Psychological health and safety in the Canadian Defence Team

Canada's defence policy, Our North, Strong and Free: A Renewed Vision for Canada's Defence, aims to ensure its Defence Team (DT) personnel's needs are met. Various Department of National Defence (DND) and Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) strategies focus on enhancing personnel well-being and organizational culture. This study assessed perceptions and experiences related to psychological health, organizational culture, and retention among DT personnel. The goal was to explore relationships between workplace factors and outcomes among Regular Force (Reg F) CAF members, Primary Reserve (P Res) CAF members, and DND public service (PS) personnel, and to determine whether associations between certain workplace factors and outcomes of interest differed across the three groups.

An online survey was administered to stratified random samples from each component in the spring or summer of 2022. The final sample included 4,463 Reg F members, 1,318 P Res members, and 2,866 DND PS personnel.

Despite moderate morale, burnout, psychological distress, and affective commitment to the CAF/DND, DT personnel are generally satisfied, engaged, and not planning to leave within the next 12 months. Several workplace factors, particularly pride in organizational membership and perceptions of organizational support, were associated with outcomes of interest among all groups. Meaningful work was a key driver only among CAF members. The strength of associations between workplace factors and outcomes of interest varied across components.

These results aim to help CAF/DND leadership foster DT personnel's well-being and improve the organizational culture, with tailored recommendations that address the specific needs of each component.