Alan Kotai, a financial advisor and portfolio manager at Rogers Group Financial Advisors Ltd. in Vancouver, had such success with his personal trainer six years ago that he decided to share the wealth. To thank his two administrative staff members for their hard work, at the end of that year he gave each a gift certificate for four free sessions with the trainer.

“They found him wonderful to deal with,” Kotai says, adding that he found energy levels and work satisfaction in the office increased dramatically after staff took him up on the offer. Since then, he has made this a regular part of his bonus package.

Financial services companies that encourage employees to maintain a balance among work, family and personal health find it pays off.

Once a week, Christine McKay. the senior communications consultant at Investors Group Inc. , leaves her desk before the workday officially ends and heads down to a training room on the third floor of the company’s Winnipeg headquarters. She joins about a dozen fellow employees for an hour-long Pilates session that targets the physical disorders associated with desk jobs.

“I absolutely love it,” says McKay, who signed up for Pilates when it was introduced in September 2005. She admits that she probably would never have even tried the core fitness program if it meant she had to schlep to a fitness club.

Like many Canadian firms, Investors Group is tapping into the latest employee benefit buzzword — balance — with programs to retain and attract top talent.

“The environment out there is very receptive to the whole notion of ensuring a life balance,” says Richard Irish, assistant vice president of community affairs at Investors Group.

The demands of working in the financial services industry — long hours, the constant need to adapt and the barrage of new technologies — can burn employees out if management doesn’t encourage a healthy work/life balance, Irish says. Besides, employees and recruits now expect an interesting, attractive workplace.

Irish says the emphasis on work, family and community is a natural one for Investors Group, with 1,000 employees at its head office and another 3,700 consultants across the country. In fact, Irish says, many of the company’s work/life balance benefits grew organically over time, while others were recently put into place. For instance, for several years, the company has offered employees flexible work arrangements, such as part-time work, job-sharing, alternating workweeks and telecommuting.

While the company has had community outreach endeavours for many years, it decided two years ago to launch Employees in Action to formalize employee workplace and community initiatives and encourage further involvement, Irish says. EIA programs include social events, such as summer picnics, employee ski trips and family baseball days, as well as an extensive community service element. In addition to standard community programs, such as participating in United Way campaigns, EIA arranges team-building volunteer programs, such as food and clothing drives, holiday outreach dinners and, last year, a group walk/run to raise funds for a children’s hospital.

EIA also offers a volunteer support program, providing grants to charities with which employees are active, and a matching gift program of up to $1,000 per employee. One benefit of EIA is it gets word about these efforts out to employees, says Irish. Biweekly newsletters usually highlight two EIA items, and the annual company magazine features several profiles of employees and consultants who contribute in unique ways to the community.

“Pride is a huge driver of employee engagement,” says Teri Currie, executive vice president of human resources at TD Bank Financial Group. Research indicates employees want to work for a company that is actively giving back to the community, she adds.

Like many companies of its size, TD donates a significant amount to charitable organizations each year (a minimum of 1% of its pretax profit, which amounted to $33 million in 2006) through fundraising and team-building initiatives for organizations such as the United Way or the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. It also has a volunteer grants program — up to $500 to anyone who donates at least 40 hours a year to a charity. And it also runs a reward recognition event for 60 employees who are active in charitable work, providing each with a further $500 donation to their charity of choice.

@page_break@“We are trying to recognize that employees want to be involved in the community, and it makes them particularly proud and therefore engaged with the organization,” Currie says.“It’s a win-win situation.”

TD also offers child-care leave of up to 52 weeks to employees who are new parents, including those who have adopted children.

Royal Bank of Canada puts some of its work/life balance focus on volunteerism, offering grants of $500 to recognize active volunteers. Last year, 1,800 RBC employees, 222 of whom worked for RBC Dominion Securities Inc., earned these grants, according to Caroline Blouin, director of pensions and benefits at RBC. The company also promotes a community leave program in which employees can spend paid time working for a charity, depending on the discretion of management.

RBC also tries to ease some of the stress of juggling work and family. In Calgary, Waterloo, Ont., Ottawa and the Greater Toronto Area, it offers employees up to five days a year of emergency backup child care designed to complement an employee’s regular child-care arrangement, says Blouin. So, if a snowstorm closes a school or a nanny doesn’t show up for work, employees in those cities can still ensure that their children are well cared for. To deal with the other end of the care spectrum — aging parents — the company has just launched a pilot program in Calgary that allows employees to bring parents to an elder-care facility for up to two days a year.

Fidelity Investments Canada Ltd. is another company that puts a lot of emphasis on ensuring that employees lead balanced lives. In fact, says Nancy Lupi, vice president of human resources for the Toronto-based firm, balance is one of the company’s core values that give it a competitive advantage in recruiting: “We think we set ourselves apart in that regard.”

Besides a roster of flexible work options, the company offers employee discount programs through a number of vendors, large and small. It also features volunteer release time for employees (one day a year) and team-building volunteer opportunities.

Fidelity also provides fitness and tuition subsidies to employees and, to encourage wellness (see story at right), it runs lunch-and-learn programs with topics ranging from stress management to elder care.

It also has RRSP and RESP programs that offer employees mutual funds at a discount.

“That’s a huge competitive advantage for us,” Lupi says. “This is a firm that spends a lot of time and money on its employees because it believes that is needed to run a successful business. If you’re not doing that, you won’t be successful.” IE