TORONTO, May 5, 2022 /CNW/ - CIBC today announced it has enhanced health and wellbeing benefits for its employees, including increased income replacement benefits during child care leave, mental health services, gender affirmation care, fertility treatments and access to registered dieticians. These enhancements will enable CIBC's employees to achieve their personal ambitions at every stage of their life journey.

"The wellbeing of our team has long been a cornerstone of CIBC's culture and will remain essential as we look to the future," said Jackie Goldman, Senior Vice-President, Rewards, Recognition and Performance at CIBC. "We recognize that team members are diverse and have unique needs, and we are listening to them as we evolve and expand our benefits coverage. Our goal is to provide benefits that are inspired by our purpose and truly focused on supporting our team's total wellbeing so they can achieve their ambitions."

Highlights include:

• Enhanced child care offerings, for eligible Canadian and US employees, with paid leaves beginning July 1, 2022 extended to 17 weeks for maternity, parental and adoption leaves in Canada, and for primary and secondary caregivers in the US.
• Enhanced fertility benefits to support those employees in Canada who need help conceiving including coverage for prescription medication and other treatments, as well as reimbursement for certain out-of-pocket medical expenses related to surrogacy.
• New coverage for eligible gender affirmation expenses has been added to support transgender employees. This covers specific gender transition surgeries and procedures not covered by provincial gender affirmation programs up to $10,000 a year to a lifetime maximum of $25,000.
• Registered dieticians have been added to the list of paramedical services to help employees optimize their wellbeing through professional nutrition advice, alongside other eligible service providers such as an acupuncturist, chiropodist/podiatrist, chiropractor, massage therapist, naturopath and osteopath.

These efforts build on existing benefits that focus on wellbeing including:

• An increase in mental health services coverage to 100% reimbursement for accredited psychologists, social workers (MSW), psychotherapists, marriage and family therapists and clinical counsellors up to $5,000 per year combined, across all medical options. For many team members and their families, this more than doubles their coverage in this important area.
• An ongoing advice series from CIBC's Corporate Medical Director to provide a trusted source of health and medical information through the pandemic and discuss health-related topics that are important to team members.
• Access to resources, such as an employee and family assistance program (EFAP), an online wellbeing video library, and online mental health therapy options.
• Conducting an annual Employee survey, as well as Pulse surveys, and utilizing that feedback to inform CIBC's wellbeing policies.

CIBC is a leading North American financial institution with 11 million personal banking, business, public sector and institutional clients. Across Personal and Small Business Banking, Commercial Banking and Wealth Management, and Capital Markets businesses, CIBC offers a full range of advice, solutions and services through its leading digital banking network, and locations across Canada, in the United States and around the world. Ongoing news releases and more information about CIBC can be found at  https://www.cibc.com/en/about-cibc/media-centre.html.

SOURCE CIBC