Resource Library

8 Essential Checks for Choosing the Right Benefits Platform

Choosing the right benefits platform is critical to supporting your workforce and streamlining administration. Our comprehensive checklist highlights 8 essential factors to consider, helping you select a solution that grows with your organization, ensures compliance, and provides a user-friendly experience for both HR and employees.

Are You Offering a Full Suite of Employee Benefits?

Offering just the basic benefits won’t cut it anymore. Leading organizations need to design a diverse and strategic benefits portfolio that truly engages employees and supports their overall well-being. Use our cheat sheet to build a benefits program that truly supports your team, from health and wellness to financial security and work-life balance.

Greater flexibility in benefits plans would better support women’s health

While society’s understanding of women’s health has significantly evolved in the last few years, employee benefits plans haven’t yet caught up. “We expect men and women to interact with their plan in the same way and that’s just not true,” said Erika Hatherly, strategic leader for drug programs, group benefits and retirement solutions at iA Financial Group, during Benefits Canada’s 2025 Toronto Benefits Summit.

Breaking the Silence on Sleep Debt

The Underserved and Overlooked Impact of Suffering with Chronic Insomnia; read the report to understand what it means to live with chronic insomnia and how your workforce may be struggling. Together, we can contribute to a workforce that recognizes sleep differences, accommodates sleep divergence, and promotes sleep as an essential part of quality health.

Atopic dermatitis (eczema) casts a long shadow, but advanced therapies offer hope

Atopic dermatitis (AD, also known as eczema) affects an estimated 17% of Canadians and is a chronic inflammatory skin condition that results in dry and intensely itchy skin.

PRIVATE DRUG PLAN LEADERSHIP
- Vaccine Coverage Report Card 2025

The Report Card shows progress and remaining gaps in vaccine coverage within benefits plans. Some insurers now include vaccines as a Standard Inclusion, while others still treat them as optional — missing opportunities to protect plan members, reduce absenteeism, and strengthen vaccine confidence across Canada.

Back to basics on sleep

Even though humans spend a third of their lives asleep, it’s often taken for granted, but people are waking up to how sleep — or lack of sleep — is affecting their health and well-being.

How remote working is impacting employee mental health

As the mental-health concerns of employees in remote working arrangements continue to evolve, Thomson Reuters Corp. is taking a flexible approach to supporting these workers.

Back to basics on investment glide paths

Simply put, a glide path is a calculation designed to support an employee’s desired retirement timeline through investments in a target-date fund.

How employers can support neurodiverse employees

Based on multiple studies, it’s estimated that roughly 15 to 20 per cent of the global population is neurodivergent, an umbrella term that includes autism, dyslexia, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and Tourette’s syndrome.

A closer look at Finland’s new flexible parental leave

When Finland introduced changes to its parental leave policy in 2022, it was specifically aimed at encouraging fathers to take as much time off work as mothers and recognizing a wider range of family structures.

What can the Canadian pension industry learn from U.S. CAP litigation?

While lawsuits against Canadian capital accumulation plans are virtually non-existent, U.S. pension litigation holds several lessons for plan sponsors that are based north of the 49th Parallel, says Mitch Frazer, a pension lawyer and managing partner at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo.

How plan sponsors can support employees going through a divorce

Going through a divorce can be an extremely stressful and emotional experience and, unsurprisingly, the impacts can spill into the workplace.

How institutional investors are approaching digital infrastructure assets

For institutional investors looking to add some glitz to their portfolio, digital infrastructure may not be the right asset class.

How Mexico’s recently reformed pension system is improving workers’ retirement security

Earlier this year, Mexico’s senate approved the creation of a new pension fund to help provide more retirement security for low-income citizens.

Tips for streamlining benefits plans during a merger or acquisition

When a company is undergoing a merger or acquisition, it’s important to maintain consistency regarding benefits plans and streamline the process as much as possible.

