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The most current pension and investment information available in Canada, located in these easy to use directories. Click on any logo for information.
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©Copyright 2001 Rogers Media. The following article first appeared in the November 2001 edition
of BENEFITS CANADA magazine.
Insights
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Contrarian views, news and international intrigue
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By Deanna Rosolen
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Insights:
Back to trustee school
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Veiwpoint:
Healthy minds, healthy workplace
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E-poll:
Do you think the Canadian economy will dip into a recession within the next six months?
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Back to trustee school
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Three years ago, Marg Romanow was looking for an education
program for trustees. The pension and benefits representative for the Saskatchewan
Union of Nurses in Regina says most programs offer general pension information, but
don't demonstrate how trustees can apply it.
"If I get general information," asks Romanow, "what's my
responsibility for applying it? How should I apply it? What are my
obligations?"
So Romanow contacted Ted Patterson, director at the Centre
for Employee Benefits at Humber College in Toronto.
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It turned out that Patterson was putting together a pilot
project, called the Trustee Development Program. It launched this past
September.
Patterson says his "brainchild" came to him in 1998 when he
had read how there was a lack of knowledge on the part of trustees of federally
regulated plans. "We're training corporate plan sponsors," he says, "so why would
we not design a program and tailor it for trustees?"
The three-day program includes an introduction to pensions,
organizational governance and pension governance. There's also an advanced
three-day program that covers legislation, investment and pension funding,
contracts and administration. "Our approach," says Patterson, "was they [trustees]
aren't professionals, so they do have to understand this new world that they're
getting into."
The other aspect of the Trustee Development Program is that
it comes to the trustees. Romanow says most conferences are offered in major
centres such as Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal, which aren't always accessible for
those in Western Canada. Patterson said if she could drum up enough interest,
Humber College would bring the program to the province.
Romanow says the program isn't necessarily for beginners, but
she hopes it will encourage trustees to take more of an active role in their
committees and not "wait for the consultant to tell them what to do or accept what
consultants tell them to do."
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CORRECTION
The article, Value vindicated, October 2001, contains two errors. On page 37,
the sentence beginning: "Our view is that the Canadian equity market is efficient
today, ..." should read as: "Our view is that the Canadian equity market is inefficient
today, ..." On page 38, in the chart, "Batting $1,000," the lines illustrating Canadian
growth and value were reversed. The line showing the greatest increase in a $1,000
investment should be value not growth. We regret these errors.
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Viewpoint
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Healthy minds, healthy workplace
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Expanding the role of the registered social worker can improve organizational
health.
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By Chris Bonnett
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Mental health is gaining attention on the corporate agenda. We are learning that
healthy minds are crucial to organizational productivity and success.
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Initiatives such as employee assistance plans (EAPs), coverage for psychologists
and periodic stress management seminars all help combat an issue that costs
Canadians over $14 billion annually. But more needs to be done to address key
health problems that result from conditions in the workplace that are often born
there, too. Employers need to improve access to mental health services.
As part of an integrated set of health initiatives linked to the overall human
resources strategy, group health plans should cover social worker services. These
professionals can add an important element of much-needed preventative and primary
care. Social workers are trained to assist their clients at an individual, group or
organizational level to resolve problems related to the environment in which people
work and live.
This focus on the social context of stress and conflict is an important advantage
that social workers bring to their clients. The workplace is a complex social
system of relationships, power, control and rewards. There is compelling research
and plenty of anecdotal evidence that spiralling demands and low control create a
toxic cocktail of stress in the workplace. This type of toxic environment typically
doubles, even triples, an organization's health problems. Unless we can change the
organizational climate, we can't expect interventions aimed at the individual, such
as psychological counselling or specific programs, to work at optimal levels
because we haven't addressed the underlying cause of stress and ill health. We are
merely treating the symptoms.
Social workers are regulated professionals in all provinces, and as such now carry
the registered social worker (RSW) designation. Most group health insurers will
reimburse RSW services on request, although these individuals are not technically
considered to be health professionals under the Income Tax Act. Virtually all large
plan sponsors cover social workers indirectly through their EAP, which often employ
RSWs as counsellors. EAP providers find these professionals to be effective as well
as inexpensive relative to other health professionals such as psychologists.
