Canadian Workplace Culture Productivity Trust

AI - Artificial Intelligence, Company Culture, Employee Engagement , Employee Experience, Employee Trust

Key Takeaways:

Labour productivity at Canadian businesses fell two quarters in a row before rebounding 1.0% in the second quarter of 2026, and the national debate keeps circling back to investment, technology and regulation.

The 2026 Best Workplaces™ by Province point to the piece that debate leaves out: trust. At these 375 organizations in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec:

• 90% of employees willingly give extra to get the job done
• 92% say customers would rate their service as excellent
• 88% see new and better ways of working celebrated

The unfortunate reality is, Canada’s productivity is lagging. We hear it on the news and our big banks, think-tanks and the big four consulting firms regularly release reports about it. Statistics Canada confirms it: for decades, our productivity growth has been sluggish, held back by weak business investment and declining research and development spending. The Productivity Blueprint released by the C.D. Howe Institute finds that Canada has consistently lagged multiple peer countries in output per hour worked, and that from 2014 to 2024 its real GDP per capita grew the least of the nine economies compared.

So why then are some organizations thriving?

Canadian workplace culture makes all the difference. The organizations that are bucking this productivity trend make employee trust and engagement a priority.

While everyone else is focussed on the macroeconomics of the issue with the typical productivity culprits (capital investment, technology adoption and regulatory reform) taking priority, the Best Workplaces™ by Province are looking internally and recognizing productivity as an organizational trust issue. They understand that people, not technology, hold the key to long term organizational success. Indeed, when we asked their people whether they feel they make a difference around their organization, 91% said yes.

What Moves the Productivity Needle?

89% of employees at Canada’s 2026 provincial Best Workplaces say people adapt quickly to change.

Does AI adoption improve productivity?

Not on its own. Statistics Canada found no significant direct link between AI adoption and productivity once other factors were considered. The gains depend on supporting investments such as workforce skills, data and digital infrastructure.

Artificial Intelligence is often touted as the key to making a difference in Canada’s productivity problem. Statistics Canada, however, has actually found that AI adoption alone, despite its usage rates steadily increasing, did not contribute to significant productivity increases. Turns out, the real economic gains depend heavily on a supportive ecosystem that includes investing in skill development and responsible, inclusive deployment. This aligns perfectly with our insights on Canadian workplace culture that show time and again that employee trust and engagement are crucial for organizational productivity and success. People don’t do their best work just because they got a faster computer or an AI assistant. They perform best, and actually put their new tools to work more effectively when they feel trusted, are kept in the loop, and believe the rewards are shared fairly.

The encouraging part is that organizations don’t need to wait for policy changes or major investments to make progress. Culture is something leaders can influence immediately. You can start now by improving how well your culture encourages employee trust and engagement.

Productivity Game Changer: Trust

91% of employees at Canada’s 2026 provincial Best Workplaces say honest mistakes are treated as part of doing business.

Why is employee trust important for productivity?

Trust lets people focus on outcomes instead of protecting themselves. When employees feel trusted, they challenge the status quo and experiment with new tools. At Canada’s 2026 provincial Best Workplaces, 92% feel trusted to do their job without being micromanaged.

Employee trust is the foundation of a great workplace culture. It’s what encourages people to optimize outcomes over self-preservation. If an organization lacks trust, people think about themselves first; potentially limiting their ability to think creatively to solve problems, and they shy away from experimenting with new ideas or technology for fear of making a mistake. Conversely, when people feel trusted, they challenge the status quo looking for ways to improve and they lean into new technology knowing that their efforts are appreciated.

This is The Trust Dividend which shows how trust turns culture into performance and profit in the Age of AI, and how Great Place To Work can get you there. Featuring the Best Workplaces™ by Province it demonstrates that a key way to build trust, is to focus on employee outcome. Give people the tools and autonomy they need to do their best work, and productivity will follow. Instead of using AI tools to get more and more out of your people, use it to unlock their creative potential and get better solutions to your problems. This subtle shift in thinking will help improve employee trust and engagement and productivity.

At the Best Workplaces™ 90% of employees are willing to give extra to get the job done, 88% see new and better ways of working being celebrated, and 91% say honest mistakes are treated as part of doing business. Ultimately the Best Workplaces empower people to help meet business challenges, and make space for employees naturally to take ownership of their output and find faster, smarter ways to execute.

Productivity Game Plan: Participative Decision-Making

87% of employees at Canada’s 2026 provincial Best Workplaces are kept informed about important changes.

How does inclusion improve employee engagement?

Including people in decisions lowers their resistance to change and builds commitment to the result. At Canada’s provincial Best Workplaces, employees who feel they have a voice in decisions that affect them are twice as likely to lean into change.

