As I write this, I’ve been back at my desk for three weeks following my second maternity leave. This time around, I took nearly eight months, which gave me a lot of time to think about Canada’s archaic employment insurance system and its impact on new parents. For many working parents in Canada, eight months […]
With the return of autumn, change is once again in the air. For the last nine months, I’ve lead the editorial team at Benefits Canada while Jennifer Paterson was taking parental leave to welcome the youngest member of her growing family. This month marks the return of our editorial team to full strength — welcome […]
Okta Inc.’s enhanced parental leave benefit for non-birthing parents is helping more employees who are fathers take time off to bond with their newborn or adopted children. The software company is offering 18 weeks of parental leave topped up to 100 per cent of their full salary to non-birthing parents. Employees who use the benefit can […]
Norway, Sweden and Denmark offer the best parental work-life balance, according to a new study by Remote Technology Inc. The global study assessed the quality of parental work-life balance in 20 nations by analyzing factors like parental leave, annual leave entitlement and childcare costs. It found the Nordic nations had an exceptionally high expenditure on family […]
Since this month’s editorial is my farewell (for just five months) as I prepare for the birth of my second child at the end of 2023, sitting down to write it prompted me to look back at my editorial three years ago when I was getting ready to become a parent for the first time. […]
Inclusivity has long been a priority at Capital One Canada and its employee leave programs are no exception. As a result of this focus, the financial company is seeing more men taking parental leave — by September 2023, men accounted for 64 per cent of employees who used the benefit. The organization offers 26 weeks […]
Roughly three-quarters (74 per cent) of Canadian employees say it’s important for their employer to offer a retirement savings option, according to the latest mental-health index by Telus Health. The survey, which polled 3,000 respondents, found 70 per cent reported not knowing or being unsure of how much savings they’ll need to maintain their desired […]
Just four in 10 (43 per cent) U.S. employees say their company supports them with resources to better manage and improve their well-being, down from 53 per cent in 2022, according to a new survey by human resources consultancy Alight Solutions. The survey, which polled more than 2,000 employees, found fewer than half rated their mental/emotional […]
By March 2021, nearly half a million Canadian women who lost their jobs during the pandemic still hadn’t returned to work by the beginning of that year, according to data from the Royal Bank of Canada. It also found more than 200,000 women had slipped into the ranks of the long-term unemployed, a threefold increase […]
Standard Chartered is rolling out enhanced global parental leave benefits, effective Sept. 1. The bank is standardizing the amount of parental leave it offers, providing parents with the option of undertaking more equitable caregiving responsibilities for their children. With the enhanced benefits, all employees can access a minimum of 20 weeks of paid parental leave, irrespective of […]