Sun Life Financial Canada is adding optional medical marijuana coverage to its group benefits plans from March 1, 2018. Coverage of the drug will be added as an extended health-care benefit at the request of plan sponsors. It will include a yearly maximum, ranging between $1,500 and $6,000, a prior approval process and coverage criteria. The insurance company said it […]
The Co-operators Group Ltd. is expanding its mental-health support for employees by increasing its annual coverage of mental-health services to $5,000 a year per family member. It’s also expanding the number of eligible practitioners covered by its plan, beyond psychologists and social workers to include family therapists, clinical counsellors and psychotherapists. The company is also introducing a new […]
About a quarter (23 per cent) of full-time American employees don’t receive workplace benefits such as health insurance, paid vacation or a retirement savings plan, according to a survey by business-to-business research firm Clutch. The survey also found that health insurance is the benefit most valued by employees, with 55 per cent reporting it has the […]
As a new year begins, many organizations are considering their strategies for benefits plan management in 2018 and beyond. Faced with the challenge of balancing employee needs and wants with changing workplaces and escalating plan costs, employers should prepare for a number of issues in the near future. Here are seven trends to watch in the coming year and beyond: […]
There was plenty of news in the pension, benefits, investment and human resources industries to tweet out to Benefits Canada‘s more than 3,200 followers in 2017. Here are the top tweets of last year. Thank you to our readers for engaging with the content and, if Benefits Canada isn’t in your Twitter feed already, don’t forget to follow us @BenCanMag. Stiff competition drives […]
It’s said that laughter is the best medicine. At consultancy Accompass Inc., a good belly laugh, among other activities, is earning employees extra points they can translate into dollars for their wellness accounts. “We do focus on wellness with our clients, and we really wanted to ramp up what we do in-house,” says Judy Buckley, vice-president of […]
For Manulife, building its benefits plan communication strategy was all about choice. Recognizing there are different ways employees prefer to access information, it rolled out a strategy that ensured a number of different communications options were available. This strategy helped Manulife earn the benefits plan communications award at Benefits Canada’s 2017 Workplace Benefits Awards in Toronto on Oct. 12. […]
As employee engagement garners more attention as a key performance indicator, it’s also weaving its way into the way employers design and construct their workplace policies and benefits programs. There are many compelling reasons why organizations focus their attention on employee engagement. There’s clear evidence that high engagement leads to improved organizational results, such as […]
With Albertans facing higher dental fees than people in other provinces, benefits plans are particularly helpful when it comes to paying their bills. But at Calgary-based tax services provider H&R Block Canada Inc., many employees still found the company’s dental plan’s inadequate for covering the bulk of their dental expenses. “People wanted to see if they still […]
The irony of pensions and benefits is that employees tend to ignore them until they need them or until their employer changes them. And whether it’s good news or bad news, there are almost always trade-offs. Changing pensions or benefits can be a tough sell to employees. When employers say “change,” employees often hear “change […]