Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s multi-faceted approach to employee well-being took home the top prize in the Health/Wellness Program category for employers with fewer than 1,000 employees at Benefits Canada’s 2024 Workplace Benefits Awards on Oct. 18.
“I’m actually really surprised [by the award win]!” says Merlyn Sequeira, senior director of total rewards at Samsung. “It’s great that Benefits Canada and the judges recognized the work we’ve done.”
In 2022, the electronics company formalized and documented its well-being strategy, which is focused around four pillars of wellness: social, financial, physical and mental. A flexible benefits plan that was introduced in 2022 allows employees to choose their coverage amounts and allocate leftover dollars to either a health-care spending account or personal spending account.
Read: Samsung’s 2021 Workplace Benefits Awards win generating discussion, sharing of ideas with peers
Through its benefits plan, the company provides $4,000 per person per year for mental-health services, between $650 and $1,500 per person per year for musculoskeletal services and between $400 and $750 per person per year for other practitioners such as audiologists, homeopaths, naturopaths, speech therapists, dieticians and nutritionists. In addition to virtual health-care portals for employees and their dependants, Samsung recently added a virtual veterinarian service for workers’ pets.
“I’m so happy we added [the virtual veterinarian] — employees are saying great things about it,” says Sequeira. “The program is very new and we wanted to get on board and be able to offer it to our employees.”
To support employees’ financial wellness, Samsung offers benefits such as employee financial education sessions conducted by its benefits provider, discounts on auto insurance and mortgage rates and 17 weeks of parental leave top-up. For employees taking compassionate care leave, it provides a 75 per cent top-up for six weeks.
The company also offers a recognition program that encourages employees at all levels to recognize their colleagues and rewards them with points to purchase Samsung products.
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Samsung hosts various onsite activities and initiatives to further support employee well-being across the four wellness pillars. It hosts two flu clinics per year, which can be accessed by employees’ dependants. And since 2016, Samsung has hosted a two-day onsite well-being fair at its Mississauga, Ont. headquarters, featuring various health-related activities such as chair massages, education sessions, biometric screenings, ergonomic assessments, cooking demonstrations and fitness classes. In 2023, the event drew 177 employees, up from 55 attendees in 2016.
In addition to in-person events, the company also offers virtual sessions on a variety of wellness topics and communicates its resources and onsite initiatives to all employees through email and a dedicated well-being section of the company’s intranet.
On Jan. 1, 2024, Samsung introduced five paid well-being days that allow employees to focus on their overall wellness. As of June 1, more than 50 per cent of employees have already taken at least one well-being day.
Read: Tips for offering wellness days that work for all employees