When people feel included in decision making, employee trust and engagement soar. Rethinking how you introduce key productivity tools like AI and other capital investments can exponentially improve their adoption and success. People are not naturally inclined to accept change. It’s disruptive, it creates anxiety, and often causes people to go into self-protection mode. When employees worry that a new tool is going to replace them, they will quietly resist it, downplay its capabilities, or simply refuse to invest the mental energy needed to make it work.

To combat this, keep employees in the loop about your technology and productivity improvement plans and include your people in the decision-making process. Share the “why” behind an investment and help people see how the change will make their work less tedious, more engaging, or more high-value. Inclusion leads to less resistance and clears the path for real productivity improvements. Of course this means being really honest as well. If these changes will impact labour requirements, plan to support your people through the change, whether that means reskilling or retraining or at the last resort a layoff.

In the Trust Dividend we outline the importance of giving people a voice in change and how at the Best Workplaces™ 87% of employees say they are kept informed of important changes, 82% feel they are involved in decisions that impact their work, and 87% believe that layoffs would be used as a last resort. Within these high trust cultures, teams view technology as a means for improving their work rather than a threat to their livelihood.

Productivity MVP: Sharing the Success

The sense of receiving a fair share of profits rose 1.3 points at Canada’s provincial Best Workplaces from 2025 to 2026, the fastest gain of any experience measured.

What are the latest workplace culture trends in Canada?

Sharing success is one of the fastest-moving trends. At Canada’s provincial Best Workplaces, employees’ sense that they receive a fair share of profits rose more than any other experience measured from 2025 to 2026, and intent to stay rose alongside it.

Open communication around finances is in, in 2026. It’s undeniably challenging but it also has the potential to be the most trust-inducing. And in terms of productivity, sharing the rewards is obvious because at the end of the day employees are economically motivated. If employees think that the push for increased productivity only leads to higher executive bonuses or increased corporate reserves, employees will resist. Instead, if you talk about financial goals and share profitability stats, this helps people understand where the money is going and how, and why, it is being spent.

You don’t have to completely overhaul your compensation structure and you don’t have to share highly sensitive financial information. You just need to engage honestly with your people and recognize that when the organization does well, employees should share in that success. That can be anything from meaningful recognition to bonuses to profit sharing or whatever incentive resonates with your people.

At the Best Workplaces 88% of employees feel management appreciates their efforts and 87% feel everyone has an opportunity for special recognition. The Trust Dividend also points to U.S. research showing that employees who receive a fair share of profits are 60% more likely to engage with AI transformation. By treating people as partners in growth rather than line-item expenses, you create a direct line between their efforts and your productivity.

Productivity: The Ball is in Your Court

90% of employees at Canada’s 2026 provincial Best Workplaces willingly give extra to get the job done.

What are the benefits of building a high-trust workplace?

High-trust workplaces get more discretionary effort, faster adoption of change and more innovation. At Canada’s 2026 provincial Best Workplaces, 90% of employees willingly give extra to get the job done and 89% say people adapt quickly to change.

While people around you debate what is causing the productivity slump, choose to focus on the things within your culture that you can control and that will lead to more employee trust and engagement. Choose autonomy over tracking output. Choose inclusion over top-down decisions. Choose sharing information over confidentiality. Choose to trust and watch your people perform, innovate and take risks. From there the productivity will take care of itself.

The 2026 Best Workplaces™ in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec are the proof that high-trust, high-productivity cultures already exist across Canada. Explore the lists, then download The Trust Dividend for the full provincial data behind them.

Is low trust holding back your productivity? Certification as a Best Workplace™ can show you where trust is lifting performance in your organization, and where it is falling short.

Get Certified and find out whether your organization belongs on the Best Workplaces™ list for your province.

Tools & Resources

• Employee Survey: Measure whether your people feel trusted, kept in the loop and fairly rewarded, the same trust signals behind the results at Canada’s provincial Best Workplaces.


• Culture Consulting: Turn your Trust Index™ results into a plan for introducing new tools and investments in a way your people will support.


• Employee Engagement: Build the discretionary effort, ownership and willingness to experiment that turn culture into productivity.


• The Trust Dividend: Get the full 2026 provincial data on how trust turns culture into performance and profit in the age of AI.


• 2026 Best Workplaces™ by Province: See the organizations in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec that prove high trust and high productivity go together.

 

Feedback

How is your organization tackling productivity? We’d love to hear how you build trust, bring people into change and share success, and which topics you’d like us to explore next. Have feedback? Fill out this form by clicking here.

 

Get Certified

Productivity gains start with people who trust their leaders enough to give extra and embrace new tools. Certification measures that trust and benchmarks it against the Best Workplaces in your province. Get Certified today, then find out whether your organization belongs on the 2026 Best Workplaces™ by Province List.

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