Almost half (49 per cent) of Canadian workers said they value flexibility over hours or location more now than prior to the coronavirus pandemic, while 40 per cent value it the same as pre-pandemic, according to a LinkedIn Corp. survey. The survey, which polled 1,725 employees in Canada in March, found 45 per cent of […]
Google and IBM Corp. are planning to shift the majority of their respective workforces to a hybrid work model, as the companies begin to plan for the post-pandemic future. In a report by The Associated Press, Google said it’s expecting about 20 per cent of its workforce to continue remote work after its offices reopen this […]
Canadian employers are making ongoing changes to their pension and benefits offerings as the coronavirus pandemic drags on, according to a new survey by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans. The survey found almost one in five (18 per cent) employers offering prescription drug coverage have extended the time allowed under prior authorization periods, […]
For many Canadians, the coronavirus pandemic profoundly changed their daily commute: people used to catching a subway or driving or biking to work now commute just mere steps from their bedroom to their home office, couch or kitchen table. According to Statistics Canada, the pandemic prompted a five-fold increase in the number of Canadians teleworking […]
While the coronavirus pandemic has caused elevated workloads and exhaustion among employees, it’s also resulted in improved loyalty to employers and a stronger sense of purpose in the workforce, according to a new survey by KPMG in Canada. It found 49 per cent of Canadian full-time employees had a workload that was “much or somewhat more” […]
Fundamental changes to the traditional workplace are causing greater levels of mental distress for managers and non-managers alike in the Canadian workforce, noted findings from Morneau Shepell Ltd.’s latest monthly mental-health index. At the one-year mark, the mental-health score for March 2021 (negative 11.2) was similar to that of April 2020 (negative 11.7) but slightly […]
As the shift to full-time remote working endures during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, location-based pay policies are coming to the forefront of discussions as employers plan for the future workplace, noted a geographical pay survey by WorldatWork. Of the 62 per cent of U.S. organizations surveyed with existing geographic pay policies, 44 per cent are […]
The best way to learn is by doing. And since March 11, 2020, when a pandemic was declared by the World Health Organization, we’ve all certainly learned a lot by doing things we never thought we’d do. Over the past 13-plus months, I’ve done everything from lining up to buy toilet paper to doing yoga […]
For years, digital offerings played second banana to in-person options for many employers aiming to connect with and support employees. Not anymore. As employers and employees face down year two of the coronavirus pandemic, digital supports have moved from understudy to centre stage. “The pandemic has changed the environment significantly, as we all know, and […]
As the coronavirus pandemic ground the world to a halt in March 2020, stopping was not an option for Gale Rubenstein or her colleagues on the board of trustees at the University Pension Plan Ontario. The jointly sponsored pension plan had only come into existence two months earlier, and the clock had already begun ticking […]