Human Resources hosted its fifth HR Administrators Forum in May with more than 90 employees from across the University in attendance. Presentations featured McGill’s health and wellbeing program, aimed at developing a systemic approach to promoting, maintaining and increasing the health and wellbeing of McGill employees.
Lynne B. Gervais, Associate Vice-Principal Human Resources kicked off the session with a reminder that May 5 was the first day of Mental Health Awareness week in Canada. This session was a good opportunity to create awareness of McGill’s health and wellbeing program.
Members from Benefits and Organizational Development teamed up to describe the three tenets of McGill’s program: raising awareness of the importance of physical and mental fitness, training and development to deal with stress and anxiety, and disability management which includes easing the transition back to work after a mental illness. Tips were given on how to recognize signs of an employee in psychological distress, what to do and what not to do. To find out more about McGill’s health and wellbeing program, click here.
What followed was an overview of the changes in the record-keeping platform for the McGill pension plan. Joanne St-Denis Ouellette, Pension Officer, gave a demonstration of the new dedicated website, which includes innovative tools to help plan members make more informed decisions about their investments, based on different risk levels.
New option available for personal savings
Mention of the new Group Retirement Savings Plan (GRSP) also attracted interest. Employees can save money by enrolling in the University’s new GRSP, provided they are plan members. This plan aims at putting money aside in a personal account for retirement or for other important life events. Members of the plan can contribute through payroll deductions and can withdraw funds at any given time for a small fee. Plan members who have a personal RRSP can transfer it to the McGill plan. For more information or to register, click here
Other presentations
Alice Kieran, Director, Total Compensation, gave a brief update on the pay equity process under way with regard to pay adjustments to members of MUNACA. Finally, Robert Comeau, Director, Labour and Employee Relations, gave an update on AMUSE casuals minimum pay rates and the pay rates now applicable to research associates and research assistants.
Who should attend the HR Administrators Forum?
For those of you who deal with HR related matters periodically or as part of your day-to-day tasks, you should consider signing up for these half-day sessions. Held twice a year, they provide practical information to help administrative assistants, HR coordinators and anyone else who deals with HR policies and procedures within their faculty or unit. The next session is planned for late fall. Invitations will be sent in September.
HR’s senior management team and specialists are present to answer any questions you may have about staffing, pension, benefits, payroll, employee relations, organizational development, or any other HR related questions. If you do not currently receive an invitation to these sessions and would like to attend, talk to your supervisor. Then, send us an email at forum.HR@mcgill.ca