Regular exercise does in fact reduce people’s mental-health burden, according to a study published in The Lancet Psychiatry. The study examined the relationship between exercise and mental health to better understand the influence of exercise type, frequency, duration and intensity on people’s mental-health outcomes. It collected data from 1,237,194 Americans aged 18 years or older […]
The Health Association of Nova Scotia, which has a number of different employers in its benefits plan, cites rheumatoid arthritis medications as its top drugs in terms of cost. “Chronic disease, in terms of inflammatory disease — not just for rheumatoid, but for Crohn’s disease as well — those are what we’re seeing from a […]
Pethealth Inc.’s senior vice-president of HR talks flexible working, mental health and crime fiction. Q. What top challenges do you face in your role? A. A key challenge is balancing between the needs and wants of employees. For example, employees at different life stages value different benefits — some employees want more vacation time, while […]
One in four (28 per cent) Canadian men fear their job could be at risk if they discussed their mental health at work, according to new research by Movember Canada. The survey, which polled 1,000 Canadian men aged between 18 and 75, also found a third of respondents said they’d be reluctant to open up […]
No matter the size of a business, nothing affects the bottom line more than declining employee productivity. Employees can be the best and brightest parts of an organization, but if they’re sitting sedentary at their desk for eight hours a day with no stimulation, even the sharpest minds become sluggish and productivity plummets. Left unchecked, this can decline into a […]
Employers should be focusing on the basics of office design to improve employee productivity, according to a new survey. The survey, by Future Workplace and View Inc., polled about 1,600 North American workers. It found air quality, natural light, temperature and noise level were key factors to comfort and productivity at work, with nearly half of respondents […]
When an employee with diabetes is working in a safety-sensitive role experiences severely low blood sugar, what are the ramifications for employers? This question was addressed at Benefits Canada’s 2019 Chronic Disease at Work conference in Toronto in June. “For you, as an employer, what if this was your employee on their way to meet […]
Workplace programs to promote healthy food choices could improve employees’ eating habits, according to a study by researchers at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. A two-year study at the hospital examined the purchasing habits of almost 5,700 employees before and after researchers put in place a “traffic light labeling and choice architecture program.” […]
When employees at Accenture begin a gender transition, they have access to a comprehensive suite of benefits. In 2011, the global consulting firm became one of the first companies in Canada to cover costs related to transitioning. Zoya Zayler, inclusion and diversity lead for Canada, says the organization worked with its benefits provider to design a fulsome and customizable […]
In 2016, KPMG Canada’s benefits program was facing a perfect storm: the company was starting to see a change in its workforce’s needs; employees didn’t value some of its offerings, found the program difficult to understand and felt the pay and total rewards package weren’t competitive; and the organization’s new management team didn’t believe the […]