When you board a bus, streetcar or subway train in Canada’s biggest city, chances are the driver will be a man. Keisha Campbell, the Toronto Transit Commission’s first-ever chief diversity and culture officer, is aiming to tackle the lack of female transit operators and many other diversity, equity and inclusion challenges at North America’s third-largest transit […]
As a “symbol of our collective sorrow,” IKEA Canada lowered its flags in response to the news of the grim discovery of mass graves at former residential schools in this country. The home goods retailer has also been talking with several Indigenous-led organizations to development its reconciliation strategy and has shared resources, including via its employee […]
While employees are being more open about their gender identities — whether they identify as gender fluid, intersex, non-binary, transgender or two-spirit — at work these days, there’s still progress to be made when it comes to benefits language, systems, plans and rate tables, says Chantelle Tadman, manager of benefits, savings plans and wellness at […]
Manulife Financial Corp. and its subsidiary John Hancock is educating and thanking its employees for continuing to work hard amid these tumultuous times. This is the second year the companies have given staff an extra day off since a global coronavirus pandemic was first declared in March 2020. And this year, the company also held […]
Recognition in not one, but two categories at Benefits Canada‘s 2020 Workplace Benefits Awards is helping get the word out to Scotiabank employees that the bank is a leading employer when it comes to benefits offerings, says Ayman Alvi, director of global benefits. Read: Who are the winners of the 2020 Workplace Benefits Awards? “We participated in the Workplace […]
The murder of George Floyd, one year ago today in Minneapolis, Minn., sparked calls for change around the world including in Canadian workplaces. Floyd’s death kicked off global Black Lives Matter rallies last spring and summer, as well as many hard conversations about anti-Black systemic racism between Canadian employers and employees. And in the wake of those […]
There’s a reason so many episodes of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm penned by Larry David revolve around the annoyances of medical appointments. To paraphrase the acerbic comedian — they’re pretty, prettttty, pretttttty bad. Going to a medical appointment used to mean taking at least part of a day off work, rushing to be on […]
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 […]
Remember those Freedom 55 ads that always seemed to be on TV in the ‘80s and ‘90s? I recently went down a YouTube rabbit hole and re-watched some of them and, well, let’s just say they’re as ridiculous as I remember. In one 30-second spot from the early ‘90s, a downcast businesswoman reads the paper […]
Mandy Kwasnica and her husband so desperately wanted to adopt they were ready to sink all of their money (and then some) into making their dream a reality. “Adoption is very, very expensive, but we knew in our hearts that this was the right move we were making,” recalls the manager of mortgage sales support at […]