National Post ePaper

One size doesn’t fit all anymore

Kelsey Rolfe

The majority of its staff may not use Scotiabank’s latest benefits offering, but it will mean a great deal to the employees who do need it.

The bank began covering gender reassignment procedures such as rhinoplasty, voice training and surgery, and facial feminization and masculinization on June 1, after hearing from employees who’d previously transitioned or had family members going through the process. The benefit is part of the bank’s core package, meaning employees don’t have to opt for additional coverage to access it.

“We felt it was important to provide that opportunity for those folks who are transitioning. It’s not cheap, there are a lot of expenses involved in going through that process, and obviously there’s a whole lot more that goes into it, too,” Ayman Alvi, Scotiabank’s director of global benefits, said in an interview. “It’s one of those things not a whole lot of people will use, but those people who are going to use it, it’s life-changing.”

That coverage is part of a wider trend in employee benefits. The days of the standard life and health plan are coming to an end, replaced by flexible and personalized benefits that cater to a wider range of employee needs and allow employers to recruit younger and diverse talent.

These offerings run the gamut, from fitness subsidies to parental and family-planning supports like fertility and adoption benefits, credit counselling and student debt repayment, to gender affirmation procedures.

“We have a very large workforce in Canada, it spans across backgrounds and ages … so providing something that covers as much ground as we can for all of them is really important,” Alvi said. “Something that used to work for a uniform workforce before doesn’t necessarily work now.”

Twitter Canada’s managing director Paul Burns said the social media giant also feels one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to employee benefits. The Canadian office is currently in expansion mode after being named Twitter’s global engineering hub earlier this year. Burns said the team has doubled from 24 employees at the beginning of the year to around 50 now, and “significantly more” staff are set to come onboard in the coming months.

The company’s ultra-flexible benefits plan has played a critical role in attracting talent, Burns said. It includes a monthly fitness subsidy, counselling and coaching, reimbursement for learning and professional development, work-fromhome and Wifi allotments, and coverage of daycare costs.

“When you treat employees well and give them great benefits and experiences, it’s a great talent magnet for people,” he said.

Kim Macfarlane, vice-president of group benefits product and digital experiences at Manulife Financial Corp., said that while benefits were traditionally designed to meet employees’ “medically necessary needs,” they’ve evolved to addressing far more areas of employees’ lives. “They’re much more so designed to attract and retain.”

The shift toward more flexible benefits has been underway for years and, according to Aon PLC’S 2021 insurance industry report, the reasons are twofold. The demographics of the workforce are changing, with young people making up a much greater share. Millennials — Canadians born between 1981 and 1996 — made up 37 per cent of the labour force as of 2015, according to Environics Analytics.

Companies are also increasingly seeing benefits as a key part in meeting diversity and inclusion goals. According to a March report by Aon, almost a quarter of Canadian employers said creating an inclusive and diverse workforce factored into their benefits strategy.

“Organizations were starting to look at their employees and the workforce of the future, and asking, ‘does my current plan design address the needs of the people I have today and the people I will be hiring and what they feel is important?’” said Joey Raheb, senior vice-president of health solutions in Aon’s Toronto office.

Marie-josee Leblanc, health innovation leader at Mercer Canada, said these factors have led to the rise of wellbeing benefits like mental health care, fitness subsidies and wellness accounts. The latter is a catch-all account that can cover expenses including gym memberships, meditation apps, new fitness equipment and more.

She attributed it to millennial and Gen Z employees being far more interested in a “preventative” approach to health.

A more diverse workforce has also prompted interest in benefits such as fertility and adoption support for women and LGBTQ+ employees, childcare subsidies and funds for gender confirming procedures that aren’t covered by the public health-care system. “There are new, emerging needs that are being voiced,” Leblanc said.

The pandemic has only accelerated the trend, putting a particular focus on expanding mental health and broader wellbeing benefits. According to a March report from Aon, 60 per cent of Canadian employers are considering beefing up their mental health offerings, and another 27 per cent said they want to expand their benefits plan to include virtual health care.

The Aon report added that optional “wellness and lifestyle” benefits have garnered more attention during the pandemic; the majority of employers surveyed by Aon said they believed employees were more interested in lifestyle benefits including stress management and counselling.

One employer re-evaluating their priorities after uncovering gaps in their benefits plans during the past year is Canada Life. Kristina Clarke, assistant vice-president of employee wellness and benefits, said the insurer made a change to improve mental health coverage for its own employees during the pandemic.

While staff already have $5,000 per year in mental-health coverage, Canada Life expanded its approved professionals list beyond psychologists and social workers in January, to include psychotherapists and clinical counsellors. “It’s been a trying 16 months, and we wanted to make sure that our mental health is there and can be obtained virtually,” she said.

Scotiabank, meanwhile, now allows staff to purchase extra days off, after introducing it as a temporary measure during the pandemic. Alvi said it serves a range of needs — from employees who want days off to recharge to those who need time for caregiving responsibilities.

The bank also broadened the list of eligible wellness account expenses and added extra funds to employees’ annual spend. Staff can now claim childcare and longterm-care expenses; mental health support for family members who can’t be covered under the benefits plan due to Canadian tax regulations (such as adult children); groceries and meal delivery services.

The pandemic-prompted focus on mental and physical wellbeing comes as, according to a September report from Accenture, “expectations around the employee-employer relationship are being rewritten in real-time.”

Accenture identified six “fundamental” needs employers should help their staff address, including financial security, emotional and mental wellness, a sense of belonging and inclusion, and being in good physical health. Employers that addressed those needs would see an increase in business performance, the report said.

Coming out of the pandemic, employees are “expecting more” of their employers when it comes to meeting those needs; nearly 80 per cent of workers “strongly believe” their employer is responsible for supporting their holistic needs, compared to 67 per cent prior to the pandemic.

In July, a new survey by Accenture Canada found just 28 per cent of Canadian workers feel their employers are meeting their emotional health needs, and 26 per cent felt their companies were meeting their physical health needs.

“Most employers’ workers actually feel like their employers should take more responsibility for areas that I think in the past employers thought were more personal in nature,” said Janet Krstevski, managing director of Accenture Canada’s talent and organization practice. “What we’ve seen through the pandemic is a merging of personal and professional.”

Experts acknowledged it can seem prohibitively expensive to cover such a wide array of benefits, and said employers are attempting to balance offering competitive plans with internal cost constraints.

Raheb said flexible plans now tend to offer a base level of life insurance and health coverage to all employees, and allow them to select higher coverage amounts or additional benefits as needed. Wellness accounts with annual dollar caps address other areas not covered by the plan.

“An employer cannot do everything for everybody or pay for everything,” added Leblanc. “Really helping employers to allow a certain amount of budget for employees to define what’s important in their life, because those things change over time as well.”

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2021-08-04T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-08-04T07:00:00.0000000Z

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