Certain leadership skills, including empathy, inclusion, collaboration, clear communication and coaching are all teachable skills, say panellists at a recent webinar on organizational change hosted by TELUS Health. The skills are all needed, they say, as employee wellness moves out of its traditionally siloed role as a human resources concern.
Today, employee wellness is more of a going business concern, for a few reasons.
Paula Allen, global leader and vice president of research, insights and strategic communications at TELUS Health discussed the matter of population health and individual health for the benefit of those gathered for TELUS’s recent Employers Connect webinar, Managing organizational change in 2026.
Drawing on the company’s Mental Health Index, she notes that employees are not in a great place and haven’t been so in more than seven years. “Even before, there was opportunity for improvement,” she notes. “But our mental health, collectively as working individuals, has declined and stayed in a declined state 2.5 times worse that it was seven years ago.”
She notes that the findings come from surveys of working individuals, not those out of work or on disability leave. “These are your employees. They represent you and those around you.”
Mental health risk
The index findings include that 33 per cent of workers are noted as having a high mental health risk. Allen says this means there is something, a behaviour or a thought process that is interfering with their lives; 30 per cent report mental health interfering with productivity and 28 per cent feel helpless about their current situation.
“Of all those numbers, that’s the one that concerns me the most,” she adds, noting the helpless figure. “(They feel) that they don’t have that agency. Helpless is a big deal because it prevents people from taking steps to change.” She adds that the feeling is one step away from hopeless, which is the worst clinical indicator. “We have a lot of room to move this in a different direction.”
Notably, the index information also reveals a few startling statistics: that 28 per cent of the working population is angry, 22 per cent report being frustrated by daily situations and 29 per cent say they are skeptical of others.
Allen says this is particularly important to note if the organization is introducing change, and thus strain, to a workforce that is already statistically on edge. She notes that two of the biggest organizational risks companies currently face is rapid change and uncertainty. For individuals and for the business alike, she says how leaders manage change is a big deal.
“It’s not just the change in the moment, it’s the environment that surrounds it,” she points out. “There are different ways that organizations can really pay attention to what is needed from a workplace point of view.”
Across the board, she says health is a foundational concern. She encouraged those gathered to show caring by promoting the supports that employers provide. She also adds that the message, however, will be part of a very crowded communications environment – it can’t be 12th on the list. “Not when it’s foundational to people’s well-being, health and your business success,” she says. Things are coming at people all the time.”
Teachable traits
In the discussion it was also noted that the company’s research has found a number of trainable traits that leaders can demonstrate which make a difference in the mental well being of their teams and the discretionary effort shown by their teams, all of which can result in higher productivity.
Being team oriented, working as a collective and creating a sense of belonging rather than pitting employees against each other, showing empathy and caring about employees as people and having a sense of purpose were all noted. “When people have a sense of purpose, when they get that from their leaders, when their leaders believe that what their teams are doing is meaningful, leaders are actually described as (being) charismatic,” she says. “Leaders create energy in their teams, as opposed to lethargy.”
Decision making was also noted: “Uncertainty is something that people really want to avoid,” she says. “When we’ve talked to leaders about all of these, including decisions, a lightbulb goes off.” Just bringing such items to a leader’s attention often makes a difference, she adds, saying that all the traits described are also trainable.
Panellist Salah Sahib, senior director of total rewards and payroll at the men’s lifestyle apparel company, Psycho Bunny, added colour to the conversation, noting that just having a wellness app or meditation perk doesn’t solve real life stress.
“Employee well-being is not longer a separate piece that’s in a silo,” he says. “It’s part of business performance, as well. You need to really balance the two, the employee well being, in order to achieve that strong business performance. I truly believe that.”
