The third episode of Benefits Canada‘s new podcast, Human Resourcefulness, looks at the role of the human resources manager through Toby Flenderson of The Office. Our experts are blunt — the passive and indiscrete Toby isn’t great at his job. But what do you do when a Toby walks off the screen and into your office? Priya Sarin […]
What are the top challenges plan sponsors face?
While flexible benefits plans are a clear trend among Canadian employers, the range of choices can be daunting for employees. So how much choice is too much? That was a question Pitney Bowes Inc. considered when it redesigned its benefits plan in 2015. As part of the changes, the company trimmed its menu of mix-and-match […]
While the Bank of Canada had long talked down the idea of raising interest rates any time soon, the sentiment changed last month when it announced the economy was now strong enough to handle an increase. The move followed the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to raise its key interest rate for the third time in […]
A consultant’s role was historically a passive one, says Martin Leclair, who recently left a role at Toronto-based consulting firm Proteus Performance Management. The consultant’s role centred on the various aspects of developing pension and benefits plans for employers, from choosing fund offerings and implementing target-date options and automatic enrolment to decisions about formularies, step […]
The second episode of Benefits Canada’s new podcast, Human Resourcefulness, continues this week with a look at The Office‘s Dwight Schrute and Jim Halpert. Dwight cares a lot about his company, but his suspicion and lack of humour make him a difficult colleague to work with. Jim seems like a great guy to grab a beer with […]
Canada is facing a $13.4-trillion retirement savings deficit by 2050, up from a $2.7-trillion shortfall in 2015, according to a new report by Mercer. Among all eight countries included in the report — Australia, Britain, Canada, China, India, Japan, the Netherlands and the United States — the current gap between aggregate savings and expected annual retirement […]
Canadian pension plan solvency has been fairly flat so far this year, but the numbers are up over last year, according to Mercer. At 93 per cent, the median solvency ratio of Mercer’s pension plan clients remains the same as the beginning of the year. Plans are in a significantly better position than they were a year […]
Jim Keohane couldn’t help but laugh when he recently got his hands on a copy of the 1975 annual report for the Ontario Hospital Association’s pension plan. The plan, an ancestor of the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan that Keohane now leads, dated back to 1960 and had accumulated total assets of about $300 million […]
As part of its celebration of its 40th anniversary, Benefits Canada followed up on research undertaken five years ago into plan sponsors’ attitudes towards their pension and benefits plans. How do the results today compare to the 2012 findings? It’s no surprise that, according to Benefits Canada’s research, plan sponsors find costs the biggest challenge […]