In 2019, employers are increasingly making diversity and inclusion initiatives and education assistance for employees part of their total rewards offerings, according to new research by WorldatWork. Its annual inventory of total rewards programs and practices, which surveyed more than 700 U.S. employers, found the percentage of organizations offering employees some form of education assistance — through scholarship, student […]
Morneau Shepell Ltd. is appointing Sandy Innes as a client relationship partner in Western Canada. In the role, Innes will be responsible for supporting some of the consultancy’s largest plan sponsor clients with strategic insights, innovation and best practices. Read: Morneau Shepell closes acquisition of some of Mercer’s U.S. health, DB businesses He joins Morneau Shepell with more […]
Unionized employees at Dearborn Ford in Kamloops, B.C. are receiving a pension boost and wage increases in a new three-year contract, which they voted to ratify earlier this week. The agreement, which applies to 43 workers represented by Unifor Local 10-B, includes a 0.25 per cent increase to employer contributions in the defined contribution pension plan, a 2.5 […]
In 2016, KPMG Canada’s benefits program was facing a perfect storm: the company was starting to see a change in its workforce’s needs; employees didn’t value some of its offerings, found the program difficult to understand and felt the pay and total rewards package weren’t competitive; and the organization’s new management team didn’t believe the […]
The Pensions Policy Institute and U.K. consumer advocacy group Which? are teaming up to recommend to the U.K. government that working mothers should receive a top-up to their pensions in an effort to close the pension gender gap. The groups’ analysis found a woman in the U.K. who took time off for childcare responsibilities would put an average […]
Benefits plans tackle everything from retirement to rheumatoid arthritis, but should they help employees cross items off their bucket lists, too? In her research, Erica Pearson, co-founder and chief executive officer of Vacation Fund Inc., says usually about 50 per cent of people indicated they don’t have the budget to take vacation and 50 per cent […]
Alongside Hydro One Ltd.’s initial public offering in November 2015, the company underwent an internal transformation by revamping its total rewards program. Previously, the utility organization’s program was very traditional with a fixed salary structure and not much external benchmarking, according to Sabrin Lila, Hydro One’s director of compensation and human resources analytics, noting the company was limited by existing […]
As newer generations enter the workforce, innovative benefits plan design is important to connect plan members with the resources that fulfill the needs of an increasingly diverse workforce. During a panel at Benefits Canada’s 2019 Benefits and Pension Summit in Toronto on April 17, Wade Domries, vice-president of total rewards at Telus Corp., discussed how the company […]
In today’s modern world, filling out paperwork to make a benefits claim feels archaic, especially considering the ease of making other life choices, such as an app for ordering coffee from Starbucks Corp. or personalized viewing suggestions from Netflix Inc. “People’s expectations are changing,” says Ofelia Isabel, managing director and client management leader for Canada at Willis Towers Watson. She […]
Two-thirds (62 per cent) of global employees said they’d exchange their work-related data for more customized benefits, rewards and compensation, according to a new survey by Accenture. The global survey, which polled 1,400 corporate executives and 10,000 employees across 13 industries, also found 92 per cent of employees are open to their employers collecting data […]