Talent development and engagement

Attracting and developing employees with the right skills and aptitudes remains a constant priority for our organization. We believe that to meet our business goals and create long-term shareholder value we must continue to attract and retain the most talented people through continuous learning and performance reward programs.

Our commitment

We are committed to developing a highly skilled and performance-based workforce. We empower our people to develop their teams in ways that reinforce our responsible management culture within a tradition of strong and disciplined leadership. Our objective is to create positive working relationships with our employees and to provide them with opportunities for career growth, as they contribute to the success of our business and of society as a whole.

Programs

Our talent development strategy is based on building leadership capabilities, creating a responsible management culture, and recognizing and rewarding performance.

Talent development focus
Programs

Building leadership capabilities

Skills development programs are offered through relevant internal and external training sessions stressing specific competencies and job responsibilities, including professional development, continuing education courses, seminars and conferences.

On-the-job coaching and development opportunities within our group companies are provided to employees so that they can broaden their perspectives, gain a better understanding of the diverse activities within our group, and share their experiences.

Opportunities are offered to work with executives and leadership teams to gain knowledge through exposure to leadership practices and strategies and to develop individual talent to its fullest potential.

Creating a responsible management culture

Our employees receive regular reminders of our responsible management philosophy and core values as espoused in our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, and they are required to annually attest their compliance to our Code and our related corporate policies. As part of the mandatory annual training session on our Code, we raise awareness and educate our people on key sustainability themes such as conflict of interest, anti-corruption, data privacy, respect at work, human rights, and the environment. 

Rewarding performance

Our performance and career management program focuses on four performance development pillars:

  • Results-based goals – we establish individualized, results-based goals that align with our core business levers towards long-term value creation, quality of execution and risk management.

  • Leadership skills – we have defined clear leadership skills to support how we achieve objectives through behaviors that are aligned with our values.

  • Career growth – we consider an employee's career growth as a partnership between the employee and their manager. As their career progresses, we invite employees to reflect on what career growth means and how it can be achieved. Career growth can be achieved through development opportunities in their current role, through opportunities with other departments or even within the Power group.

  • Development plans – we elaborate development plans that benefit employees through ongoing learning to help them stay relevant in their field or gain knowledge to progress in their career. Development opportunities include professional training, mentorship, coaching, skills training, and academic training, to name a few.  

Our performance and career management program includes a formal annual performance review process for all eligible employees at the holding company level.  

We offer progressive compensation packages, comprised of a balance between fixed and variable remuneration programs and competitive pension, savings and benefits programs.

Engaging employees

We engage with employees through a variety of communications, training, awareness sessions, and other employee activities. For further information, visit the Stakeholder Engagement page of this microsite. 

Power Corporation encourages and supports engagement with the not-for-profit sector and personal giving by employees through its Employee Giving Program. The program recognizes and rewards employees’ efforts in two ways: by matching personal charitable donations and providing grants to eligible charitable organizations where employees volunteer. 

Highlights from our group companies

Employee Engagement

Great-West Lifeco and its operating companies are committed to fostering employee engagement across the group companies. For instance, GWL Realty Advisors leverages its mentorship and process excellence program, insights from its annual employee engagement surveys, and ongoing and open dialogue to build a culture and an environment where team members can thrive. In 2024, this played a part in the company achieving an inclusion score of 69.5%, placing them above the real estate industry average. 

IGM Financial strives to create a sense of community and build an inclusive culture that enhances productivity, engagement and overall satisfaction. The company’s annual employee engagement survey helps measure the health of the organization and short pulse surveys provide feedback on specific topics such as culture and programs to support hybrid work. The 2024 engagement survey revealed an overall engagement index of 81%, up 3% from 2023 and 6% higher than the global benchmark. Moreover, the survey's results revealed that 87% of employees are satisfied with IGM as a place to work. Company leaders set the tone with updates from CEOs and senior executives via email communications, webcasts, employee forums and divisional town hall meetings. Leaders are given access to their business area’s anonymized engagement survey results to facilitate post-survey conversations and action plans. 

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING

Employee learning and development remains a priority for Great-West Lifeco, as it continues to offer career path-specific supports and opportunities for several disciplines. Its subsidiary Canada Life supports ongoing employee development through its in-house "People Zone Learning" management system that offers employees access to range of resources, from onboarding and regulatory courses to personal development programs -- employees also have access to Percipio, an online learning portal with over 6,000 courses, thousands of videos and over 11,000 e-books and audiobooks. 

IGM Financial facilitates employee professional development through formal training, feedback, coaching and on-the job experience – all supported by individual development plans that employees create annually with support from their leaders. Leaders are required to set clear expectations on performance objectives and competencies and provide ongoing coaching and feedback. Annual objectives are aligned with company strategy and leaders hold quarterly meetings to review progress. The competency framework gives employees clear indicators of what’s expected of them at each career level and helps create their development plans. All tasks are completed through a digital talent management system that integrates performance management and compensation tools. 

In 2024, IGM launched a new learning portal - the IGM University Learning Portal - that makes it easier for employees and advisors to complete and log courses. The portal features: tailored content recommendations based on individual interests and learning preferences; practical assessments that enable people to measure their proficiency in core concepts, identify skill gaps and work toward closing the gaps; and curated learning paths specific to a person’s role or focus area. From its launch in September to the end of the year, 1,200 users had registered for the portal and 1,158 learning hours were completed. To date, the IG advisor network and IGM employees have completed close to 145,000 courses. Finally, delivered throughout 2024, the Leadership Now series was designed to provide monthly skills development sessions to IGM directors and above. In total, 232 leaders completed 1,076 hours of training. The series covered topics such as having crucial conversations, building resilience and other meta-skills like empathy and creativity, maintaining team motivation, leading in a hybrid world and helping people reach their full potential. 

IGM Financial also offers specialized training for advisors. IG University provides programming focused on financial planning, professional responsibility, products and services, practice management and leadership development. To help IG advisors meet the complex needs of business owners, medical professionals, retirees and other affluent client segments, IG University offered extensive training in 2024. The curriculum included coaching guides, train-the-trainer sessions, online assessments, e-modules, technical sessions for mortgage, insurance and investment specialists, and a National Education Day event, attended by over 3,000 advisors and employees. In total, learners spent approximately 6,000 hours completing the e-modules alone. 

For its part, Mackenzie Investments offers advisors educational resources to help them build their business and grow their personal knowledge.. This includes accredited courses, available through the Mackenzie CE Centre, to help advisors stay current with regulatory requirements, market conditions and investor needs.

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