Scotiabank is supporting employees with elderly relatives by providing five back-up days for elder care. The benefit provides in-home visits by personal support workers and was modelled after an existing program providing the bank’s employees with back-up childcare days, says Dominic Cole-Morgan, senior vice-president of total rewards. “It was about understanding sources of potential mental-health […]
The Bank of Montreal is supporting employee mental health through several benefits, including access to a mindfulness app. “We really appreciate the proactive nature of it,” says Jeff Scott, global head of benefits and wellness at BMO. “We’re trying to strike a balance in our offerings where we have smart proactive offerings as much as […]
More than three-quarters (78 per cent) of plan sponsors say they’re concerned about the coronavirus pandemic’s long-term impact on the cost of health benefits plans, up from 71 per cent in 2021, according to the 2022 Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey. Among these respondents, 31 per cent strongly agreed with this statement, up from 23 per cent […]
While ‘quiet quitting’ has emerged as a serious workplace issue over the last few months, it isn’t a new trend; rather, it’s long been a focus for human resources professionals, says Steve Pemberton, chief HR officer at Workhuman. “In the HR community, we call that disengaged. . . . It’s just been rebranded as ‘quiet quitting,'” he […]
Flexibility only goes so far, say two experts, and covers a small part of a healthy and respectful work culture. Tracy Fogale, senior manager of benefits at Kraft Heinz Canada: While flexibility is a critical way to retain employees, particularly women, in the workforce, it can’t tackle systemic issues such as the gender pay gap, […]
Many employees are engaged in a challenging “juggling act,” with about one in four Canadians aged 15 and older providing ongoing care to a family member or friend and about one in five caregivers spending 20 or more hours a week in that role, according to Sherry Hnatyshyn, managing director of Carepath. During a Benefits […]
Over two-thirds (66 per cent) of Canadian benefits plan members said they feel less connected to their co-workers and employers over the past year since shifting to remote working amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to the 2021 Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey. That number rose for respondents who said they aren’t satisfied with their jobs (73 […]
As employers and their employees exit the coronavirus pandemic, they’ll be confronted with a host of new challenges, said Linda Duxbury, Chancellor’s professor in management at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business, during the keynote session of Benefits Canada’s 2021 Benefits & Pension Summit this week. “Much like with a tsunami, [smaller] waves are going […]
The coronavirus pandemic is fundamentally changing the future of work and, very likely, the nature of employer-sponsored benefits and pension plans. Looking to the end of the crisis, Canadian consultants see an array of major changes on the horizon, from more flexible benefits plans and mental-health care to an outsourcing of pension administration and the […]
The City of Mississauga’s acting senior manager of total rewards talks virtual health care, pension communications and spending time with family. Q. What top challenges do you face in your role? A. I think we can say there are two worlds: pre-coronavirus and post-coronavirus. In the current situation, the top challenge is making sure our […]