Best Places to Work: CAAT Pension Plan

Sarah Dobson  00:00:10

Hi there. I'm Sarah Dobson, Managing Editor at Canadian HR Reporter, and today I'm speaking with Julie Giraldi CHRO at CAAT, which has been named one of Canada's Best Places to Work for 2024 by Canadian HR reporter. So welcome, Julie and congratulations. Can you tell us a bit about your organization?

Julie Giraldi  00:00:30

Thank you so much, Sarah, and I'm so excited to be a recipient with my organization this year. So CAAT has a bold strategy expanding retirement security to more Canadians. We're rooted in our college sector, and so have been providing our college sector since 1967 with reliable pensions. And then in 2018 we opened our door to the first private sector organization, and since then, we've doubled in size. In fact, we've reached 100,000 members. We serve over 440 participating employers in 20 different industries. And with that, we've also grown as an organization from an 84 person organization about six years ago to over 500 today.

Sarah Dobson  00:01:18

Very impressive. Okay, that's great to hear. Well, I'm looking forward to hearing more about some of the the elements, the initiatives that CAAT has that make it such a standout. So to begin, can you talk about your unique approach to compensation? I know it includes focusing on fairness, without bonuses or commission. So how does that work towards your success?

Julie Giraldi  00:01:40

Our total rewards philosophy is a more holistic approach, and it includes competitive salary, but it also includes health benefits, financial benefits, like our pension plan growth opportunities. So that's professional development, training, career opportunities, work life balance, as well as wellness, and our philosophy encourages CAAT stirs to make long term decisions for the plan without that added pressure of at risk, which may detract from what is in the best interest for the long term viability of the plan. People here at CAAT fundamentally believe in our purpose, that our members deserve a future where pension contributions to their financial and overall overall wellness is paramount. We all believe in our purpose and we're also members of the pension plan.

Sarah Dobson  00:01:42

Okay, perfect. I like how you say casters, well in the area of recognition, can you talk about how the kudos platform and the great job award program foster a culture of recognition and connection among your employees?

Julie Giraldi  00:02:54

Absolutely, at CAAT. We want every employee to be heard, recognized, acknowledged for the work that they do. So it's not just coming from your manager, it's actually coming from your team members across the organization, from different people that you've worked with. And it's a great platform in terms of recognizing and celebrating. And so that's one of the things that I love about CAAT is we celebrate and we celebrate each other. It's an opportunity to to acknowledge individual contributions, as well as the conduit for gratitude. The Great job award is our peer to peer recognition, and that's really tied into our values and so our living our values of integrity, impact and teamwork, and we encourage use across the organization. And you know, the recipient, every month it gets to select something that we all share in, and so they can select, like a popcorn day, a chocolate day, an ice cream day. And it's, it's really, again, speaks to that celebratory aspect of our culture. And just as a small example, we have 550 employees at cat right now. Last year, we had 7000 nominations. And so it really is a program that is well received by everyone and allows us to continue to have an amazing culture. But one of the best parts of my day is when I log on every morning and I see all of the kudos, because they pop up in our on our feed. And it's just so great to be able to see how how engaged everyone is, and it's quite infectious in terms of the level of engagement and how we celebrate each other. Yeah, that's great.

Sarah Dobson  00:04:44

I like that, seeing that so visibly there, perfect. Well, you mentioned wellness, and of course, you do have quite a comprehensive program, which includes an on site fitness facility and a $1,500 wellness allowance. So how is that contributing into employee well being.

Julie Giraldi  00:05:02

We know that employees who feel good, mentally, physically and financially, will not only benefit our organization, but be successful human beings. So when I arrived, we were really focused on physical wellness, and it was quite limited, tied to a gym. But I know that wellness is broader, and so we expanded wellness to reflect physical, financial and mental wellness, so that wellness can those wellness incentives can be used for what an employee feels will contribute to their wellness. So choice was really important to me, and so that choice has been provided and really well received by our employees, so they can select how they're going to use that envelope in terms of success. For me, knowing that our sick time continues to be stable, even though we've moved from an 80 person organization to 500 indicates that we we're doing something right. We keep a close eye on research, which really helps us in terms of developing our wellness strategy. Most importantly, we listen to our employees. Our programs are light are aligned to what our employees need, and programs not just that what we think we need, but also what we're hearing from our employees, so that could be employees that have provided that input to us. We do a lot of consultation with our employees. We have an Employee Engagement Committee that helps us when we're thinking about some of these things. And so mental wellness was one benefit that we heard loud and clear from from our employees, that they wanted more support on so we have added a separate envelope dedicated to mental health resources and support. We've also have many learning opportunities for our employees to on various topics, and we've also trained up our people leaders when it comes to mental health. So wellness at CAAT isn't just physical, it includes mental and financial wellness, and that is what's most meaningful to our employees.

Sarah Dobson  00:07:05

Perfect, okay. Well, speaking of leaders, can you talk a bit about the leader mindset program and also the CAAT Academy and how those help employees at various stages of their careers to advance their skills and leadership abilities?

Julie Giraldi  00:07:20

Sure, at CAAT. We believe everyone is a leader, and leadership begins from day one. We provide programs and services, and leadership really is at every level of the organization, and it's essential, not only for the individual to succeed, but for CAAT as an organization. For us, being a leader is a mindset. It's not based on the title. We want our people to grow and learn and stay with CAAT's so that we can deliver on our strategic plan. So we invest in providing them learning and development opportunities. And leader mindset is one of those programs. We also provide other opportunities for for our employees across CAAT and that includes experiential learning, so being part of initiatives that perhaps don't fall necessarily square into your day to day, and those are the types of things that we try to do to help develop and grow our organization and our our future leaders. It helps us as an organization, develop future leaders, build our pipeline, our talent, strength and and so, you know, we look at multiple ways of doing that. One of the ones that I'm most proud of is CAAT Academy. CAAT Academy is our Learning Hub, and it really is an empowerment tool. It empowers our employees to take hold of their learning journey. I know that that's ultra successful because we we have about 90% adoption, so people are going in and using it as an opportunity to upskill and reskill and and learn new things, and very proud of that.

Sarah Dobson  00:09:06

Okay, great. Well, lot's going on. And Julie, thank you so much for joining us today to share some of the initiatives that are making CAAT such a success.

Julie Giraldi  00:09:16

Thanks, Sarah, great speaking with you.

Sarah Dobson  00:09:19

Great. Well for more great videos with HR insights, be sure to tune in to hrreporter.com.