Canadian HR Reporter Weekly

3 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2018 May 2, 2018 Credit: REUTERS/Blair Gable designed for them, and the price and administrative burden associated with pensions can be quite cumbersome, said Kelly. "e fact is that pensions, company pension plans, are becoming a thing of the past, other than in government circles," he said. "Governments basically are one of the only employers that believes it can afford to offer pension plans, certainly defined benefit plans, and I don't think there's been… any increase or anything moving away from the trend of employers dropping pension plans, year after year, as they become riskier and more unaffordable." Membership in registered pension plans (RPPs) in Canada totalled 6,262,000 in 2015, up 4,900 members compared to 2014, according to the latest numbers from Statistics Canada. Membership in public sector pension plans increased by 16,500 to 3,229,000, while the number of members in private sector plans fell by 11,600 to 3,032,000. e government has said the expanded Canada Pension Plan (CPP) will help smaller firms compete with larger counterparts because there won't be as big a gap when it comes to pension benefits, said Kelly. "If anything, employers will be struggling with the weight of the increased CPP plan, and if they can afford anything beyond that, they would likely do that through a matched RSP or perhaps a PRPP (pooled registered pension plan), or maybe a DC (defined contribution) plan." With the expanded CPP, it's possible some Canadians might start to say, "'Oh well, I guess the government's got me, I don't need to start saving on my own or through my employer,'" he said. But there is still a role for employer-sponsored pensions or other savings vehicles with the enhanced CPP, said Saulnier. "It might change the amount they feel they need to contribute. Certainly, we have seen employers who have a program already questioning whether they should adjust their support to the program, whether it's a pension plan or DC plan. If it was already fairly rich, should they consider scaling back a little bit their support given the increase in CPP? And I think that's a reasonable response." Guidance wanted Either way, when it comes to retirement, current and re- tired employees want more help with retirement planning (82 per cent of all respondents) and retirement coaching (84 per cent), found the survey by Accenture. Half (49 per cent) of the employees said their employer offers retirement education or coaching, while one-third (32 per cent) said their employer does not, with the remainder (about 20 per cent) uncertain. But, overall, most current and retired workers — 77 per cent — said they wanted more knowledge and understanding of their retirement options. More than half (54 per cent) said they would like to attend a webinar for retirement education, while 50 per cent are interested in using a mobile app and 46 per cent would like to use a digital retirement coach. ere's a hunger out there for coaching and mentoring, said Davies. "A lot of these pension entities have a relationship with somebody from hire to retire to expire, and that's an 80-plus-year relationship. And it's (about having) the interactions over that long-term to help nudge somebody to really impact that retirement trajectory. e mobile platform is the best way to engage those members because they're on that platform now doing everything else in their lives… and their retirement is really absent from that space." Whether it should all come from the employer, that's open for debate, he said. "I do think these retirement entities should do more coaching or mentoring because they all have great education programs and great content, and some of them have been in existence for 50, 60 years so they have a lot of data to mine, to show results and how actions can influence those things." ere's definitely an interest from employees looking for assistance when it comes to financial wellness, said Saulnier. "A lot of employees feel that their employer should have a way for them to get financial advice without necessarily going to a bank or doing it on their own… they actually trust their employer more than they trust the bank or insurance company when it comes to providing access to financial advice." It's always surprising to hear many employees don't participate in matching programs, said Kelly. "It always seems nuts because they are leaving perhaps matched contributions on the table, so free money… but we have to remember there are a lot of employees living pretty closely to the line, so finding some additional dollars to save for their retirement is pretty tough." ere is an absolute need for greater education of employees as to what to do with their money, to the extent they have choices in terms of investment vehicles, and how to make that happen, he said. "I can certainly see employers doing that." We have seen employers who have a program already questioning whether they should adjust their support." Membership in registered pension plans has gone up overall, according to Statistics Canada, but that involves gains in the public sector and declines in the private sector.

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