It was 2023 and Henry Schein Canada was “late to the wellness party,” recalled Faye Gagne (pictured centre), the company’s manager of employee relations and wellness.
Post-pandemic, the company’s culture surveys indicated employee stress levels were high, she said, noting she and other senior leaders wanted to reduce disability leave instances and durations, as well as improving employee engagement.
The organization’s comprehensive wellness program, which focuses on the five pillars of mental, physical, financial, social and work life, has changed the game, said Gagne during a session at Benefits Canada’s 2025 Healthy Outcomes Conference.
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Her team began by promoting the company’s existing benefits and resources, with executive support from its president, which “made it so other leaders could get behind it, because they knew he supported it.”
Henry Schein also launched an annual wellness calendar, found employees at each of the company’s 12 branches to be wellness champions, implemented mental health first-aid training for leaders and introduced a respectful workplace policy that emphasizes dignity, respect and civility between colleagues. If conflict arises between employees, said Gagne, she encourages leaders to examine the team’s work processes and workload to understand how that might be contributing to discord.
During the discussion with Gagne, Michelle Belfry (pictured right), organizational health consultant for well-being at Canada Life, noted Henry Schein’s wellness champions were a particularly powerful part of the strategy. “They’re the roots that spread out from the base of the program, promoting well-being, making sure everyone has an ear to share their feedback.”
Read: Why you should hire a wellness champion
The investments have paid off. The organization’s wellness initiatives have a 90 per cent approval rating from employees, claim incidences declined for both short- and long-term disability leaves and return-to-work rates have increased.
Investing in mental health isn’t just about engagement, performance and resilience — it’s about the bottom line, said Laura Pratt (pictured left), national director for organizational health at Canada Life, also speaking during the discussion. She highlighted a 2019 Deloitte report that found for every $1 companies spend on workplace mental health, they receive a yearly return on investment of $1.62. That rose to $2.18 after three years, when the programs started to mature.
In addition to mental-health coverage and employee assistance programs, said Pratt, these investments can also include virtual care, wellness and prevention benefits, financial education, leadership training to support psychologically safe workplaces and supportive disability management and return-to-work policies.
Read more coverage of the 2025 Healthy Outcomes Conference.