Men's Mental Health in the Workplace: A Guide for HR Leaders

Men account for nearly 75% of suicide deaths in Canada, and the male suicide rate is almost three times the female rate, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada. The same men are less likely to use mental health care, which means a workforce that skews male (trades, construction, sales, finance, tech, first responders) carries a risk your EAP utilisation report will never show you.

Key takeaways

Key takeaways

1. Men are nearly 75% of suicide deaths in Canada, and the male rate is about three times the female rate across the working years.
2. Canadian industry data is thin; the strongest occupational figures are American, where men in construction and extraction jobs had about double the suicide rate of working men overall in 2021.
3. Men under-use support because of stigma, fear for their jobs, cost and time, so the fix is trust, privacy and plain explanations, not more posters.
4. Manager check-ins, peer models such as MATES, plain language and a genuinely usable EAP are the parts that do the work.
5. A keynote gives permission to talk; book it as the launch of a programme, brief the speaker on safe messaging and have support in the room.
6. Always name 988 (call or text 9-8-8) alongside your EAP.

If you or someone on your team is struggling right now, call or text 9-8-8, the Suicide Crisis Helpline, any time, day or night. If someone is in immediate danger, call 9-1-1.

This guide is for HR leaders and event planners who want to do something useful about men's mental health at work. It covers what the data says and where it falls short, why men under-use support, what tends to work on a job site or a sales floor, what does not, and where a keynote fits. A talk can open the door. It cannot be the whole plan.

What does the data say about men's mental health and suicide in Canada?

The headline numbers come from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). Its suicide mortality page reports 4,394 suicide deaths in 2024, a preliminary count expected to change, and says men are about half the population but nearly 75% of suicide deaths.

The age pattern matters for employers. PHAC's key statistics infographic, built on Statistics Canada death data for 2019, shows male suicide rates of 21.4 per 100,000 at ages 20 to 34, 23.4 at 35 to 49 and 25.9 at 50 to 64. The female rates for the same groups were 6.8, 6.8 and 8.4. Men's rates run roughly three times women's right across the ages that make up most of your workforce, and peak at 50 to 64.

Statistics Canada's own releases add a second point: for Canadians aged 15 to 24 and 25 to 44, suicide sat alongside accidents and cancers as one of the three leading causes of death in 2023.

Where the data has limits

Be honest about these when you present the numbers internally.

• Suicide data is slow. Statistics Canada notes that deaths needing a coroner's investigation, suicide included, reach its database late, so the newest years are preliminary and get revised.
• The counts are probably low. PHAC states that stigma and other factors mean published figures may undercount deaths, attempts and thoughts of suicide.
• There is little Canadian data by industry. The Institute for Work & Health, which is leading a national project on suicide and substance use in construction with partners including WorkSafeBC and Canada's Building Trades Unions, says plainly that Canadian statistics on the scope of the problem are lacking. Most industry-level figures you will see quoted come from the US or Australia.
• Diagnosis rates may mislead. UBC researchers John Oliffe and John Ogrodniczuk, profiled by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, argue that standard depression screening leans on symptoms like sadness and crying and can miss the anger and irritability more common in men. Lower diagnosed depression in men does not mean lower distress.

What do we know about trades and construction?

The best occupational data is American. A CDC report published in 2023, using 2021 death records for 30,015 working-age people in 49 states, found a suicide rate of 32.0 per 100,000 for working men overall. Men in construction and extraction occupations had a rate of 65.6, about double. By industry, men in mining had 72.0 and men in construction 56.0. The CDC lists its own limits: it did not adjust for age, education or other non-work factors, and death certificates record a person's usual job, which may not match their current one. These are associations, not proof that the work causes the deaths.

Canadian survey data points the same way. A 2025 report from Canada's Building Trades Unions, prepared by the Douglas Coldwell Layton Foundation and covered by HR trade press, surveyed more than 1,000 union members. Nearly half rated their mental health fair (29%) or poor (17%). Seventy-seven per cent reported stress, 62% anxiety and 45% depression, and one in four used substances daily or weekly to cope. The part HR leaders should sit with: 84% believed their union offered the mental health supports they needed, but only 10% had used them. This was a survey of union members, not a random sample of all tradespeople.

If your workforce runs long shifts, fatigue is part of this picture too. I cover the safety side in the fatigue and long hours guide.

Why do men under-use mental health support?

Start with the size of the gap. Statistics Canada's 2022 Mental Health and Access to Care Survey (9,861 respondents aged 15 and up, 10 provinces) found 18.3% of Canadians met the criteria for a mood, anxiety or substance use disorder in the past year. Only 48.8% of them had talked to a health professional about it, and 36.6% had partly or fully unmet needs, with counselling the biggest gap. That survey release does not split unmet need by sex.

Where Statistics Canada does split consultations by sex, men trail. In the territories' 2023/2024 Canadian Community Health Survey data (Yukon and Northwest Territories only for this measure), 13.9% of males had consulted a mental health professional in the past year, against 32.7% of females. That is a small, northern sample, so treat it as a signal rather than a national rate.

The research on why is consistent:

• Help-seeking feels like weakness. The UBC work found many men link asking for help with powerlessness and a loss of masculinity, and that stoic ideals discouraged older men in particular. A 2025 Movember piece from CMHA Grey Bruce makes the same point: many men are raised to fix every problem and offer help without accepting it.
• Fear for the job. A 2019 Ipsos survey of 1,000 Canadian men for Movember found 28% feared their job could be at risk if they talked about mental health at work, 33% thought it could hold back a promotion and 42% worried colleagues would talk behind their backs.
• Practical barriers. In the 2025 trades survey, the top barriers were stigma (24%), cost (22%), time (21%) and fear of repercussions (20%).
• Men talk less, even when they would like to. A 2021 Ipsos poll for Movember (2,000+ Canadian adults, ages 18 to 54 reported) found 75% felt the men in their lives were less likely than women to share mental health concerns, and 65% of men said they were overdue for a routine check-up.

