Despite lingering economic uncertainty, Canadians are more optimistic about their employer's hiring plans and growth prospects than they were this time last year, according to the annual BMO Labour Day Survey.
One of the first lessons Panther Kuol learned while growing up in Sudan was the value of planning carefully for the future.
More demands, fewer resources—this is the way of today’s working world. As an employer, how you deal with this reality could be the difference between a prospering company and one that is burdened with high turnover rates and absenteeism issues.
Workplace absenteeism is a major concern these days––and with good reason. Even casual absenteeism costs Canadian employers billions of dollars a year. And that doesn’t take into account disability costs, lost productivity or the demoralizing impact on the workplace.
Across the globe, captains of industry are confronted with a mixed bag of challenges. On the front lines and fault lines, central banks in major economies are on standby to stabilize financial markets, the U.S. economy suffers from a tepid recovery, and new concerns are emerging about the sustainability of growth in emerging economies.
People don’t consciously control a lot of their behaviour. For plan sponsors, this is frustrating, because getting employees engaged in benefits and retirement plans is all about behaviour change.
The same can be said for retirement planning. While the fundamentals remain the same, technology can be a game changer for plan sponsors that want to help employees better understand and appreciate their plans and make decisions that will provide the best chances of building sufficient retirement income.
According to Jean-Daniel Côté, vice-president, capital accumulation plans and retirement, with ACT Conseillers Inc., the main concerns of many capital accumulation plan (CAP) sponsors used to be signing up employees, offering as many investment choices as possible and then letting the rest take care of itself. But that all changed with the introduction of the CAP Guidelines in May 2004.
Rising drug plan costs, tighter restrictions on government-paid medical coverage, more employees working past age 65—all of these factors will play a role in driving up benefits plan costs in the next few years.
Many plan members are eager and excited to retire, but they may not have a personal retirement plan. Three speakers at the 2012 DC Plan Summit explored what it takes to get members engaged in retirement planning and what opportunities exist for plan sponsors to help them.