creating resilient cultures · to get the best possible outcome from your team, you all need to...

Creating Resilient Cultures

Client Conference Summary: October 9, 2019

Presented by:

On October 9, 2019, Cowan Insurance Group hosted its annual Think client conference at Rattlesnake Point Golf Club in Milton. Each year, the conference aims to create a conversation by challenging common perceptions of today’s leading workplace issues. This year’s focus was on Creating Resilient Cultures by examining traditional employer mindsets around talent retention and acquisition and encouraging open and honest dialogue.

Think 2019 | Creating Resilient Cultures 2


The Good Fight: Use Productive Conflict to Get Your Team and Organization Back on Track Liane Davey

New York Times bestselling author Liane Davey began her keynote with a word that organizations typically shy away from—conflict. What’s more, she proposed that we need conflict to get things done. The audience seemed puzzled but curious because, of course, we have all grown up learning that conflict is bad. We’ve all heard the phrase, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” So how can conflict possibly have a part to play in teamwork, employee engagement, and positive company culture? First, we need to deal with our conflict debt.

“Organizations require conflict. Humans run from it. The result is conflict debt.”

Liane explains that conflicts happen when we don’t feel heard, recognized, or rewarded. We hate conflict, so we don’t deal with it, which leads to conflict debt. Conflict debt can show up as poor prioritization, innovation silos, and hidden risk—all of which can be costly to an organization. It also shows up in ways you wouldn’t expect. Think of a time when you had a negative interaction with a colleague. You likely thought to yourself, “I can’t face this today”; you tell yourself, “I will raise it when it’s not so busy.” But you never do, and your conflict debt grows. Because we haven’t dealt with that conflict, any future interactions we have with that person are biased by conflict debt.

Doing things differently

Change your mindset. You grow up being told not to fight and to “just get along.” You learn that emotions are bad and unprofessional. Change the voice in your head and learn to normalize conflict.

Emotions in the workplace. Emotions are symptomatic and mean a person’s values or beliefs are being injured, or they’re not feeling heard or validated. Don’t try to stifle the emotions, because the issue will only get bigger if it’s not addressed. Make room for it, and you’ll hear what the root cause is. So, if someone is crying or yelling at work, say this: “This is important. What do I need to understand?”

The process to help your teams normalize conflict. “Conflict and tensions are not the antitheses of cross-functional teams; they’re one of the main benefits of them.” Liane offers a new metaphor for teamwork—the tarp. When you spread out a tarp, you have a shared goal of covering as much ground as possible. You pull in different directions and create tension with one another. To get the best possible outcome from your team, you all need to pull in different directions, while ensuring there is productive tension—never pulling so hard that you take the team off-course, and never so gently that your part isn’t covered.

1. Everyone needs to understand which rope they are pulling (their role and obligation to their team)

2. Pull hard enough to exert pressure (speak up, disagree when necessary while keeping focused on the issue)

3. Leaders need to actively manage tensions

The skill you can use now: Validation. It takes 15-20 seconds to demonstrate that you hear them, you want to know more, and understand their reality. This technique will help you begin problem-solving as allies instead of adversaries. How you do it:

1. Validate. Demonstrate that you heard them by paraphrasing and repeating it back or acknowledge by saying, “I’m glad you raised that in the room.”


2. Ask an open-ended question that demonstrates curiosity. Try to understand what has led them to a conclusion. Don’t say “why,” it drives our brains into justification defence.

3. Magic moment: Speak their truth before you speak your own. You’ll get a signal that you landed it. If you get it wrong, it’s still a meaningful interaction because you’ll make sure you understand. Then add your truth, and how you see the situation.

For additional resources, visit Liane’s Think 2019 event page.

Case Law Update Jason R. Paquette, Associate, Brown Mills Klinck Prezioso LLP

Jason reviewed key cases that have helped define the way that benefits providers handle their plans and how they address employees.

Retirement Plan Governance

Through the Wildman v American Century Services case, Jason noted the reason for American Century’s success all came down to good governance. They had the appropriate policies and procedures in place to ensure they were doing their due diligence and protecting the organization from potential allegations.

By employing the following tactics, you can ensure you’re doing your due diligence:

• Consider all of the information

• Document the decision-making process

• Expert advice

• Fiduciary training

Why does this matter to plan sponsors? • Minimum Standards Legislation

• CAP Guidelines

• CAPSA Guideline No. 4 (Governance)

Frustration and Duty to Accommodate

Using the Katz et al. v Clarke case as an example, Jason outlined and provided guidance on the duty to accommodate and how to deal with frustration of contract.