There is a useful flip side. The same UBC research found some men were more willing to get help when they saw it as a responsible choice, the thing a good father, partner or crew lead does. That framing shows up again in what works.

How to support men's mental health at work: what works

None of what follows is clinical care. It is about making it easier for men to say something, and making sure there is somewhere real to go when they do.

Train managers to have one conversation

Supervisors are the gatekeepers of the shift, the schedule and the time off, so men watch how they react. The evidence also shows a warning: in the review of Australia's MATES in Construction program, supervisors were consistently the least trusted source of support. So the goal is modest. Teach every lead hand, foreman and sales manager to notice change (withdrawal, irritability, more mistakes, more drinking talk), ask a direct question privately, listen without fixing, and know the exact next step to offer. Then back it up so nobody who speaks up is penalised, which is the first workplace step Movember recommends.

Build a peer model

Men are often more willing to talk to a coworker than a boss. MATES in Construction trains general workers in suicide awareness, then volunteer "connectors" who link mates in distress to help, with case management behind them. A 2023 systematic review of 12 studies (Gullestrup et al., Health Promotion International) found gains in suicide literacy, help-seeking intentions and public stigma, and some ecological studies showed construction suicide rates falling faster than for other employed men. The authors are clear about the limits: no randomised trials, mostly self-report, all Australian, and two authors have ties to the program. Promising, not proven.

Change the language before you change the programme

Words decide whether a man reads a poster or walks past it. Some swaps that tend to land better with male crews:

Make the EAP usable, not just available

The trades survey gap (84% think support exists, 10% have used it) is the problem in one line. Put the number on hard hats, lunchroom walls and the back of pay stubs. Explain confidentiality in plain words. Tell people what the first call sounds like. Check whether the EAP offers phone or text support after a 12-hour shift, and whether counsellors understand shift work. Review utilisation quarterly and ask why it is low. Name 988 alongside the EAP so there is always a 24-hour option.

Fix the work itself

The HeadsUpGuys workplace report (UBC, with Community Savings Credit Union, 1,450 men, median age 43, survey ending February 2022) found about 35% dreaded going to work, about 30% were at least moderately burned out and 11% reported weekly bullying. The respondents chose to take part, so this is not a random sample, but its recommendations are sensible: review workloads, offer flexibility where possible, take bullying seriously and fund counselling benefits. A keynote cannot fix a toxic site. Management can.

What does not work

• A single awareness day with nothing behind it. It signals the topic is a calendar item.
• Posters with a phone number and no explanation. Men want to know what happens when they call.
• Making men share in a group. Forced disclosure in front of coworkers raises the very stigma you are trying to lower.
• Graphic stories or method detail. PHAC's safe communication guidance says to leave out methods, locations and sensational detail, and to include where to get help.
• Treating it as an HR project only. If site supervisors and senior leaders do not model it, the crew will not believe it.

For the cost and ROI side of the argument, see the business case for workplace mental health in Canada.

Where does a men's mental health keynote fit?

A keynote is good at one job: giving a room permission. When a man on stage talks about the cost of staying silent, it lowers the bar for the man in row 12 to say something to his foreman next week. The 2021 Movember poll found 65% of men said they paid more attention to their own mental health when public figures spoke about their struggles.

My TEDx talk, "The Transformative Power of Vulnerability in Men's Mental Health", was given at TEDxBearCreekPark in March 2021. It challenges the script that strength means staying silent, a script that costs men their health, their marriages and sometimes more. I have spoken to trades and construction audiences and to healthcare teams.

What a keynote cannot do is replace the steps above. Book it as the launch of something: a new peer programme, a refreshed EAP, manager training, or a monthly huddle topic. If the talk lands and there is nothing for people to walk into afterwards, you have spent your goodwill. My wellness keynote guide covers formats, costs and how to pick a speaker.

How to brief a speaker on this topic sensitively

Everything in a normal brief applies (see what to put in a speaker brief), plus these:

1. Tell the speaker about any recent loss. If someone in the company has died by suicide in the past year or two, the speaker needs to know, and the content should be adjusted.
2. Agree on safe messaging. No method detail, no "he seemed fine" stories told as warnings, "died by suicide" throughout, and a message of hope and help.
3. Name your real supports. Give the speaker the EAP name, how it works, any peer supporters and the 988 line so they can point to them from the stage.
4. Have support in the room. Arrange for a counsellor or trained peer to be available during and after the session, and tell the audience they are there.
5. Describe the crowd. Shift times, literacy, languages, the mood on site, what has been tried before and how it went.
6. Avoid forced participation. No hand-raising about personal struggles, no partner-sharing on this topic.
7. Agree on one Monday action. For example, every supervisor asks one crew member a private check-in question that week.

What to measure, and what to do this week

Skip the satisfaction survey. Track EAP and benefit counselling utilisation by quarter, the share of supervisors trained, the number of peer supporters, sick days and turnover by site, and a short anonymous pulse question: "If you were struggling, would you feel safe telling your supervisor?" Watch the trend over a year.

This week, three things are enough to start. Pull your last four quarters of EAP utilisation and compare it with your headcount by gender if your provider reports it. Ask five site leads where the EAP number is actually posted. And put 988 on the agenda of your next toolbox talk or team huddle.

If you want a session that opens this conversation for a male-heavy team and points people to the supports you already pay for, start with a short brief and request a speaking quote.