The foundations of workplace well-being: Part one of four
Key takeaways
- A strong culture of well-being starts with leadership. When leaders make employee well-being a genuine priority, it becomes part of how the organization operates rather than another HR initiative.
- Well-being needs to be built into the everyday employee experience. Benefits, flexible work, compensation, leadership and other workplace practices can all affect how employees feel and perform.
- Leaders need training to support their teams effectively. Managers may not always know what to do when someone is struggling. Giving them practical training can help them approach mental health conversations with greater confidence.
- Supporting employee well-being can support the business, too. When employees are well supported, organizations can benefit from stronger productivity, engagement, retention and innovation.
Most organizations will agree that employee well-being matters. However, few organizations are willing to treat well-being as a core business imperative.
That’s not the case for TELUS. Over time, the organization has seen firsthand that when people are well supported, they bring a deeper focus to their relationships, greater care to their communities and, importantly, more energy to their work.
Achieving this kind of impact on well-being, however, requires organizations to make both a moral and financial case for investing in employee well-being. Only then can leaders “buy-in” to well-being as a business priority and start to change the dialogue at their organization.
In this article, we explore what it takes to build this foundation of well-being, and why leadership buy-in is the critical starting point for any organization looking to make well-being a lasting part of its culture.
Building the infrastructure behind a sustainable well-being strategy
Well-being doesn’t scale through enthusiasm alone. It scales through the systems that shape how work actually gets done every day. This means reframing well-being as a long-term talent management strategy rather than a standalone benefits conversation.
“You have to make well-being and human sustainability the conversation, and it has to be integrated into your talent management,” explains Sandy McIntosh, TELUS Health’s Chief human resources officer (CHRO).
For TELUS, this meant adopting a broader well-being framework that encompasses the five interconnected dimensions of well-being, as well as recognizing that every touchpoint in the employee experience can influence well-being.
“Every program we run, from benefits enrollment to compensation to flexible work, affects well-being. Every touch point in a team member’s lifecycle also impacts well-being.”
- Sandy McIntosh, CHRO at TELUS Health
It also meant launching a dedicated Well-being and Health Services team led by Janet Young, Director of Well-being & Health Services. This team helps to ensure that the organization’s approach to well-being and mental health reflects the ever-changing needs of the entire TELUS population (which includes TELUS Health).
At the beating heart of this strategy is humanistic leadership. That is: a leader who has high emotional intelligence and understands what it takes to lead others. Without this, organizations may struggle to create psychologically safe places and effect meaningful change.
The strongest well-being strategies connect people and performance
Acquiring leadership buy-in at TELUS came down to connecting well-being to organizational performance, risk management and psychological safety. “If we care about the impact we’re making in the world, we also need to care about the well-being of the team members we serve,” Sandy explains. “If that doesn’t resonate, there’s also a very real financial argument and business strategy behind it.”
That financial argument has become increasingly important as organizations navigate rising mental health claims, retention challenges and growing expectations around psychological safety in the workplace.
- 22 percent of workers in the US say their mental health is impacting work productivity (MHI, Q1 2026)
- 46 percent of employed professionals in the US plan to look for a new job in the second half of 2026
- 11 percent of workers don’t feel optimistic about their future, and seven percent of workers cite poor psychological health (MHI, Q4 2025).
To better connect people to performance, TELUS leaders champion well-being across multiple networks including a voluntary Well-being Community, various Centers of Excellence and TELUS Resource Groups.
For example, well-being messaging is integrated into every business unit, which ensures daily communications reflect real experiences and needs. For example, senior leaders share authentic video messages modeling work-life integration, like recording their annual team updates while walking outdoors or explicitly sharing their own stories around topics around mental health and work-life balance.
Getting leaders bought in like this moves well-being out of the realm of intention and into daily leadership practice. Importantly, it establishes shared expectations for how leaders show up and reinforce that mental health and well-being are integral to organizational performance.
Sustainable well-being strategies depend on well-equipped leaders
One of the most common gaps in workplace well-being strategies is the assumption that leaders instinctively know how to support their teams.
In many cases, this is untrue. In the United States, for example, 44 percent of leaders are either unsure or wouldn’t know what to do if a team member was struggling with a mental health issue (MHI, Q3 2025). Additionally, many leaders may not receive the training and support needed to navigate complex well-being conversations. In fact, one-third of workers report their organization doesn’t offer mental health leadership training (MHI, Q3 2025).
Treating leadership capability as a performance lever
Solving this gap means treating leadership capability as a core performance driver, not a soft skill. Since 2018, TELUS has trained nearly 90 percent of people leaders and more than 11,000 team members through a custom mental health and well-being program developed in partnership with TELUS Health Learning.
Offering tailored training programs helps TELUS leaders to maximize their impact. When they have the skills and confidence to help support mental health in day-to-day work, team members can stay engaged, as well as productive and resilient, even through periods of change. The impact can also be felt in their ability to innovate.
This has a ripple effect on long-term organizational performance. As reported by Deloitte, for every £1 (approx. $1.37 USD) invested in workplace mental health and well-being initiatives, employers see nearly £4.70 (approx. $6.42 USD) in return, driven by higher productivity, lower absenteeism and stronger retention.
“The research and data is plentiful… when our team members are well, innovation is better, their well-being is better, their engagement is up, their experimentation is up, and the results are there as well.”
- Sandy McIntosh, CHRO at TELUS Health
A robust well-being culture starts at the top
There’s a meaningful difference between leaders who sponsor well-being and leaders who take ownership of it. For TELUS, that difference lies in designing a well-being strategy around the** real** experiences of team members.
Shaped using design thinking, the TELUS well-being strategy is intentionally adaptable and built for the long term, recognizing that health is personal and constantly changing across the five interconnected dimensions of well-being.
“When you have a strategy that says we’re going to drive value for all team members, you start to really think about the value you’re driving for the organization, for the individual, for their family, for their community, for their country, and for the world.”
- Sandy McIntosh, CHRO at TELUS Health
The TELUS well-being blueprint
Explore the TELUS well-being case study and learn how the organization is redesigning work to better support people where it matters most.
Download nowFrequently asked questions
Here are answers to some common questions about the role leaders play in building a sustainable approach to workplace well-being.
Why is leadership buy-in important for employee well-being?
Leadership buy-in helps make well-being a genuine business priority. When senior leaders actively support it, well-being is more likely to influence how people are managed, how workplace decisions are made and how employees experience work.
How can organizations get leaders to support workplace well-being?
It can help to show leaders how employee well-being connects to business priorities such as productivity, retention, absenteeism and psychological safety. Making both the human and business case can demonstrate why well-being deserves long-term investment.
What can leaders do to support employee mental health?
Leaders can create an environment where employees feel comfortable speaking up when they need support. Training can also help managers recognize when someone may be struggling, have more effective conversations and connect employees with appropriate resources.
How can organizations make well-being part of everyday work?
Organizations can consider how well-being is affected by the entire employee experience, including workload, leadership, benefits, compensation and flexible work. This helps move well-being beyond individual programs and make it part of how the organization operates.
This is part one in our series on the foundations of workplace well-being. See the rest of the articles (part two, part three and part four) for more.
