Dialogue’s medical director Dr. Marc Robin says connected care, not more programs, is what plan members need now
Canadian employees are sleeping less, worrying more about money and reporting worse mental health than a year ago all while their benefits plans meant to help them are falling short.
That is the picture painted by the 2026 State of Workplace Well-Being Report, a Léger survey commissioned by Dialogue. While the findings aren’t exactly new, Dialogue’s medical director suggests they’re worse in degree, with every metric the survey tracks sliding in the wrong direction year over year.
“Overall well-being of employees that were surveyed is a little bit worse. 8 out of 10 say that their well-being is affecting their productivity or their ability to work, which is not good news. And 50 per cent say they're in and out of burnout recovery cycles," said Dr. Marc Robin.
Utilization of benefits climbs while satisfaction stalls
“If there is any positive news, 60 per cent of people are using their benefits, but only 20 per cent are satisfied about the services that they use. Things are getting worse, services aren’t being used. I think this is where there’s a bit of a call to action,” said Robin, adding that among employees who did not use their benefits at all, only 36 per cent said it was because they did not need to.
The rest pointed to barriers: not knowing what was covered, confusion about how to access services, time constraints and concerns about workplace stigma.
Additional data from Dialogue’s report drives Dr. Robin’s point home. 38 per cent of respondents said their sleep had worsened, 35 per cent reported declining financial security, 35 per cent said their mental health had deteriorated, 30 per cent flagged worsening physical health and 20 per cent cited relationship issues. Every one of those figures rose from the 2025 survey, Robin noted.
Do we need to move on from EAPs?
Robin sees the root problem in how programs are structured. Employees are dealing with five distinct dimensions of well-being: sleep, finances, mental health, physical health and relationships. But he argues the services meant to address them, like employee assistance programs (EAPs) are scattered across different platforms and services. The result, Robin suggests, is a system that asks people in distress to figure out which program they need before they can get help.
“Plan members today are with the times. They use an app for everything, and the app is designed to be simple. But employee health programs aren’t that simple all the time. So that’s the first thing that needs to be addressed,” said Robin.
A ‘connected system of care’ in benefits
To that end, he challenges HR leaders to ask whether their portfolio of services maps to what employees are struggling with and whether their providers can demonstrate impact beyond usage data.
"Workplace well-being is not just about adding or layering more standalone programs. It's about delivering care that reaches people early. It's not a collection of programs, but a connected system of care," he said.
The alternative, Robin argues, is a single point of entry where an employee states how they feel and the system routes them to the right care. He draws a comparison to consumer technology: employees use apps designed to be simple, but benefits programs have not kept pace with that expectation. HR leaders, he says, should be looking for integrated experiences that remove the guesswork entirely.
Yet, Robin also acknowledges HR leaders face mounting pressure from the C-suite to prove the value of the programs they fund. Robin said leaders are now measured on their ability to demonstrate outcomes, whether through return on investment, productivity, retention or absenteeism data.
Moreover, HR leaders face a challenge previous generations did not: four generations in the workforce at the same time, each with different needs and expectations.
Combine that with financial uncertainty, stressors both inside and outside the workplace, and a population whose sleep, the single most affected dimension of wellness, is deteriorating, the result is a problem that resists easy fixes.
Why more isn’t always better
While employers have responded by adding more services, Robin underscored how more isn’t always better, particularly as utilization remains low. He points to friction as a key reason.
"Psychological help often requires costs that you have to pay upfront, even if you can collect it later. And when financial insecurity is the second cause that’s making people worried, that in turn, causes delay," he said.
When cost is not the barrier, wait times are. Employees who cannot get timely access tend to defer care, try to manage on their own or keep showing up at reduced capacity - a pattern that surfaces as presenteeism and, later, as disability claims.
Leave of absence duration is another lever, and one where most programs fall short. Robin noted that EAPs don’t typically affect how long an employee stays off work unless a medical component is built in. With mental health now the leading cause of disability claims, Robin underscored that these are no longer optional conversations for plan sponsors.
Robin points to validated clinical tools like the PHQ-9 for depression and the GAD-7 for anxiety as the kind of metrics that should underpin those conversations. Depression scores correlate with productivity, which means improvements in mental health can be translated into tangible workplace gains.
Plan sponsors need to demand more from insurers
That’s why Robin argues that plan sponsors need to push their providers beyond standard reporting. Utilization, engagement and employee satisfaction data have their place as they show whether a program has reached employees and whether there is a basic fit. But they stop short of answering the question that matters most: is the program making people better?
The path forward for plan sponsors, Robin said, requires a different relationship between plan sponsors and their providers, one built on collaboration, tailored programming and regular accountability. He envisions quarterly conversations that track outcomes and hold providers to defined expectations.
Plan sponsors are right to demand that structure, he said.
“Plan sponsors need to ask their providers, ‘Don't just show me usage, show me the outcome,’” said Robin. “Plan sponsors need to set expectations and to not look for collections of benefits, but connected systems of care, a portal of entry that leads to a host of services that meet their need and then from there, measurable outcomes.”
