A story on mental-health themes and challenges for 2024 was the most-read story on BenefitsCanada.com this week. Here are the top five human resources, benefits, pension and investment stories of the past week: 1. Expert panel: Employers taking preventative, holistic approach to employee mental health in 2024 2. AI holds uncapped potential for pension plan sponsors’ administration, communications: […]
While there’s more work to be done before lifetime pension pools are widely implemented in North America, employers are increasingly aware of concepts such as variable payment life annuities, says Barbara Sanders, an associate professor at Simon Fraser University. “It seems that it’s being discussed fairly often. When in industry meetings, it’s certainly a very […]
While pension plan sponsors are still in the early days of exploring how artificial intelligence solutions could help automate maintenance tasks, they’re exploring the various functionalities they can automate from a member service standpoint, says Akio Tagawa, president and chief executive officer at consultancy Linea Solutions. He’s seen increased interest from plan sponsors in evaluating how […]
With more than 40,000 employees across the country, Amazon Canada is a microcosm of the wider national workforce. Comprising five generations, the online retailer’s workers represent a wide spectrum of savings goals and related challenges. And to support these goals, it has developed a diverse array of options to meet staff at every stage of […]
Discouraged with the state of the current economy, more and more younger workers are abandoning saving for retirement and focusing on ‘soft saving.’ Soft saving is when employees, many of whom started their careers later than previous generations, decide to take a more laid-back approach to saving for the future, rather than adopt the FIRE concept — […]
Hydro Ottawa Ltd. is marking Financial Literacy Month by promoting tools and resources for employees grappling with the rising cost of living, says Donna Burnett Vachon, the company’s director of change and organization development. “We see [the impact of the rising cost of living] every day from people who have increasing rental costs to even just […]
About a third (32 per cent) of defined contribution pension plan sponsors that currently don’t use a financial wellness program say it’s because they don’t expect employees to take advantage of it, according to a new survey by Cerulli Associates. However, the survey also found financial wellness programs have grown to become a key component of […]
During Financial Literacy Month, the Royal Bank of Canada is supporting employees’ financial wellness through a new website that provides financial education and support. The My Money Matters website contains more than 1,000 articles on financial well-being and was designed to de-stigmatize conversations about money, says Elvis Wong, the bank’s director of financial well-being. “We […]
Defined contribution pension plan members are currently in a different place, especially the younger generations, who are likely feeling as though their financial priorities don’t line up with workplace pensions the way they did for previous generations. “What I’m getting at here is the idea that retirement saving isn’t the undeniable consensus top priority it […]
The Ontario Ministry of Finance’s proposed guidance for multi-employer target-benefit pension plans undermines incentives for employers to contribute towards their employees’ retirement savings, including cost certainty, with unduly burdensome regulatory framework, according to the Association of Canadian Pension Management. In an open letter, the ACPM expressed its hesitation about proposed rules restraining trustees’ ability to prudently […]