Last month, George and Derek hired a bonsai specialist to join their team at Good Things Grow.

This was a big deal: Not only could they expand the services their garden centre offered – these trees are a lucrative corner of the market! - but this hire was their 50th employee.

It’s a milestone that they couldn’t have imagined 5 years ago when these 2 neighbours went into business together, unsure if their enthusiastic amateur gardening skills would be up to scratch – or that their friendship would survive becoming entrepreneurs together.

Having 50 people on their payroll was exciting – and a turning point.

As soon as Alison the bonsai specialist accepted their offer, George turned to Derek in their shared office.

“It’s time,” he said. “We nearly lost her to a competitor because we don’t offer a benefits plan. I’m not risking that happening the next time we try to hire – or any of our other employees not sticking around because they’re not being compensated properly.”

A bit of background: Back when they first began talking about starting a business together, one of the biggest reasons George hesitated was because he was reluctant to lose the great benefits plan he had at work.

Not only did he appreciate not paying entirely out of pocket for routine medical expenses – dental check ups, new glasses, a sports massage when he pulled a hamstring playing hockey – but he also knew how important that coverage could be when you hit a major health hurdle. He still remembered the sticker shock when his partner Sameer was diagnosed with migraines and  needed expensive drugs for his treatment.

Derek, who is younger and had never had benefits because he’d always been self-employed, didn’t think it was a huge priority as they were getting started. After all, some months they weren’t sure if they could make payroll, let alone cover any additional benefits for their small team.

Now, however, Derek has realized the time had come – and, after almost losing great talent like Alison, he also saw that offering benefits could be an essential part of attracting and retaining the kind of people who would help their business thrive further.

There was another incident that gave Derek even more clarity on why they needed to offer employee benefits. In a catch-up meeting, one of their older employees broke down in tears when they shared how worried they were about retirement.

“I just realized that the government programs won’t be nearly enough,” this team member said. 

Having decided that offering a benefits plan for their employees was a high priority, Derek and George did some research, which led them to Canada Life’s offering for small businesses.

They’d actually asked their business mentor, a successful local entrepreneur named Keisha who employs over 500 people in her furniture manufacturing business, for her recommendation.

“We actually switched to Canada Life about a year ago,” Keisha told them when they had one of their regular catch-ups at the local diner. “It’s been such a great experience, and I loved how we could build a benefits plan that made sense for our business, and made sure our employees felt like we really valued them as a people, not just numbers on a spreadsheet.”

As their orders arrived at the table – everyone got the diner’s legendary blueberry pancakes – Keisha shared a story about one of her team members that had recently reinforced the importance of offering a great benefits plan.

“Do you remember Bobbi? They run our social media,” asked Keisha.

“Yes! Their TikToks are hilarious,” said Derek. “Weren’t they involved in that bad car accident earlier this year?”

Keisha nodded. “That’s right. They couldn’t work for nearly six months,” she said. “I was so glad that our benefits plan included short-term disability coverage for them, because it meant they weren’t worrying about their bills when they should have been focusing on their recovery.”

While they were chatting, Rahim, the chef at the diner,stopped by their table to ask how they were enjoying their food.

“Delicious, as always,” George said. “Hey, how are the triplets doing?”

Rahim beamed, whipping out his phone to share pictures of his six-month-old daughters with the table.

“They’re such a blessing,” he said, a bit emotional.

He slid into the booth beside Keisha.

“I’m so grateful you encouraged us to look into Peggy’sworkplace benefits and see if they provided any family-building coverage,” he said, referencing his wife’s job as a lawyer at a large firm.“It turns out some of the expenses for our IVF treatment were covered. I don’t think we could have afforded that fourth round without it.”

Derek and George, listening in, made a mental note to see if this was something they could include in their benefits plan for their team members.

Later that week, George and Derek hopped on a video call with Marie-Claude, the representative from Canada Life’s group insurance team who’d set up some time to discuss their vision for a benefits plan.

She started by asking them some questions about their business.

“How many employees do you have? Are there any benefits you want to prioritize?,” she asked. “This information will help us as we work together to customize a plan that’s right for your business.”

Next, Marie-Claude walked them through the various benefits they could include in their plan, from life insurance to health care spending accounts and a group savings plan.

“There’s a lot to consider here, so don’t worry if you’re not sure at first,” she said. “We can always add benefits to your plan later, or tweak it if your employees aren’t using one benefit but really want another one you don’t offer yet.”

Derek, who has been open about his journey with depression liked the ability to offer health and dental insurance that had a generous allowance for mental health services.

George appreciated the chance to help employees save by offering a matching RRSP. Thinking of their office manager who was about to take unpaid time off to take paternity leave, he also made sure that they offered top-up support for that.

Marie Claude, who has worked in group insurance for 30 years, had a few suggestions of her own.

“You could think about offering optional benefits that your employees can opt into, such as Freedom to Choose™ life, critical illness, and accident insurance, she said. “This insurance lets you supplement your benefits plan by offering employees optional life, critical illness and accident insurance coverage that they can keep even if they leave your plan.”

She also suggested they consider offering both short term and long-term disability benefits.

Marie-Claude explained. “We offer resources and support to help employees stay healthy and prevent health-related absences. We’ll work with employees who have made a claim to help them recover and get back on the job. And, support is available to help employees return to work after a short-term or long-term absence.”

This last point really resonated with George, who remembered how hard it had been for his dad, who was hurt in an industrial accident, to find work after his company laid him off because they wouldn’t make the accommodations his new reality as an amputee required.

As the call was wrapping up, Marie-Claude told Derek and George that she’d put together a few different plan options for them.

“I’ll do one with all your wishlist items, and then another one that still offers great coverage, but might be a bit budget-friendlier because it doesn’t include all the bells-and-whistles,” she said. “I’ll also prepare a few different payment structures.”

Marie-Claude explained that there were a few different ways they could fund this benefits plan. As the employer, they could assume all of the costs. Or, like many other companies did, they could bear the majority of the cost but ask employees to chip in, with a small amount coming off their paycheque every two weeks.

A few days later, Marie-Claude sent over an email outlining all of the plan options she’d put together.

George and Derek blocked a few hours in their calendars, and digested Marie-Claude's email over coffee at their local cafe, which just happened to be the spot where they shook hands and agreed to go into business together all those years ago.

“This is actually much more doable than I thought,” said Derek, who tended to be the more conservative with the purse-strings.

“I’d love to offer the ‘deluxe option,’ but I also want to make sure we can sustain that investment in the long-term,” countered George, who was older than his business partner and knew retirement was on the horizon for him in the next decade. “I would hate to have to claw back benefits our employees get used to, or even find ourselves in financial trouble if we can’t keep up our side of this bargain.”

Derek agreed.

“I think we can definitely offer this program,” he said, pointing to a comprehensive option that covered off most of their wish list and asked employees to cover a small percentage of the cost. “And then if we end up expanding even further, we can always call Marie-Claude and add coverage.”

George raised his coffee cup towards Derek.

“Should we toast to that?” he asked.

A few weeks after they signed on the dotted line with Canada Life’s group benefits and insurance, George and Derek invited their employees out to lunch.

“We’ve got an announcement,” Derek said once everyone had their food.

Their team looked delighted.

“Time to get that crown I’ve putting off,” said Riley their book keeper.

“I’m booking in a massage ASAP,” said bulb specialist Vlad.

“I’ve been paying hundreds out of pocket every month for some medication,” said Fatima, wiping a tear from her eye.

George and Derek slapped each other on the back.