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© Copyright 2000 Rogers Media. The following article first appeared in the September 2000 edition of
BENEFITS CANADA magazine.
Insights
By Andrea Davis
Balance at work
Work/life balance is a hot topic these days. A recent Conference Board of Canada study shows that employers
are increasingly recognizing the role they can play in helping employees balance work and life
responsibilities--88% of the 220 companies surveyed offer flexible hours, 52% offer job sharing and 50%
offer telecommuting. A recent survey by Aon Consulting Inc., meanwhile, found that over 70% of respondents
say their organization has demonstrated an increased effort over the past year to support its employees'
work/life needs.
For companies wanting to jump on the balance bandwagon, don't expect an easy ride. It's not just a matter
of implementing one or two policies, says Susan Demeter, human resources director in the payment solutions
division at NCR in Waterloo, Ont.
The Waterloo offices of NCR, which house research and development teams as well as a manufacturing plant,
have 600 employees. The company has had a flex time policy since its inception in 1972, flex benefits since
1989 and a defined contribution pension plan since 1992. As well, the company offers annual retirement and
financial planning workshops.
Demeter has one word of advice for plan sponsors who want to do more on the work/life balance front:
persevere. "NCR is a high-tech company, but it's also a 125-year-old company that, worldwide, is very set
in its ways," she says. "A lot of the stuff we initiated received incredible flack. At certain points in
our history, for example, we couldn't even let anyone know we had flex time. With flex benefits, it took us
two years to convince our corporate head office to go that route."
But the payoff has been worth it. The Waterloo facility has averaged less than 2% turnover for the past 10
years. With employee attraction and retention a big concern for employers, it's a statistic worth paying
attention to.
Unravelling global pensions
Ninety per cent of the world's working-age population is not covered by pension schemes and faces poverty
in old age, says a study from the International Labour Organization (ILO). Many of the pension systems that
do exist are plagued by bad management, according to the publication entitled Social Security Pensions:
Development and Reform.
Pension schemes have become worthless in the former Soviet Union, following the collapse of national
economies, and pension systems in Africa are weak and badly managed. In Asia, retirement systems have been
jeopardized by the continent's financial turmoil in the late 1990s.
"The lack of more complete pension coverage throughout the world will become a growing problem as lifetimes
are extended and the importance of traditional extended family units, which once provided old age
protection, diminishes," says Colin Gillion, director of the social security department at the Geneva,
Switzerland-based ILO and editor of the book.
Even pension systems in developed countries are at risk. In areas where coverage is nearly universal and
schemes are well-managed--Canada, the U.S., Western Europe, Japan and Australia--major problems in
financing pensions are on the horizon as populations age. For those countries, the report says the best way
to ensure the future viability of pension schemes is higher taxes, higher participation rates or an
increase in the retirement age.
Venture cap
The Canadian venture capital industry invested a record $2.7 billion in start-up enterprises in 1999, a 60%
increase over 1998.
SOURCE: Macdonald & Associates Limited; Canadian Venture Capital Association
Quality not quantity
The quality of work, not quantity, is key to keeping employees happy, according to a new book called The
Quality of Work: A People-Centred Agenda (Oxford University Press). Quality work for employees, says
author Graham Lowe, encompasses everything from having a challenging job to being treated with dignity and
respect. And while benefits are a component of quality work, they are not the most important factor.
"People need the security benefits provide, but to provide them doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be
creating a higher level of satisfaction," says Lowe, director of the work network at the Canadian Policy
Research Network (CPRN) and a sociology professor at the University of Alberta. "People are dealing with
issues like stress and workload and balancing work and family and it's in these areas that employers really
need to make significant headway."
CPRN conducted a study recently which compares what employees want from a job to what they actually have.
"If you look at the list of what people consider important in a job--having interesting work, being treated
with respect, feelings of accomplishment--[these] are far more important than pay or benefits. But when you
compare that to what they actually have in their current job, benefits rise close to the top of the list,"
says Lowe.
Closing the gender gap?
Offering a formal mentoring program as a benefit might not occur to many plan sponsors, but the results of
a recent survey indicate it might be appreciated by plan members, particularly women.
A survey of 350 executive women conducted by Pollara for the Women's Executive Network reveals that one of
the key ways in which women have reached the senior ranks of organizations is through mentoring. While only
24% of those surveyed say their workplace has a formal mentoring program in place, 61% are involved in the
practice.
"One of the things employers can take from this is that setting up mentoring programs is a valuable way of
helping women in the workplace and helping them advance," says Angela Marzolini, vice-chairman of Pollara
in Toronto. "Senior executive women have also told us they aren't exposed to the same number of networking
opportunities as their male counterparts and they feel that's holding them back as well."
Other findings in the report are also not encouraging. More than 40% of women working in executive
positions at Canadian companies believe gender-based discrimination will never completely disappear, while
a further 25% believe that women will never hold half of all CEO positions in large, private sector
companies in Canada.
When executive women were asked to estimate the number of years it will take for equality to be achieved in
10 key areas ranging from equal representation in senior positions in the federal public service to equal
representation in the judiciary, most estimates fall between the years 2017 and 2034.
Meditating masses
editation could do more than benefit plan members' mental well-being--it might also be good for plan
sponsors' pocketbooks. A study of Quebec residents published in the American Journal of Health
Promotion suggests that people who practise transcendental meditation are healthier and need less
medical care. The study of involved 2,836 Quebecers, half of whom were volunteers who had been practising
transcendental meditation for an average of six years. The control group consisted of 1,418 residents
randomly selected by the province's health insurance plan, the Régie de l'assurance et maladie du
Québec. The results showed that over a six-year period, those who meditated needed less medical care,
resulting in government payments to physicians that were up to 13% less than payments for the control
group.
IN FACT
More than two-thirds of Canadian and U.S. plan sponsors who offer educational benefit programs--tuition
reimbursement programs, scholarship programs, in-house training seminars and the like--believe employers
are responsible for helping employees with educational expenses. Other points of interest:
Percentage of employers who report a participation rate in their educational benefit program of less than
5%:
47%
Despite the low number of employees who take advantage of such programs, 67% of plan sponsors surveyed feel
employees would be upset if the benefit was eliminated.
Percentage of employers who don't offer educational benefit programs because they are too costly:
31%
Percentage of employers who limit the amount of money reimbursed for oustide educational classes based on
the grade obtained in the class:
78%
Percentage who reimburse job-related courses only:
68%
Fighting flu
With flu season right around the corner, plan sponsors may be cringing at the thought of rising
absenteeism--not to mention increased claims for the flu-fighting drugs Tamiflu and Relenza. But plan
sponsors in Ontario have a new ally in the fight against influenza. The province plans to make the flu
vaccine available--free of charge--to all citizens in an effort to ease pressures on hospital emergency
rooms this winter.
Last year, the province offered free flu vaccinations to people over the age of 65, people with chronic
medical conditions, and healthcare providers. This year, the vaccine will be available to all Ontario
residents throughout the fall at hospitals, local health units, doctor's offices and some workplaces. The
ambitious plan will cost the province $38 million.
Plan sponsors would do well to encourage their plan members to get vaccinated. A cost-benefit study
published in the Canadian Journal of Infectious Diseases found that after all the costs of
administering vaccines to employees at one large Canadian hospital were considered, the hospital had a net
benefit of almost $40 per vaccinated employee. The study also suggested the cost benefit could have been
increased by a more active promotion of the vaccination program.
SOURCE: International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans.
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