Frustration of Contract • The burden of proof is on the employer to establish frustration

• Only a permanent disability may render performance impossible

• ESA termination and severance are still payable


Duty to Accommodate • Employer’s duty to accommodate ends when the employee is unable to do their job

• The employee must be able to communicate the ability to return to work—not just the desire

• An employer can rely on the medical documentation provided; there is no duty to stay in contact with the employee about accommodation

Vesting of Retiree Benefits

In the case of Labatt Brewing Company Ltd. v Unifor Local 250A, the free beer allotment was not a vested right because there wasn’t any collective agreement language that extended to retirees.

Can Retiree Benefits be modified or eliminated?

It all comes down to language.

Non-unionized employees: The court will look for reservation of rights language in the agreementUnionized employees: Determined based on the language in the collective agreement

Principles of Plan Interpretation

In the case of Austin v Bell Canada, the class action lawsuit was filed on the basis of a misplaced comma, that it turns out was not “legally induced.” The lesson is to make sure your administrative practices match what’s in the plan text, or you could get called out on that down the road.

For additional details, download Jason’s PowerPoint presentation (.pdf).

Savings Plan Trends Teresa Norris-Lue, National Vice President, Pension and Retirement Consulting, Cowan Insurance Group

Automatic Features

Simplifying plan enrolment and contribution processes through automatic features will be critical to the success of retirement savings plans—especially true in an environment where Canadians are leaving an estimated $3 to $4 billion on the table by not maximizing their employer match. If you make it easy for employees to enroll by changing a program from opt-in to opt-out, you will likely see an uptake in participation; however, the current legislative environment and existing employment contracts must be considered as part of this design change.

Millennials and Retirement

With an average student debt of $27,000 and earning less than Gen X and Baby Boomers, the financial stress is more immediate for Millennials and unrelated to retirement. By 2020, Millennials will represent 40% of the workforce, so it’s important to consider their priorities. Offering flexibility in plan design is


paramount; consider plan alternatives that are more meaningful to Millennials such as Student Debt Repayment Matching, Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) Matching, Home Buyers Plan/Lifelong Learning Plan Withdrawals, Tax Free Savings Accounts (TFSA) and Vacation Accounts.

Digital Innovation

Investing in digital innovation can lead to increased participation and contribution levels, increased awareness, understanding, and appreciation of plans. It can also reduce inquiries, manual processes, and administrative work for Human Resources.

Psychological Retirement Readiness

Did you know? While 92% of organizations provide or are developing education related to financially preparing employees for retirement, only 49% of organizations include emotional preparation in the mix (Conference Board of Canada).

Retirement can be both a thrilling and terrifying prospect, but it’s also common to wonder, “what comes next?” The traditional focus has been on the financial, logistical, and celebratory aspects of retirement, overlooking the psychological planning required to transition to a post-employment lifestyle successfully.

What can you do?

Your organization can play a proactive role in preparing a maturing workforce for retirement. Benefits of allowing employees to explore the many facets of retirement—in advance of the actual date—include:

• A smoother generational transition

• An opportunity to utilize the skills and experience of positive-thinking employees mentoring the next generation

• A mentally and physically healthy workforce that is not fearful and distracted by the unknown—and one that is ready to retire at an optimal time for everyone involved

Decumulation

Employees approaching retirement need to decide what to do with their savings. Each year, an estimated $300 million is being moved from group plans to the bank because members are unprepared and uninformed about what to do with their accumulated assets. Plan sponsors need to prepare employees to ensure a smoother transition from saving to spending their retirement income.

For additional details, download Teresa’s PowerPoint presentation (.pdf).


Drugs and Politics in an Election Year Noel MacKay, Principal Consultant, Cowan Insurance Group

Noel brought the audience up to speed on the status of the proposed National Pharmacare program. The Advisory Council on the Implementation of National Pharmacare came out with a recommendation about how the federal government could cooperate with provincial and territorial governments to establish a universal, single-payer public system of prescription drug coverage in Canada.

