Editorial: Many happy returns

This month marks the return of our editorial team to full strength — welcome back, Jenn! — and my return to regular duties as managing editor of our online news sites. I’d like to thank the editorial team — associate editors Lauren Bailey (who temporarily stepped into the managing editor role), Sadie Janes and Bryan McGovern, as well as art director Natasha Brar — for their support over the last several months and for successfully taking on new challenges.

Read: Head to head: Are employers reversing the ‘she-cession’ in the post-pandemic era?

September also marks the return of our annual Women’s Issue, with a focus on the pension and benefits issues that are impacting women and how employers are responding.

Within the workplace, the coronavirus pandemic disproportionately impacted women’s career progression, a phenomenon often described as the ‘she-cession.’ In this month’s Head to head, two experts discuss whether employers’ efforts towards gender equity have succeeded in the post-pandemic era.

Manulife Financial Corp.’s benefits program — and how it supported one woman’s journey into motherhood — is the subject of September’s Employer Strategy. When Jennifer Young, a global human resources business solutions consultant at Manulife, was expecting her first child in 2021, she ended up requiring a host of support tools to ensure her family was happy, healthy and thriving.

With her employer’s support, Young says she was in the right frame of mind to transition back into the workplace following her maternity leave. “If I didn’t have that type of care I couldn’t have returned in the right state. . . . I came back a thankful, healthy, happy employee.”

Read: How Manulife is supporting employees through the many stages of their health journeys

In June, Benefits Canada hosted a women’s roundtable that featured several expert panellists discussing the ways in which they’re prioritizing women’s health through their benefits plans and leave policies, as well as advice for employers to give women’s health the attention it deserves.

While women’s health issues are becoming a larger part of the employee benefits conversation, topics like menstruation and menopause still aren’t receiving enough attention in the workplace.

PricewaterhouseCoopers Canada frames its menopause strategy around a longer journey supporting women’s health, said Lisa Rosen, the firm’s director of total rewards. “We started a few years ago by looking at our parenting strategy and how we’re supporting women by increasing fertility and surrogacy benefits, caregiver benefits, parental leave benefits and now looking at it as the full reproductive cycle.”

Read: How employers can support female employees’ financial, retirement wellness

In addition to physical and mental health, supporting women’s financial and retirement wellness remains an ongoing challenge for employers. These challenges — as well as corresponding solutions — are explored in depth in our Cover Story, which details several employers’ approaches to supporting financial well-being from the perspective of their female employees.

One of the most important aspects of financial wellness is that employers communicate about retirement planning as early as possible, notes Christine van Staden, regional vice-president of group customer and national accounts at the Canada Life Assurance Co.

“We truly look to focus on employees’ varying life stages. They need support throughout their life journeys. It’s important we recognize that and have programs, supports, solutions, products and financial goals as people go through these stages.”

Enjoy this latest issue of Benefits Canada — I’ve enjoyed my time writing in this space and I’ll see you at one of our upcoming fall events.

Blake Wolfe is the interim editor of Benefits Canada and the Canadian Investment Review.