Mental Health Summit: How First West Credit Union is ensuring its employees are living well

What’s behind the success of First West Credit Union’s Live Well program, which supports its employees’ physical and mental health? In this session, attendees learned how analysis, strategy and creativity come together to create a program that expands employee health and well-being. It also shared an overview of tangible measures that can inspire and inform programs similar to First West’s Live Well.

Speakers:
Liz Bailey-Connor, chief people and culture officer, First West Credit Union
Kabir Bhagaria, manager, employee health and safety, First West Credit Union

Future of Work Summit: Artificial intelligence and the future of work

With the interest in artificial intelligence exploding over the past year, what are the implications for human resources? This session provided an overview of the different types of AI, how AI is being used in HR and how it will impact the future of work. It discussed some of the promising ways in which AI can bring improvements to workplaces, the key perils of AI and best practices for its responsible use.

Speaker:
Matissa Hollister, assistant professor, organizational behaviour, McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management

Benefits & Pension Summit: Fostering a culture of care with Susy Michor, VP of HR, global retirement, benefits and well-being at TD Bank Group

This fireside chat featured a dynamic conversation between Benefits Canada’s editor Jennifer Paterson and Susy Michor, vice-president of HR, global retirement, benefits and well-being at TD. Michor shared how the bank is committed to prioritizing employee well-being and fostering a culture of care through its inclusive benefits and pension coverage and led to two wins at the Workplace Benefits Awards.

Speaker:
Susy Michor, vice-president, human resources, global retirement, benefits and well-being, TD Bank Group

Benefits & Pension Summit: The health-wealth connection

While it’s generally understood that an optimal level of physical and mental health is required to live a healthy life, financial wellness has been proven to be just as important in the prevention of negative health outcomes. Fluor Canada takes a holistic approach to employee health and wellness, understanding that financial stress can lead to significant mental and physical health challenges. This session discussed Fluor’s success in a well-being approach that makes the health and wealth connection an underpin to overall employee well-being.

Speakers:
Terri-Lynn Levy , manager of human resources — benefits, wellness and HR information systems, Fluor Canada
Kourtnee Plume, regional human resources director, Fluor Canada

Chronic Disease at Work: The many costs of substance use stigma

This session discussed the chronic nature of the diagnosis of substance use disorder. It explored the impacts of stigma and discrimination toward people who use or used substances. It also addressed both the personal and societal economic costs of stigma to the workplace and health-care system. Participants heard firsthand from someone who has experienced discrimination and learned how a better approach to people who use/d substances can positively impact their lives and their communities of support.

Speaker:
Anthony Esposti, chief executive officer, Community Addictions Peer Support Association

Mental Health Summit: Bell’s mental health journey

Bell Let's Talk was launched in 2010 and is a multi-year charitable program dedicated to promoting mental-health awareness. The program is built on four key pillars: fighting the stigma, improving access to care, supporting world-class research and leading by example in workplace mental health. In this session, Monika Mielnik provided insights on Bell's workplace mental-health strategy including an overview of its program, the application of the national standard for psychological health and safety in the workplace, the metrics the company is using to measure progress and the program's continuous evolution.

Speaker:
Monika Mielnik, director, diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, mental health and well-being, Bell Canada

Pushing past the pandemic: How to ensure that your wellness program promotes mental health and resilience

This session reviewed the critical features to look for in successful workplace wellness programs. It also presented data from published studies of effective programs in Canada.

Speaker:
Dr. Steven Grover, professor of medicine, McGill University

Benefits & Pension Summit: Discovery to recovery: The power of storytelling to improve mental well-being at home and at work

In this session, Olympian Silken Laumann spoke about how Unsinkable, a social movement changing how people manage their well-being, is bridging the gap between clinical and non-clinical support for people struggling on their mental-health journey. The need for inspiring, hopeful and accessible storytelling in a safe online community has never been greater as Canada faces a mental-health care crisis. Laumann began with her own inspiring story, told with wisdom and humour, and moved to uplifting examples from Unsinkable champions and youth. Attendees came away with a shortlist of powerful storytelling resources to bring to their employees and clients.

Speaker:
Silken Laumann, four-time Olympian, author and founder, Unsinkable