Improving lives and communities: Morneau Shepell releases annual CSR Report
Prioritizing the health and productivity of people – the heart of every successful organization – is more important than ever through this year of uncertainty
TORONTO, Oct. 20, 2020 /CNW/ - Morneau Shepell, a leading provider of total wellbeing, mental health and digital mental health services, today released its annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report. The company's second annual report outlines CSR activities completed in 2019 and over the first six months of 2020, including environmental, social and governance performance and significant advances in key areas such as employee mental health and wellbeing, sustainability initiatives and community investments that support mental health and education.
"Our priority continues to be protecting the health, safety and wellbeing of our employees and clients, as well as creating solutions to improve lives globally," said Stephen Liptrap, president and chief executive officer. "The transformational investments we have made in recent years have made our work and workforce flexible in ways that have greatly contributed to our success in adapting to COVID-19. This has ultimately translated into better supporting our clients, their teams and families during an especially stressful time."
In addition to an expanded environmental policy and community-focused investments, Morneau Shepell's CSR strategy remains strongly focused on providing the much-needed services and resources that broader communities require to successfully navigate the challenges that COVID-19 has created. In 2020, Morneau Shepell introduced services and resources designed to support Canadians during this time, including WellCan, an online hub of wellbeing resources, and AbilitiCBT™, an internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy program designed to address the uniquely challenging aspects of a pandemic. The company also opens its free crisis hotline for communities affected by traumatic events, such as natural disasters, fatal accidents and mass shootings.
In the first half of 2020, Morneau Shepell also launched the Mental Health Index™, an innovative survey that measures mental health levels in the employee population in the four key jurisdictions where the company operations: Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Inclusion and diversity at the forefront
In 2019, Morneau Shepell established an Inclusion and Diversity (I&D) Council and developed a strategy, which was expanded earlier this year to form an Anti-Racism Task Force, adding to the company's existing advancements in gender equality and diversity. The company also enthusiastically pledged its support for the CEO Action Pledge in the United States and the BlackNorth Initiative in Canada – two leading initiatives that work to meaningfully address anti-Black racism and advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
"We are proud to have a gender diverse team. In 2019, women occupied more than one third (38 per cent) of our Board of Directors and one quarter (27 per cent) of executive officer roles – a number that is significantly higher than the 10 per cent reported for women working in the C-suite across Canada's 100 largest publicly traded companies last year," added Liptrap.
Among other advancements in CSR, Morneau Shepell achieved a ranking of seventh out of 224 companies in the S&P/TSX composite index and a total score of 96 out of 100 points in The Globe and Mail's annual corporate governance assessment, reflecting the company's strong governance framework. The Company recently became a supporter of the United Nations Global Compact.
Morneau Shepell aims to improve one billion lives
Today, Morneau Shepell's work reaches nearly one hundred million people through its employee and family assistance programs, the pension plans it administers, the volunteer work of its employees and its community investments. The company also launched its Improving 1BillionLives program, which includes contributions from the employee engagement and community volunteer programs.
"Improving one billion lives is an aspiration of our team in the long term," added Liptrap. "We firmly believe that this an attainable goal and it is one that drives our employees today in their activities and will continue to do so in the future."
The full Corporate Social Responsibility Report can be found at: https://www.morneaushepell.com/ca-en/corporate-social-responsibility.
About Morneau Shepell
Morneau Shepell is a leading provider of technology-enabled HR services that deliver an integrated approach to employee wellbeing through our cloud-based platform. Our focus is providing world-class solutions to our clients to support the mental, physical, social and financial wellbeing of their people. By improving lives, we improve business. Our approach spans services in employee and family assistance, health and wellness, recognition, pension and benefits administration, retirement consulting, actuarial and investment services. Morneau Shepell employs approximately 6,000 employees who work with some 24,000 client organizations that use our services in 162 countries. Morneau Shepell is a publicly traded company on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: MSI). For more information, visit morneaushepell.com.
SOURCE Morneau Shepell Inc.
