The City of Mississauga’s newest employee, Ajax the two-year-old golden labrador retriever, is dogged in his pursuit of better mental health for emergency services personnel. Ajax, a facility dog from National Service Dogs, is available to Mississauga Fire and Emergency Services staff as part of the department’s wellness-fitness initiative. The goal of having Ajax on-site […]
While employer-provided wellness programs can include incentives or penalties for members, the industry is divided on which tactic is most effective in encouraging employee participation. Dominic Cole-Morgan, senior vice-president of total rewards at Scotiabank: The reality is the workforce has never been more diverse than it is today. No employee’s needs, preferences or backgrounds are […]
Pethealth Inc.’s senior vice-president of HR talks flexible working, mental health and crime fiction. Q. What top challenges do you face in your role? A. A key challenge is balancing between the needs and wants of employees. For example, employees at different life stages value different benefits — some employees want more vacation time, while […]
Manulife Financial Corp. is rolling out its Vitality health and wellness app to all its group benefits plan members after initially launching it with its own employees. The Vitality program, which connects with wearable devices, including smartwatches, fitness bracelets and smartphones, is designed to encourage users to make healthy choices and rewards them with gift […]
Mercer is appoints Dr. Andrew Halpert as clinical innovation leader for health in the U.S. and Canada. In the role, Halpert will be responsible for leading Mercer’s clinical consulting offerings and health strategy development. With 30 years of experience in the industry, he was previously the senior director for clinical and network solutions at Collective Health and […]
Workplace programs to promote healthy food choices could improve employees’ eating habits, according to a study by researchers at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. A two-year study at the hospital examined the purchasing habits of almost 5,700 employees before and after researchers put in place a “traffic light labeling and choice architecture program.” […]
Most organizations support charities in their communities through a variety of means — donations supporting specific initiatives, sponsorships, by purchasing tables for events or donating items to auctions, team participation in walks and runs or through volunteerism. Philanthropy has been a key facet of good corporate citizenship for a long time. However, in many organizations, philanthropy and the decisions […]
The American Association of Retired Persons Foundation and the law firm Garrison, Levin-Epstein, Fitzgerald and Pirrotti have filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of Yale University employees who are objecting to their employer instituting fines for those who don’t participate in its wellness program. The university’s program requires its 5,000 unionized staff and their spouses to submit to medical […]
The majority (80 per cent) of working Canadians reported their overall well-being would improve if their employer offered a personalized wellness program customized to their specific wellness and health-related interests and goals, according to a new survey by RBC Insurance. If they were offered this type of program, survey respondents also said they’d see improvements […]
Employers that provide financial wellness programs alongside traditional health and wellness offerings are likely to reap the benefits of a healthier workforce, according to new research by Prudential Financial Inc. The research surveyed 2,000 American employees who work at organizations that offer wellness benefits, such as gym memberships, fitness and diet advice and smoking cessation […]