While many companies have codified a set of values by which to operate, not all are able to articulate those values in a way that gets employees to connect with them in a meaningful manner. But Dan Bruinooge, chief people and corporate services officer with Servus Credit Union, knows that employees at all levels of the organization understand and believe in Servus’s values—because they wrote them together.
One of the first lessons Panther Kuol learned while growing up in Sudan was the value of planning carefully for the future.
A growing number of organizations are realizing the importance of engaging their employees to create a workplace culture focused on teamwork and productivity. Some of the companies leading the employee engagement charge were recognized today with Achievers’ 50 Most Engaged Workplaces awards.
Over the past 73 years, the Co-operative Superannuation Society Pension Plan (CSS plan) (No. 60 on Benefits Canada’s 2012 Top 100 Pension Funds Report) has weathered many storms. Since its launch in 1939, global markets have been rocked by a number of economic crises, and most pension plans have seen their assets rise and fall sharply as a consequence.
Since its creation by the provincial government in 2006, the Nova Scotia Pension Agency (NSPA) (No. 21 in the 2012 Top 100 Pension Funds Report) has been guided by one key principle. “Our driving mantra has been to view our trustees as customers,” says Steven Wolff, CEO of the NSPA. “We’ve really tried to understand what their priorities and expectations are, and then to use that input to drive strategic improvements.”
At the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology (CAAT) Pension Plan (No. 29), those charged with overseeing the retirement savings of nearly 34,000 plan members from participating Ontario colleges aim to respond to changes before they happen. And they try to be as transparent as possible with members when changes to the plan are deemed necessary.
After stronger market performances in 2009 and 2010, returns took a turn for the worse in 2011. The TSX declined by 11%, and lower interest rates increased pension liabilities.
Results from the 2012 Sanofi Canada Healthcare Survey suggest that opportunities exist for plan sponsors to better educate and engage plan members, according to a member of the survey team.
Murray Gold’s first day of work with Koskie Minsky LLP coincided with the start of the case Re Collins and Pension Commission of Ontario (the Dominion Stores case), in which the firm defended the grocery chain’s pension plan members following their employer’s withdrawal of the plan’s $56-million surplus. He was instantly hooked.
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.