What that means:

• National Pharmacare should provide coverage for a national list of prescription drugs and related products (i.e. a National Formulary)

• A list of essential medicines should be implemented starting January 1, 2022, followed by a full National Formulary by January 1, 2027

• Out-of-pocket costs for all products listed on the National Formulary would include a co-payment of $2 per prescription for essential medicines, and $5 per prescription for all other drugs, combined annual out-of-pocket maximum of $100 per family

• Canadians would be allowed to purchase private insurance to supplement proposed coverage under National Pharmacare, to cover copayments and drugs not listed on National Formulary

• The projected net cost is $19.3 billion (2016-2017), $22.6 billion (2020-2021)

On the Political Front:

• Liberals: Justin Trudeau announced they would only put $6 billion toward National Pharmacare

• Green Party: Little detail on what the plan would be; they’re leaning toward essential drugs only for National Pharmacare; the estimated cost is $27 billion

• NDP: Promising to bring in a universal Pharmacare program within one year if elected; the NDP’s estimate is based on the PBO’s 2017 conclusion that a national plan would cost nearly $23 billion to implement in 2020

• Conservative: Haven’t put anything out on that; they have promised investment in health care, but it would be targeted toward more MRI’s, doctors, etc.

Although funding a National Pharmacare plan is the domain of the federal government, provincial governments would be responsible for putting it in place. Each province runs its program, but they would need to meet specific criteria to get their funding. There is also a proposed opt-out option—is it National Pharmacare if provinces can opt-out? The federal government can make all the promises they want, but the provinces need to implement them.

Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB)

From invention to showing up as a claim on an employer’s benefit plan, Noel illustrated how branded drug prices are set. He also discussed recently announced changes to the Patent Medicine Pricing Review Board (PMBPRB). Comparator countries against which Canadian drug prices are measured no longer include the USA and Switzerland. Not only have these two countries been replaced, but the list of comparator countries is growing. The countries being added all have median drug prices that are lower than Canada and, as a result, Canadian prices should drop to be in line with the newly added countries.

For additional details, download Noel’s PowerPoint presentation (.pdf).


Digital Wellness Revolution Lianne Clarke, Vice President, Practice Lead, Disability, Health and Wellness, Cowan Insurance Group

With the influx of digital wellness apps available, we can help keep people at work and healthy by offering the option to manage their health and wellness from anywhere. More employers are beginning to understand the value of investing in digital wellness and are seeing the connection between healthy and productive employees and the profitability of the company. With over three billion smartphone users, we should take advantage of the phone to push out notifications about health and wellness.

Benefits of digital health and wellness:

• Reduces emergency and hospital visits

• Reduces time away from work

• Improves one’s ability to manage and monitor chronic disease

• Offers the ability to personalize wellbeing

• Can be scaled according to need

You may want to consider having a digital wellbeing platform that can serve as a hub for wellness programs. Significant advantages can come from integrating personalized programming and assessments, health and fitness tracking devices, gamification and rewards, into employee benefits programs.

Virtual healthcare or telemedicine is another option available. By offering 24/7 access to a doctor and with the option to talk to the same doctor each time—especially if you don’t have one—you can reduce stress on employees. Being able to speak to a healthcare practitioner anytime without missing work is a huge benefit. Examples include Akira, Dialogue, Medisys, Medcan.

Best practice steps to creating a culture of health and wellbeing at your organization:

• Senior leadership support–budget, resources, time

• Create a wellness team

• Collect and assess your data–ask your employees

• Create a plan–mission, vision, SMART goals

• Communicate, communicate, communicate

• Implement, measure, refine

Digital Detox

On the other hand, having too much interaction with our devices can prove harmful if we aren’t careful. There needs to be a balance to ensure we aren’t relying on our phones for everything and that we can disconnect for defined periods each day, especially before bed. While technology offers new opportunities to improve people’s health and wellbeing, it is just one component of a broader wellness strategy.

For additional details, download Lianne’s PowerPoint presentation (.pdf).


Panel discussion on Employee Communication

Common themes included: • Be transparent with employees about their employee benefits plans

• Ensure clear, consistent messages; repeat the message seven times in three different formats to ensure the message is received

• Lack of participation in programs is usually due to a lack of awareness; ensure messaging is included as part of the onboarding process, in person, at town halls etc.

• High performance doesn’t mean working 14 hours a day; employers need to provide permission to disconnect

• Allow opportunities to engage in small groups, such as breakfast with senior leadership, to allow meaningful dialogue with employees

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