As businesses scrambled to adapt to strict new health measures, even the most stringent of change evaders were forced to bend to forces beyond their control. Employees began working remotely, keeping in touch with clients from their at-home offices and connecting with co-workers via Zoom or Microsoft Teams.

For some employers, the experience was a hard push into a trend that had already been happening long before the pandemic. And for some, the biggest and most surprising lesson they learned from the experience was that people working remotely actually works.

Of course, it doesn’t work for everyone. Businesses that require employees to be on-site because the work is physical in nature or retail shops that serve customers in-store need real people at work. But for those with employees who already do the bulk of their work digitally – and for those who discovered during the pandemic that they were still doing well without people in the office – taking a deeper look into hiring more remote workers may be worth the effort.

The Benefits of Having Remote Workers

Aurora Workplace Solutions design & create custom group benefits plans that meet custom organization goals. Read more about their Group Benefits Plans or contact them today to get started!

When employees think about their benefits plan, the benefits that most often come to mind are for prescription drugs, massages, and maybe a dental check-up every year. However, I’m confident that if you were to ask any Benefits Advisor or Consultant, he or she would swiftly tell you that benefit plans are so much more than that! These benefits are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what a plan can provide for employees and their families.

Many people – employees and employers alike – are surprised by just how extensive an employee benefits plan can be. They’re often also surprised by how much a plan can do for an employee’s physical, mental, and financial well-being. If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it is that our well-being is something we can no longer take for granted. And having an employee benefits plan is one of the best ways to stay protected.

There are two cornerstones of a benefit plan that deserve a lot more attention than they typically receive: Life Insurance and financial protection in the event of a disability or illness, namely, Short-Term and Long-Term Disability Insurance. These benefits are often included in benefit plans but are not touted enough for the critically important protection they provide.

Benefits Canada reported recently that many people between the ages of 30-50 have no Life Insurance outside of what is provided through their employee benefits plan. On the one hand, this makes for a hefty responsibility for employers. But on the other hand, employers who provide their employees with a strong Life Insurance benefit have a competitive advantage that helps them attract and retain top talent.

As for Disability Insurance, Wiegers Financial & Benefits is passionate about including it in every benefits plan. The reality is that many employees work paycheck to paycheck, and in the event of a severe or prolonged illness or injury, most don’t have enough money saved to be able to weather the storm financially. Disability Insurance is very often a financial lifeline that enables employees to focus their time and energy on getting better instead of stressing about how they’re going to pay their bills. And it’s apparent that the pandemic’s impact on mental health and disability is not going to lessen any time soon. This Benefits Canada article speaks to how the majority of Canadian employers are prioritizing mental well-being, and Disability Insurance benefits are a key part of what they’re doing about it.

If you’re like a lot of Canadians who believe that employee benefit plans are most important for getting their prescription drugs paid for or their massages covered, I encourage you to delve into the details of your plan. You’ll likely be surprised by what you learn, and you’ll be in a better position to know what you can be, or should consider, doing outside of your plan to protect your well-being. Your personal financial advisor will be a great asset to you in advising you on a good path to take and then actually putting these wheels into motion. But always remember that your benefits plan is likely doing more for you than you realize so be sure to provide your advisor with all of the details. Your benefits plan is there to help take care of you; let it do all that it can!

Jewelian Berry,
Benefits Account Manager, Wiegers Financial and Insurance Planning Services Ltd.

The 2020 edition of the Sanofi Canada Healthcare Survey – arguably the most reputable and referenced healthcare survey in the country – makes clear that a positive workplace wellness culture is key to a business’s success. But why?

Simply put, a strong wellness culture plays an important role in employee job satisfaction, which in turn drives productivity and both healthier results and healthier bottom lines for everyone, from company stakeholders to the employees and their families. But it starts even earlier than that. A strong wellness culture is important also in the attraction and retention of strong talent. More than 85% of employees surveyed agree that a workplace environment that encourages health and wellness is an important factor when deciding whether to accept a job offer or continue with a current employer.

The great news is that it appears that employers are listening. Over the next three years, 74% of employers plan to dedicate funding and/or staff resources outside of the health benefit plan to at least one out of five possible health and wellness areas. Among them, they will most likely do so in the area of emotional/mental health (58%), followed by the prevention of illness and/or management of chronic conditions (49%), physical fitness (45%), social well-being (44%) and financial well-being (40%).

