iAtoday

By Robert Cross
Senior Director
Claims and Contact Centres 
Group Benefits and Retirement Solutions
iA Financial Group 


In Canada, workplace disability is transforming the way organizations support their staff and manage business continuity.

Last year, employees were off work an average of 10.5 days due to illness or disability.¹ And in 2022, more than a quarter of the population (27%) had at least one health condition resulting in disability.²

Beyond the impacts on individuals, these absences affect team performance, motivation, and sustainability.

I believe this underscores the need for organizations to take action. As someone deeply involved in disability management, I’ve seen first-hand how a proactive approach can benefit both employees and employers.

To support your clients, I wrote an article reviewing our white paper, Disability management: The importance of a proactive approach, in which I address the main issues and available solutions. I feel strongly that listening and compassion should be at the heart of the experience.

I address the following topics: 

• How proactive disability management can support people and control costs
• The strategic importance of a comprehensive and personalized approach to disability 
• The growing role of artificial intelligence, which must still preserve the importance of human connection
  
  

The role of mental health

Our experience shows that, in a company with 1,000 employees, mental health-related disabilities can result in direct costs of up to $1 million per year.³

As I explain in the full article, this is a worrisome situation, given mental health conditions are the leading cause of disability for both short-term (STD) and long-term (LTD) absences. For the period 2022-2025, our data show that these claims represented on average 27% of STD and 41% of LTD cases. Musculoskeletal conditions ranked second, representing 13% of STD and 19% of LTD claims.⁴ This highlights the importance of incorporating mental health into every stage of disability management.

For employers, taking a proactive approach to disability management isn’t just good practice, it’s smart business. 

Communiqué to plan administrators

We will be sending a communiqué to group insurance plan administrators on November 24.

See the French version of this communiqué.

¹ Statistics Canada: Work absence of full-time employees by public and private sectors, annual
² Statistics Canada: New data on disability in Canada, 2022
³ iA Financial Group, internal data, 2025
⁴ iA Financial Group, internal data on most frequent short-term and long-term disabilities, 2022–2025