Now booking on-site assessments across Canada. Limited spots this month.Book free
For HR and employers

You are already paying for this. You are just not measuring it.

Absence, presenteeism, premium movement and replacement hiring are live costs on your P&L right now. Fewer than half of Canadian organisations track the first one.

01Absence and presenteeism cost02Premium and experience rating03Statutory duties by province04Prevention rebates you can claim

46

Per cent of Canadian organisations that track employee absence

The Conference Board of Canada

15

Per cent that track what absence actually costs them

The Conference Board of Canada

49 days

Productivity days lost per employee per year, absence plus presenteeism

Manulife

as high as 200%

Cost to replace a departing employee, as a share of their salary

Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC)

Published dataA single lost time claim carries an average direct cost of $39,000, and the accepted methodology adds indirect cost of 2 to 4 times that value on top.A422A423
The absence picture

Your sector already tells you what to expect.

Union coverage, age profile and sector all move absence days materially. Employees aged 55 to 64 lose 14.9 days a year; employees with union coverage lose 16.4.

Absence days per worker, by sector

Days lost per full time employee per year, all personal reasons, Canada 2025

Health care loses more than 3 times what professional services loses.

SourceA315A316A317A318A319A320A321A322
The blind spot

Your managers think this is handled. Your employees do not.

Managers rate burnout prevention at 81%. Only 36% of employees say their employer offers anything. That 45 point gap is not a communication problem, it is a measurement problem.

75%

Employees reporting no overall workplace mental health strategy

Mental Health Commission of Canada and Morneau Shepell

77%

Workers not comfortable discussing a mental health problem with their employer

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)

Managers and employees are not describing the same workplace

Per cent, paired survey waves

A 45 point gap on burnout prevention. Managers cannot act on a problem they cannot see.

SourceA542A541
Statutory duties

This is not optional in any Canadian jurisdiction.

Ontario

Take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of a worker. A written health and safety policy is required above 5 workers.A601A602

British Columbia

A duty to cooperate in return to work, and a duty to maintain employment, both in force since 1 January 2024. Accommodation runs to the point of undue hardship.A615A620A619

Quebec

The employer's general duty expressly covers the physical and mental well-being of the worker, not physical safety alone.A607

Federal

Ensure the health and safety at work of every person employed, and take prescribed measures to prevent harassment and violence.A609A610

The money already on the table

Your regulator will pay you to do this.

Every province ties premium to claim experience, and several rebate directly against documented prevention activity. Most employers never claim it, because they never generate the evidence.

200%

Health and Safety Excellence rebate, capped at 2× prior year premiums

Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB)

up to 50%

Experience rating discount. The surcharge runs to 100% the other way

WorkSafeBC

10%

Certificate of Recognition incentive on base assessment premiums

WorkSafeBC

up to 40%

Experience rating discount from the industry premium rate

WCB Alberta

Our positionObjective capacity data is exactly the kind of documented prevention activity these programmes ask for. We produce the report; you file it.

Get a baseline before your next renewal.

One site, one shift, one set of numbers. Enough to build a business case, and enough to file against a prevention rebate.

A clinician briefing a supervisor over an aggregate report