Implementing a wellness strategy during the pandemic helped Montreal-based automotive and heavy parts distributor UAP Inc. boost employee engagement, reduce the stigma around mental health for its predominantly male workforce and improve plan members’ financial well-being.
In a session during Benefits Canada’s 2025 Healthy Outcomes Conference, Geneviève Hébert (pictured right), the organization’s senior director of total rewards, said UAP wanted to implement a wellness strategy to differentiate itself to employees during the war for talent. An initial wellness survey, fielded by the organization’s insurer, found a “good portion” of employees were having difficulty making ends meet and many said they didn’t have anyone to talk to.
Based on those findings, UAP launched a two-year strategy and a national health committee with employee representation from across the country that could quickly provide feedback on its initiatives. Hébert’s team took a “cascade” approach to employee mental health: it began providing mental-health training for executives, then human resources directors and business partners, then managers and then finally, for all employees.
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“Considering that 75 per cent of our population is middle-aged men who we’d never talked to about any aspect of health, asking them to open the discussion with their team about mental health was a bit of a challenge,” she said.
The cascading approach ensured employees “would be fully supported once we deployed our strategies,” she added, noting the training was so well-received, UAP’s employee engagement and well-being committee asked the company to make it mandatory.
To address financial health concerns, UAP introduced additional savings vehicles to its group savings program and launched a communications campaign with personas and educational sessions for plan members to learn the best savings account for their situation. In the past two years, it has rolled out a retirement planning toolkit, as well as an online learning module for financial literacy basics, including making a budget and achieving financial goals.
Read: UAP supporting financial wellness with retirement toolkit
Also speaking during the session, Francis Boulianne (pictured left), principal for group benefits at Normandin Beaudry, said it’s clear health and well-being has become a “strategic priority” for Canadian organizations. The organized surveyed Canadian plan sponsors earlier this year and found 48 per cent were introducing or enhancing well-being programs and a third were doing the same for preventative care as a way to control costs.
Plan sponsors are also increasingly moving beyond initiatives focused exclusively on psychological and physical well-being to also target plan members’ financial and social health, he added. “We don’t need a big overhaul or to change everything. Small steps that will create significant momentum over time will really impact employees.”
Read more coverage of the 2025 Healthy Outcomes Conference.