When workplace dental plans are designed to promote employees’ proactive oral health, it can reduce overall benefits plan expenditures, including the cost of medications. Forty per cent of adults are at high risk of poor oral health, including adults with special needs, people with type 2 diabetes, the elderly or frail and those with mental-health […]
Ontario’s school support staff are moving toward a strike vote starting Sept. 23 over extended benefits, short-term disability leave and wage increases, among other requests by the workers’ union the Canadian Union of Public Employees. In its initial proposal, the CUPE is asking the government to provide additional funds to cover the increasing costs of […]
Dexcom Canada’s overall employee wellness and engagement strategy is helping to drive its attraction and retention efforts. The diabetes management company is using its various wellness initiatives and tools to ensure support for employees’ holistic well-being and inspire engagement, according to Iris Nikolic, its human resources business partner. “Engagement and employee well-being are closely interlinked and […]
Brown and Caldwell is recognizing employees’ hard work and resilience over the last two years with a company-wide salary increase. In July, the engineering consultancy gave employees a five per cent increase on their current salaries. Patti Pederson, the organization’s vice-president of total rewards, says the increase was implemented across the board for everyone actively […]
The beginning of the coronavirus pandemic was the catalyst Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. needed to breathe new life into its employee wellness strategy. While the public health crisis altered the traditional workplace in many ways, it also inspired employers to listen to employees about the well-being supports they needed most, says Lito Charet, the organization’s […]
Over the course of the coronavirus pandemic, health-care spending and wellness accounts have been vital tools in employers’ support toolboxes. Whether it’s increasing the dollar amount allotted to these accounts or broadening the eligible services covered under wellness accounts, employers are maximizing these offerings to help employees endure the prolonged public health crisis. Since HCSAs […]
Best Buy Canada Ltd. is making its remote working model permanent for its 1,200 corporate office workers. Corporate employees began working remotely in the third week of March 2020 after the company reported its first positive case of the coronavirus at its Vancouver-based headquarters. Workers adjusted quickly as videoconferencing became the new normal, says Chris Taylor, […]
SAP Canada is celebrating Black History Month with events that bring employees together to focus on their health and wellness. During the month of February, the organization is rolling out many events rooted in physical and mental-health awareness. These include: a keynote presentation by Shoshana Johnson — the first Black American, female prisoner of war — on […]
Unilever Canada’s holistic approach to supporting employees’ health and well-being throughout the coronavirus pandemic scored the company a win at Benefits Canada’s 2021 Workplace Benefits Awards on Oct. 14. The organization was awarded in the Coronavirus and Benefits category for an employer with fewer than 5,000 employees. Unilever’s global well-being framework is based on four […]
Employees at several Indigo Books & Music Inc. stores across Canada are unionizing, as the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has “highlighted the precarity of retail work in general and how little say workers have in rapidly changing work environments. “Joining [United Food and Commercial Workers Canada] provided security and gave workers a voice without fear of retaliation,” […]