Rothmans, Benson & Hedges highlights employee well-being, DEI in annual sustainability report

“We aim to create an inclusive and empowering culture that provides everyone the opportunity to achieve their full potential, that fosters mutual respect and is a space that allows for learning and growth,” noted the report.

Read: Five workplace changes that should stay post-coronavirus

Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, RBH has adapted how and where employees work. Over the past year, it continued to allow its former office-based employees the option to work remotely, according to the report, which also noted the company lets employees use their health-care spending accounts to cover costs incurred to make their home office space more comfortable and ergonomically sound.

It’s also providing additional flexibility in employees’ work schedules to accommodate the challenges of working from home and offers ‘Summer Fridays,’ during which the workday ends at 1 p.m. As well, the company extended its employee assistance program to temporary employees.

RBH also supports its employees’ work in the community. For every hour of personal time an employee spends on volunteer work, they’re entitled to take an hour of time from work to complete additional volunteer work to a maximum of four business days. And in another difficult year for parents balancing work and young families, the organization also hosted a number of webinars on coping strategies and provided online educational resources for parents.

Read: How Accenture’s supporting working parents as third pandemic-era school year kicks off

“At RBH, we have focused on providing people more flexibility throughout the challenges of the last two years of the pandemic,” said Ksenia Kamenskaya, the organization’s director of people and culture, in the report. “We’re making sure that they can maintain their base for their family [such as] all the professional and domestic arrangements they have made in order to continue to work effectively.”

In addition, RBH continues to champion DEI in the workplace, noted the report. It offers unconscious bias training as part of its learning and development platform; employee resource groups to foster inclusivity and promote learning from difference; mental-health resources and support; and benchmarks to promote gender balance and increase representation from underrepresented groups.

The organization has also adopted the spirit of the three recommendations for corporate Canada from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which are supported with education, celebration and acknowledgment of Indigenous history and culture.

Read: How employers can use benefits offerings to support Indigenous employees

The report laid out RBH’s objectives for the year ahead as well. Under its ‘Caring for People’ pillar, these include: developing a policy around Bill 27, the right to disconnect in Ontario, and applying it nationally to all employees by 2023; formalizing its flexible working policy by 2023; and identifying opportunities for advancing Indigenous talent from within the organization.