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© Copyright 2000 Rogers Media. The following article first appeared in the January 2001 edition of
BENEFITS CANADA magazine.
E-Poll
How do you expect your job to change in 2001?
The new year is shaping up to be a tough one for benefits and pension plan sponsors. This month's E-poll
asked readers how they expect their jobs to change this year. The majority (86%) say their jobs will get
harder in 2001, while only 14% say their jobs won't change very much. Perhaps not surprisingly, not one
respondent says their job will get easier.
Mike Nykolyn, pension and benefits administrator with Stelco in Hamilton, Ont., cites the aging workforce
as a key concern in the coming years for the company's defined benefit pension plan.
"People are looking now not so much towards wage compensation as towards pension compensation," he says.
"And because they're so far down the road in their time of service, any requests made in that area are
going to have a huge financial impact on any organization. It's quite different if you offer someone a rich
package when they're 25 versus a rich package when they're 55. Trying to fund the obligations long-term
workforces are looking for is going to be a huge challenge."
The aging workforce will also affect the benefits plan, he notes, because retirees enjoy the same benefits
as active plan members.
Doing more with less will be a theme this year for Sharon Blaney, director of corporate health with Telus
in Burnaby, B.C. The telecommunications company employs about 25,000 people in B.C. and Alberta.
"For our company, the traditional way of delivering [health and benefits] programs is changing
significantly. With mergers and acquisitions, how you bring companies together and try and match up the
benefits provided to employees, and how you deliver services [will be a challenge]," she says. "How do you
make it the same across jurisdictions with decreasing budgets?
"How do you continue to provide a level of service to employees when the dollar budget amounts decrease?
Those are challenges I'm facing and I don't think I'm unique."
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