Employers typically resist adding expenditures to their benefits plans unless the
end result is added value through reduced medium- and long-term costs. We know
investments in prevention make sense. The Income Tax Act, or its regulations,
should be changed to explicitly recognize social workers. Employers also need to
broaden their perspective on how these professionals can reduce health problems and
expenses in the workplace. Let's clear the path for more mental health services
that help both employees and organizations function effectively in today's
stressful work environment. BC
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Chris Bonnett is a partner with Cogent Consulting Group in Toronto. bonnett@sympatico.ca.
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Volatility
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E-poll
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Do you think the Canadian economy will dip into a recession within the next six
months?
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Recession fears
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The majority of respondents (78%) say the Canadian economy will dip
into a recession within the next six months
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Following the tragic events of Sept. 11, the Conference Board of
Canada released a report entitled Implications of the Terrorist Attack for the
Canadian Economy. In it, the Board attempts to determine the economic fallout of
the attack. It predicted that real gross domestic product (GDP) would decline by 0.4%
at annual rates in the last half of 2001, causing almost no economic growth in the
third and fourth quarters of this year. The report also predicts that Canada's real GDP
should be about 0.25% lower (at annual rates) in the first quarter of 2002.
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In this month's e-poll, Benefits Canada asked readers
if they thought the economy would dip into a recession within the following six
months, and a resounding 78% said 'yes', 16% said 'no' and 6% were
'uncertain.'
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"I think confidence is
going to pick up,
people are going to start
flying again and everything's
going to be fine."
Philip Reid,
manager, corporate administration,
Newfoundland Capital Corp.
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According to Philip Reid, manager, corporate administration
with Newfoundland Capital Corp. in Dartmouth, N.S., however, we were already in a
slump in the months leading up to Sept. 11. "Things weren't looking good. Layoffs,
the U.S. slowed down, interest rates started coming down to help the markets out,"
he says. "All the factors indicated the Federal Reserve was struggling with it (a
recession)." Reid predicts the last two quarters of this year will be hardest hit,
but that Canada's economy will recover throughout next year. "I think confidence is
going to pick up, people are going to start flying again and everything's going to
be fine."
Gretchen Thompson, vice-president administration with natural
resources firm, Devon Canada in Calgary, says the recession has affected the oil
and gas sector, but it hasn't impacted her company directly. Devon Canada, formerly
known as Northstar Energy Corp., and its Oklahoma-based parent company, Devon
Energy Corp., just acquired Anderson Exploration Ltd. and is reorganizing. She adds
the company doesn't yet know how a recession would impact its benefits and pension
programs.
The construction industry, says Dennis Wiens, director of
human resources services at PCL Construction in Edmonton, will trail behind the
economy by a couple of years. "There's the planning and design stages of a project,
which occurs in an up economy," he says. "A lot of times when the economy is in a
general downturn we're still busy building all of those projects."
As far as his company's benefits and pension programs are
concerned, the recession hasn't affected their day-to-day running. "Our pension
plan is a defined contribution pension plan and so it's not a case of trying to
meet certain liabilities where we're getting negative returns--that's not an
issue," says Wiens. "It's going to be an issue for individual plan members. And on
other benefits plans where we're insured at this point, it hasn't had any
effect."
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In Fact
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> Percentage of Canadian employees in the market for a new job: 58% (13%
actively looking and 45% will entertain an offer if comes along).
> Percentage of Canadian employees who believe that there is no longer an
appropriate amount of time that one should remain with the same company: 65%.
> Percentage of employees that define themselves as balanced careerists,
making work-life balance a priority: 47%.
> Percentage of employees that define themselves as company- dedicated:
26%.
> Percentage of employees who say their managers demonstrate the
behaviour needed to engage them in delivering their best work: less than 20%.
> The overall base salary increase forecast for 2002: 3.7%.
> Percentage of companies that offer short-term incentive plans: 83%, up
from 77% last year.
> The key reason for offering long-term incentive plans: attraction and
retention, say 85% of companies up from 74% in 2000.
> Percentage of top-performing employees that say paying above the market
is very effective in terms of attraction and retention: 72%.
> Percentage of companies who say the same: 33%.
Sources: Watson Wyatt Canada's 2001/2002 Annual Canadian Salary Survey and
Towers Perrin, Talent report.
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News
News