The development and maintenance of a wellness culture needn’t be complicated or costly, though. Providing employees with safety supports and actively encouraging positive relationships among co-workers and with immediate supervisors is a great start. The options are endless from there:

• Flexible work arrangements
• Flexible health benefits
• Well-defined Human Resource policies
• Mental well-being support
• Workplace wellness programs
• Social activities
• Healthy snacks… and the list goes on

For employers who don’t yet have a strategy for creating a workplace wellness culture, it might seem overwhelming to get started, but it doesn’t feel like that. Try one or two easy, low-cost options and see what they do. Once you get started, and you discover what matters to you and your team, I predict you’ll want to do more because the benefits to your employees, your business AND you will be clear and motivating. As is the case everywhere, wellness in the workplace is a winning solution for everyone.

Debra L. Wiegers, GBA, CLU, CH.F.C.
Benefits Advisor, Wiegers Financial and Insurance Planning Services Ltd.

A proper employee benefits program is a quintessential tool in helping to ensure employee health and well-being. As long as your employees utilize the program, it can help keep them healthy, happy, and focused at work, however, with the changing generations in the workforce – and the fact that millennials now comprise a majority of it – standard employee benefit programs need to change as well.

Younger staff are looking for flexible, digital offerings that let them get what they want out of a plan. They want solutions to support their mental health and wellness. A recent survey indicated that only 53% of Canadians indicated that their mental health was good or very good; this is quite a drop from last year’s report of 67%.[1] An easy solution is to provide an employee and family assistance program (EFAP). While counseling is at the core of an EFAP, it also has many other valuable mental health solutions for employees who are struggling.

A great way to combine the need for flexibility and for wellness is a flex account. A flex account is a pool of money that employees can direct to either a health or wellness spending account. A Health Spending Account (HSA) covers claims for health, dental, and prescription drugs, and is regulated by Canada Revenue Agency. A wellness account, on the other hand, allows you the flexibility of letting your employees choose what they want to be covered.

Some of the most common wellness expenses are gym memberships and sports fees but vet bills and even home office furniture can qualify too. This can be of huge value to employees when at least two-thirds of Canadian businesses have 60% of their staff working from home (and up to 55% of employees will continue to work remotely post-pandemic).[2]

Digital telemedicine offerings are another way that you can offer flexible wellness solutions for your employees. Available through the telephone or through an app, telemedicine offers your employees the ability to connect with a physician or nurse practitioner 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Canadians are showing higher satisfaction rates when meeting with a doctor digitally and many are even saying that they prefer a digital meeting as a first visit.[3]

Having a range of digital and flexible wellness options for your employees gives you not only a leg up on your competition for recruitment but also lets you take care of your employees’ physical and mental wellness. It’s an investment that for most employers, is well worth making.

Matthew Hill, B.A.

Benefits Advisor, Wiegers Financial and Insurance Planning Services Ltd.

As a Canadian farmer, you’ve lived through your fair share of unpredictability. Whether it was the farm crisis or one too many years of lackluster harvests, you took your farm through the worst combinations Mother Nature and the markets could throw at you, beating the odds to build something your family is truly proud of.

Looking back at the ups and downs of farming, you’d never take any of it back. And you want to leave the challenge behind for the next generation so that your family’s legacy can continue to flourish long after you’re gone. Successful farmers are constantly thinking about what’s next. If you’re over 50, planning the future of your farm should be your top task. The work you put in now could set your farm’s estate up for one of the most anticipated outcomes in your entire farming career. You know how rare that can be in the agriculture industry!

Speaking of your career, you’ve worn many hats over the years: accountant, labourer, veterinarian, weatherman, mechanic, scientist – the list goes on. Through the demands of your job, you’ve learned to ask for help when you need it. So if you’re willing to call your neighbour down the road at harvest, you should be willing to work with the expert up the street on financials.

A financial advisor provides leadership when you need it. They have your best interests in mind while navigating the blind spots of your farm’s estate, connecting a knowledgeable team of specialists to determine how to plan your family farm’s future best. The most common regrets farm estate financial advisors hear from farmers are that they wish they would have talked about it either ten years earlier before they lost their health or before inflation led to a big misstep in their tax strategy.

You may be thinking about farm estate planning because you’ve been pressed by your child who’s made sacrifices for the farm, or you’ve witnessed what happens when farmers leave a mess behind. Don’t wait until things fall apart. If you have a lot of unanswered questions about your farm’s estate, proper planning will bring clarity to problems that exist and provide answers that may solve them. Bring in your biggest concerns and prepare to give your financial advisor honest answers to the following questions.

These are the top six considerations when you're farm estate planning:

1. How do I want to spend the rest of my life?