Moderators: Christine van Staden, regional vice-president, group customer; and George Ng, senior account executive, group customer, at Great-West Life Assurance Co.
Canada is an increasingly diverse country. Canadians live across six time zones, comprise four workplace generations (traditionalists, baby boomers, generation Xers and millennials) and include more than 200 ethnic origins. The number of speakers of non-official languages has risen by 14.5 per cent since 2011. Canadians are just as likely to live alone as in a larger family group of two or more members.
Key takeaways:
❱ Stereotypes, whether based on location, income or potential experiences, can be helpful in some cases. They can, for example, facilitate the use of behavioural economics and other strategies, including bringing in archetypes, such as a millennial or a retiree, to resonate with target groups. However, it’s important to be careful as many people don’t fit easily into stereotyped profiles.
❱ Key resources to learn more about plan members include record keepers and other service providers, managers and Statistics Canada.
❱ Constraints to effectively leveraging diversity include budget constraints, difficulty in aggregating pension information with data about plan members’ other financial assets and the need to respect privacy restrictions.
Get a PDF of this article.
Read more coverage from the 2018 DC Plan Summit.