint staff and management advisory committee, and a critical incident process.
It also asks whether employers have collected employee feedback on mental health in the workplace.
On programs and benefits, the checklist asks whether employers offer an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) or Employee and Family Assistance Program (EFAP), and whether benefits cover mental health services.
It also asks whether employee training and leadership programs have room for a mental health component.
It also asks whether employers have prior employee survey data on workplace mental health and baseline data to track progress.
Peninsula Canada frames the exercise as a four-step loop: assess current practices, develop materials such as policies or posters where gaps exist, implement those resources with staff, then reassess whether the measures worked.
The firm notes that reviewing and updating existing practices is sufficient — employers do not need to build new programs from the ground up.
This year's Mental Health Week, led by the Canadian Mental Health Association, carries the theme "Come Together, Canada.”
Peninsula Canada said the checklist is a year-round planning tool — not a one-week exercise — and does not replace professional mental health care, legal advice, or individualised HR guidance.
Peninsula Canada, a Toronto-based employment services firm, published the resource and made it available through its website.
