The Royal Bank of Canada is focusing on mental health to engage and retain employees as the bank shifts to a hybrid work model. While the bank already began upgrading its mental-health benefits in 2018, the coronavirus pandemic highlighted the need to continue supporting employee mental health, says Andrejka Massicotte, senior director of benefits and wellness […]
The Ontario government is promising to expand mental-health and addictions support for frontline health and long-term care workers by investing $12.4 million over two years. In its fall economic statement, delivered Thursday, the province acknowledged the toll the coronavirus pandemic has taken on these employees’ physical and mental well-being. “The COVID‐19 pandemic has had a significant […]
A range of employers across Canada are starting to deal with some worker shortages as a result of a small percentage of employees not meeting deadlines for getting vaccinated against the coronavirus. Air Canada suspended more than 800 employees for not being fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, in line with federal rules. The vast majority of the airline’s […]
A majority (83 per cent) of Canadian benefits plan members have at least one concern regarding returning to the workplace, including commuting time (44 per cent), people who don’t follow public health safety measures (42 per cent) and working/interacting with co-workers who aren’t vaccinated against the coronavirus (38 per cent), according to the 2021 Benefits Canada […]
A new study is urging employers to transition from a traditional focus on employee benefits to one that covers job and work design, management, rewards practices, a commitment to psychological safety and fairness and a culture of employee listening. The Josh Bersin Co., a U.S.-based research and advisory company, examined 91 practices and programs in […]
The deadline for employees in the core federal public service to declare their coronavirus vaccination status was Oct. 29, but unions say there are still many questions about how requests for accommodations will be handled. The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat said late last week that 240,000 employees have filed their attestations of their vaccine status to the government, out […]
More than 19 months into the coronavirus pandemic, employers are focusing on enhanced mental-health offerings and streamlined communications for their benefits and pension plans. During a virtual roundtable on Oct. 14, the 2021 Workplace Benefits Awards finalists discussed the changes brought about by the pandemic and how they’ve adapted their benefits and pensions offerings, while looking […]
An evolving program that’s holistically supporting employees during the coronavirus pandemic led to LifeLabs’ win for its mental-health program at the 2021 Workplace Benefits Awards on Oct. 14. Within the organization’s wellness program, which was launched in 2019, the emotional pillar includes: a separate annual maximum for mental-health practitioners through its flexible benefits plan; an expanded […]
Three-quarters (74 per cent) of plan sponsors described the quality of their health benefits plan as excellent (22 per cent) or good (52 per cent), down from 80 per cent in January 2020, according to the 2021 Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey. It found employers with more than 500 employees were more likely to describe their plan […]
Roughly two-fifths (41 per cent) of plan sponsors reported offering virtual health-care services through their benefits plan, according to the 2021 Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey. Among these plan sponsors, 33 per cent said they paid extra to add virtual care to their plan, while 67 per cent said it was part of their standard plan at […]