Walmart Canada is enhancing its employee benefits plan with coverage for fertility treatments and gender affirmation. Nadia Cerisano, vice-president of total rewards and global mobility at Walmart, says the new benefits, which take effect Feb. 1, will help employees be their authentic selves in the workplace. Last fall, Walmart extended fertility benefits to its U.S. […]
Employers planning to incentivize non-smoking employees should align these perks with a broader health and well-being strategy and ensure the rewards are significant enough to make behaviour change appealing for smokers, says Kim Siddall, vice-president of enterprise consulting for the West at People Corporation. Possible incentives include additional vacation time, increased credits in a health-care […]
While 80 per cent of U.S. employees view mental-health coverage as critical, only 61 per cent have access to mental-health care as part of their benefits package, according to a new survey by Aflac Inc. The survey, which polled more than 2,000 employees and 1,200 employers in the U.S., found more than half (59 per cent) […]
In March 2020, Bill Gosling Outsourcing’s benefits plan was facing unsustainable costs, as well as a deficit due to incoming premium increases. The coronavirus pandemic, which was declared at the same time, presented an opportunity for the organization to make significant changes. “During the pandemic, people were housebound, so they weren’t going to the dentist […]
Fluor Canada Ltd.’s manager of Indigenous relations and DEI discusses the post-coronavirus pandemic workplace, employee resource groups and fishing. Q: What top challenges do you face in your role? A: Employee engagement can be challenging in the post-[coronavirus] pandemic hybrid working model. We’ve come out of a strictly work-from-home circumstance to a hybrid model and, […]
Amid the increasing introduction of specialized medicines in Canada, key stakeholders in the private payer health-care sector are enhancing their collaborations to maintain the value of private drug coverage, said Joe Farago, executive director of private payers and investment at Innovative Medicines Canada, during a webinar by the Group Insurance Pharmaceutical Committee this week. “[The […]
Ontario education workers are striking over extended benefits, short-term disability leave and wage increases, among other requests by the workers’ union the Canadian Union of Public Employees. The CUPE is asking the provincial government to provide additional funds to cover the increasing costs of medications and health and dental services, according to the CUPE’s Ontario […]
Eight in 10 (80 per cent) small- and medium-sized employers in Eastern Canada say they don’t provide employee benefits, according to a new survey for Medavie Blue Cross by Abacus Data. The survey, which polled SMEs and SME workers in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada, found a third (35 per cent) of SMEs that don’t […]
The union representing full-time support workers at Ontario’s 24 public colleges has ratified a three-year collective agreement that includes a new mental-health benefit, coverage for medical cannabis and an enhanced bereavement leave. The new mental-health benefit will be added in September 2023, providing plan members with up to $1,750 per year for mental-health services, including […]
A majority of plan sponsors (80 per cent) and plan members (77 per cent) described the quality of their health benefits plans as excellent or good, according to the 2022 Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey. Employers with 500 or more employees (86 per cent) were more likely than those with fewer than 50 employees (72 per […]