John Hancock - Achievement in Promoting Work-Life Balance

Company: John Hancock, Boston, MA
Company Description: John Hancock is a division of Manulife Financial Corporation, a leading international financial services group that helps people make their decisions easier and lives better. One of the largest life insurers in the U.S., John Hancock supports more than 10M Americans with a broad range of financial products, including life insurance, annuities, investments, 401(k) plans and college savings plans.
Nomination Category: Achievement Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Achievement in Promoting Work-Life Balance

Nomination Title: John Hancock: Prioritizing Employees' Well-being

John Hancock is the U.S. division of Manulife Financial Corporation, a leading international financial services group that helps people make their decisions easier and lives better. John Hancock provides financial advice, insurance and wealth and asset management solutions for individuals, groups, and institutions. John Hancock is one of the largest life insurers in the United States.

John Hancock has been named a Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality by the Human Rights Campaign and one of America’s Best Employers by Forbes, in addition to being awarded the 2021 LGBT Corporate Ally Award by the Boston Business Journal.

John Hancock knows the role it plays in employees’ overall well-being requires personalization and flexibility. To give employees the work-life balance they need, the company has evolved its existing WorkSmart flexible work arrangement program into “Working Better,” a new approach to guide how employees manage their schedules and connect with each other to boost effectiveness.

When the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the U.S. and stay-at-home advisories were announced, the company doubled down on its commitment to support employees’ work-life balance and well-being with the following initiatives, ensuring employees felt supported and connected during a challenging time:

A new program called "Elevate" to celebrate all the ways employees are nurturing their well-being - from healthy eating and activities to mindfulness and gratitude.

Camp Manulife/John Hancock, a four-week virtual summer camp for employees’ children, designed to help alleviate challenges faced by working parents.

“Project Get It Done Together”, an extension of our virtual Camp that included three different after-school clubs for employees’ children: Healthy Living, Peso Smart Investing, and Book Club.

A new employee resource group called Family – a safe place where employees can share their family experiences and get support.

An enhanced set of employee benefits focused on families, including reimbursement of up to $20,000 per year for adoption and surrogacy support and fully covered gender affirmation coverage.

An extra paid “Thank You Day” off on June 19 in 2020 and 2021, plus five additional personal days in 2021.

Over the past 18 months, employees have had to make drastic changes to living and working arrangements – andfor many, caringfor loved oneshasaddedanother layer of stress.John Hancock set forth to equip teams with virtual sessions, tools, and techniques tofocus on well-being and manage changes and challenges the pandemic presented. The company’s leadership team has been guided by thephilosophy that ifthereisanythingtheycan do to help promote a greater sense of connectivity, engagement, andinclusion,theywill try it.

Most recently, John Hancock introduced Elevate, a program encouraging employees to share ways they prioritize their wellness. Elevate is comprised of four themed campaigns throughout 2021, each focused on a separate element of healthy living. Employees submit photos for the chance to win grand prizes like a Peloton bike or wellness retreat, and the company hosts a virtual event for each theme, complete with special celebrity guests.

John Hancock launched its Camp program in 2020 to bring the spirit of summer camp to families' homes with four weeks of online and offline content for 3,300 children ages 4-10. Activities included hands-on STEM and art boxes fromKiwiCo, paid for by the company and shipped directly to families’ homes, a pen pal program, and videos from virtual “camp counselors” across the company. The success of Camp carried over to after-school clubs throughout January and February of 2021, attended by 1,400 children and hosted by John Hancock leaders and employee volunteers.

Links:

-Elevate highlights – Details, results, and photos from the first two campaigns of 2021: Healthy Activities and Mindfulness.
-Employee benefits press release– Manulife/John Hancock’s announcement of an enhanced set of benefits to support the well-being of employees and their families.
-Camp Highlights – Hundreds of parents reached out to share positive feedback and express their appreciation for the Camp program. Employees have remarked that despite being at home, they feel the culture is closer than ever, with 97% saying they feel connected to their team and manager.
-Camp landing page and YouTube playlist – These provide a glimpse into the Camp programming, which included camp song singalongs, storytime with counselors, fun learning activities and exercises, and virtual visits to places all over the world.