As more Canadian employers introduce return-to-office mandates, remote work opportunities remain a sought-after perk by plan members, according to the 2025 Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey.
Four in five (84 per cent) plan members said they expect their employer to support their health and well-being outside of offering a benefits plan. Asked to select the three most important things their employer could do for their health and well-being, half (49 per cent) selected remote work, flexible hours and job-sharing opportunities. Flexible work arrangements were also most likely (22 per cent) to be ranked as plan members’ No. 1 choice.
Half (49 per cent) of plan members listed reasonable workloads or work hours in their top three, while 44 per cent selected human resources policies that support wellness, such as vacation policy and personal days.
Read: Flexible working, work-life balance can impact workers’ well-being, quality of life: report
During a panel launching the survey results at Benefits Canada‘s 2025 Toronto Benefits Summit, Troy Diakow, vice-president of life, disability and operations at Alberta Blue Cross, said these non-tangible benefits are “absolutely foundational” to plan sponsors’ support for overall employee-well being.
“I think the workforce has really changed in the last five years, where employees are asking for non-traditional benefits and they’re looking for employers to offer that. Employers that are winning are offering flexible benefits.”
The idea of work-life balance is oversimplifying the conversation, he added, noting employees are looking for a supportive environment.
Both plan sponsors and member respondents to the survey indicated fewer employees are working remotely part or all of the week. Plan sponsors said an average 40 per cent of their workforce works from home, a notable drop from 48 per cent last year and a high of 58 per cent in 2021 and 2022.
Among plan members, 41 per cent said they worked from home at least once a week (down from 47 per cent last year) and they spent an average of 3.2 days a week working remotely. Twenty-four per cent said they don’t work from home, 30 per cent said their job can’t be done remotely and just six per cent said their employer didn’t allow it.
Read: 72% of benefits plan members satisfied with working from home: BCHS
Also speaking on the panel, Kate Kilganan, assistant vice-president of pharmaceutical benefits and innovation at Sun Life, said employers should be mindful of the diversity of their employees’ life needs when considering a return-to-office approach.
“How do we help employees understand that coming back to work is good for them, but still [giving them] the choice?”
She provided the example of a Monday, Wednesday, Friday return-to-office mandate with flexibility for an employee who has to pick their child up from daycare on Fridays. “Having an employer that understands that difference in employees is really important. . . . Not everyone is the same, I think that’s what we need to keep in mind as we develop plans that we try to keep as standard as possible, as uniform as possible. Equity is not necessarily equality.”
Download the full 2025 Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey report here. Look for more coverage of the panel discussions analyzing this year’s results in the coming days.