TD Bank Financial Group – Progressive Employers of Canada List

Programs or initiatives that support the needs of working moms.

At TD, we recognize that to continue to be successful, we need to be able to draw on the most diverse and creative thinking possible.  That means we need be an organization where we genuinely acknowledge, value and honour the differences that people from different background and circumstances bring.  And where every employee has the opportunity to contribute and reach his or her potential with no barriers standing between any employee and their success.

The bottom line is that supporting the needs of working moms isn’t only the right thing to do.  It’s the smart thing to do.

Some of the key programs and initiatives we have to support working mothers at TD include:

Women in Leadership

One of TD’s business imperatives is to enhance leadership opportunities for women.  Our goal is to increase the representation of women at the executive level by providing strong leadership opportunities for women, and to increase focus on strengthening the pipeline of emerging leaders.  TD’s Diversity Leadership Council, established in 2005, champions diversity across the organization in six specific areas of focus, Women in Leadership being one of them.  Our Chief Financial Officer, Colleen Johnston, leads this sub-committee and is a strong supporter for the advancement of women.

Current initiatives include:

• Annual Women in Leadership Symposiums attended by over 300 TD executives from around the world that report on progress made in expanding leadership opportunities for women at TD, provide a forum for executives to discuss and debate various leadership issues, and provide all attendees with an enriched networking opportunity. To date, TD has held three events.
• Formal group mentoring programs where emerging women leaders at the manager and senior manager level are mentored by senior women executives. This provides an opportunity to share their professional and personal skills, experience and lessons learned, and to grow and develop.
• Informal one-on-one mentoring is also fully supported by TD and occurs as employees identify their needs.
• Formal networking events are held across the country, approximately twice a year in each region, to bring women together to hear from featured speakers and discuss topics important to them. For example career management, work life balance and flexible work options. We’re encouraged that in the past 2 years, numerous informal ‘grassroots’ networking events have also emerged to maintain the momentum for the advancement of women at TD. In 2009, a women’s eNetworking solution will be developed to provide a sustainable way for women to connect, learn, and share in-between formal events.
• Strategic and targeted recruitment for specific business segments that are under represented by women.

Support for Families/Childcare

TD supports families and childcare in a number of ways:

1. Kids & Company Child Care:  Kids & Company is a leading provider of corporate-sponsored child care in Canada.  Through TD’s corporate membership, employees have access to spaces in Kids & Company child care centres in 22 locations across Canada.  This service is only available to employees of partner corporations.
2. Emergency Child care:  TD offers employees the opportunity to register for back-up childcare with Kids & Company at a corporate rate. This service offers emergency childcare when primary childcare providers are unavailable.  There are 22 locations across Canada and the program opens daily from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
3. Maternity/Parental/Adoption Leave Policies:  TD offers a comprehensive childcare leave policy, available to adoptive parents, birth fathers, and birth mothers.   Our Adoption Leave policy is industry-leading with time-off and top-up benefits equal to that of birth parents.  There is no distinction in TD’s leave policy based on whether you are a mother or father, or whether you are a birth or adoptive parent.  All employees are eligible for the same childcare benefits, which includes up to 6 weeks top-up benefits and 52 weeks of leave.  If both parents are employees of TD, they are both eligible to take 52 weeks, concurrently if they so chose.
4. Information and access to daycare facilities:  TD’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) offers child to elder care support.  Relevant information and resource referrals (e.g. child and elder caregiving services) can be provided, as well as educational materials customized to employee’s specific family situation (e.g. resource kits for new parents, balancing work and home, etc.).
5. Time Off with Pay:  Gives managers greater flexibility and discretion to approve paid family care leave for a variety of reasons, depending on individual circumstances.

Flex-Time/Job Sharing/Part-time/Gradual Transition

Flexible Work Options: TD’s Choice @ Work flexible work options program offers a wide range of work-life choices to enable employees to balance work and personal obligations.

• Flexible Place: provides the option of working at a location other than the employees’ regular TDBFG workplace, including their home, for all or part of the week.

• Flexible Time: a variety of options are available to change when employees work – this may mean altering start and end times; keeping weekly hours the same but changing the number of days worked; or reducing the number of hours worked.

• Job Partnership: we have an established process to help employees identify partners with whom they wish to share one job.

• Part-Time: we offer part-time opportunities and also encourage support of a reduced work week.

• Gradual Transition: allows an employee to gradually return to normal duties from childcare and disability leaves.  A gradual transition from work, such as leading up to retirement, can also be considered.  The transition time from a childcare leave is up to a maximum of 90 days, and for other leaves we are open to explore accommodation based on individual circumstances.

TD also offers a Staying Connected Process: This program provides People Managers and employees with the tools they need to stay in touch during an employee’s leave of absence.  We recommend processes to transition to a leave, connect while away, and successfully return to work.  Enhancements also include extending our TD Pulse (our global semi-annual employee survey) program to employees on leave, and we are exploring how to keep employees connected using technology.
Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
TD offers an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) that provides 24 hour / 7 day a week access to information and confidential consultation.  Employees have access to professional and confidential resources to help them and their immediate family members resolve issues impacting their personal and work life including personal well-being, relationship issues, family issues, addictions and workplace challenges. This is a confidential and voluntary service available to employees and their immediate family at no cost.

The following extended information services are also available through TD’s EAP program:

• Financial Services Support – a consultation service that puts employees in touch with skilled financial advisors who can help create an action plan to deal with specific financial issues (e.g. credit/debt management, bankruptcy, financial emergencies, etc.).
• Health Information Services – immediate access to a Registered Nurse who will provide personalized assistance to address symptoms, advise on action that should taken and to answer any health-related questions and concerns.

Family-Friendly Benefits Plan

TD’s Benefits Plan is structured to provide flexibility to employees when choosing benefits coverage in order to meet their individual and family needs.  All employees receive a core level of benefits coverage at no cost and may choose to purchase additional benefits coverage.  TD provides employees with benefit credits to help offset the cost of additional benefits coverage based on the coverage they select and the number of dependents they cover – providing additional support for those with families.  The Benefits Plan offers a wide array of coverage and choice, including Health, Dental, Disability, Life, Critical Illness, Emergency Travel Medical and Accident coverage.  All employees receive a core level of benefits coverage at no cost and may choose to purchase additional benefits coverage.

In addition to providing benefits to active employees, benefits are also extended to employees on leaves of absence, including, but not limited to, disability-related leaves and Canadian Armed Forces leaves of absence.

Wellness Tools & Initiatives

We offer a number of wellness resources:

• Wellness website which includes a series of on-line videos (video library) on a variety of topics such as time management, mental health, nutrition, elder care, and childhood illnesses that can be accessed 24/7 from work or home.
• Mental health resources including Feeling Better Now, an interactive information and support tool.
• An employee assistance program (EAP).
• Ergonomic training.
• Child care and leave of absence policies.
• Flexible work arrangements (Choice @ Work).
• Annual on-site flu clinics.
• We recently introduced wellness-related discounts to employees encompassing gym memberships and weight loss programs that employees can access in many communities across the country.

Wellness/Quiet Rooms:  TD has a number of quiet and wellness rooms, as well as offices and meeting rooms which could be reserved for the purposes of lactation, religious observance, etc.

Another way we promote work/life balance is through TDBFG’s Volunteer Policy.  We support our employees who choose to volunteer their talents and their time, and offer paid time off work for employee volunteer activities that take place during regular work hours.  This gives employees the opportunity to go out and support their communities without impacting their personal time.