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Benefit changes go into effect today
Human Resources has announced the updated benefit rates for employees effective May 1, 2019.
“On May 1st of each year, the group benefits contracts that cover the University of Waterloo’s extended health, dental, long-term disability, and life insurance benefits are renewed,” says the memo from HR that went out to employees on April 29. “The new rates are based on the University’s claims experience and expenses charged by our providers.”
Extended Health and Dental Monthly Rates
Extended Health and Dental rates are 100 percent University-paid (prorated if part-time).
| Single | Family | Change from 2018 | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Extended Health |
$69.80 |
$222.74 |
Increase of 14 percent |
|
Dental |
$47.81 |
$143.85 |
Increase of 33 percent |
Long Term Disability Rate
The Long Term Disability premium is 100 percent employee-paid.
| Rate (excludes any applicable tax) | Rate change from 2018 |
|---|---|
|
0.971 percent of earnings |
Decrease of 18 percent |
Life Insurance Rates
“For rate purposes, life insurance is divided into basic and optional life components,” says the HR memo. “A single rate applies for basic life whereas optional life coverage rates are based on age, gender and smoking status. Rates for optional life remain unchanged, but the basic life rates will decrease by 0.9 percent effective May 1st, 2019.”
|
Benefit |
Cost sharing |
Employee rates |
University rates |
Change from 2018 |
|
Basic Life (1 x annual earnings) |
100 percent University Paid |
Not applicable |
$0.0930/$1,000 of coverage per month |
Decrease of 0.9 percent |
|
Additional Basic Life (1 to 2 x annual earnings) |
66.7 percent University Paid |
$0.0310/$1,000 of coverage per month |
$0.0620/$1,000 of coverage per month |
Decrease of 0.9 percent |
|
Optional Life (1 to 3 x annual earnings) |
0 percent University paid |
See rate table below |
Not applicable |
No change |
Please contact Human Resources at hrhelp@uwaterloo.ca if you have questions regarding these rates.
For additional information and tables about optional life insurance rates and projected rates based on salaries, check out the Human Resources website.
Christie Design Award winner finds his muse
This is an excerpt of an article originally published on the Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business's website.
The Christie® Design Awards kicked off the Project Showcase that featured 45 student projects and welcomed over 30 industry partners and 160 total attendees to the Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business on April 2. The awards – open to third and fourth-year Global Business & Digital Arts students – offer the opportunity to create projection mapping content that is projected onto a 3D model of a New York City brownstone building.
Projection mapping is an innovative way to project content onto non-traditional objects. Typically, digital images are viewed on a screen; however, with Christie® Digital and their projection technology, students were encouraged to see everyday objects, such as buildings as potential canvases for their content.
“Christie® is really proud to be part of [the awards]…To encourage students to be utilizing the tools within the [Global Business & Digital Arts] program that they have been working in and to put them into good practice,” said Arlonna Seymour, Senior Director of Corporate Marketing at Christie® in her opening remarks at the award ceremony. She continued to communicate the importance of this technology and the content created for it by saying, “It’s not just a really fun little exercise for us to do, projection mapping is real, it’s live, it’s everywhere.”
Corporations and organizations are continually looking to include projection mapping in entertainment segments, and even museums are using it to create greater engagement and understanding for their users.
Daniel Recchia, first place winner, said that “The incorporation of projection mapping in my portfolio makes for an interesting talking point because of how challenging it is to produce content using a building as the canvas.”
The GBDA program’s interdisciplinary skillset helped prepare Recchia to create his piece. “I leveraged some lessons on storytelling and mapping the series of events, which was essential to condense a story into a one-minute show.”
Recchia’s submission, “Mystic Muse” is a story about the balance of absolute chaos and order, represented by the original characters Sam and Bob designed and made specifically for this project. “This process was challenging, and on occasion, I thought that I had bitten off more than I could chew, but Sam and Bob wound up being a surprising success.” 147 computers were used to render “Mystic Muse,” taking the render time from weeks to a matter of hours.
Read the rest of the article on the Stratford campus website.
Fifth annual Advising Conference a success
On Tuesday, April 30, the Advising Community of Practice and the Student Success Office hosted the fifth annual UWaterloo Advising Conference. Staff and faculty in advising roles from across campus, gathered at Fed Hall for a day of learning to enhance advising practices. The conference featured keynote speakers and breakout sessions facilitated by Waterloo staff.
Highlights of the conference sessions included:
- How to support students through various transitions while at university
- Techniques to welcome and engage students through authentic intercultural interactions
- Strategies to navigate challenges and enhance advising practice through building cross- campus connections
- Enhanced knowledge of the co-op process and program
This year’s conference was the largest to date, with over 170 advisors and grad coordinators in attendance, eight concurrent sessions to choose from, and presenters and volunteers from across all six faculties and a number of central units.
The SSO and the Advising Community of Practice thank those who presented at the conference, and all those who were in attendance. If you were unable to attend yesterday, presentations will be available on the website in the coming weeks.
Retiree reception and other notes
Nearly 30 new members of Waterloo's retiree family will be celebrated this afternoon at a reception at Federation Hall.
Lee Hornberger of Human Resources will welcome the nearly 300 attendees, followed by President Feridun Hamdullahpur, who will give congratulatory remarks. Also speaking will be UW Retirees Association President Sue Fraser and Jim Frank, co-chair of the Keystone Campaign.
The event takes place at 4:00 p.m. in Federation Hall.
Do you manage projects and people in your role at Waterloo? Would you like to know more about project management as a profession?
If so, please join your project management peers on May 8 at 12:00 p.m. for the workshop Finding the Project Manager in You: Project Management as a Career (for employees only). Experienced project managers at Waterloo, Connie and Pam, share their stories about project management and reflect on what it is like to be a project manager. Come learn about the rewards and challenges of project management, the myths and misconceptions, and what it takes to be a project manager.
This event is presented by Pam Fluttert and Connie van Oostveen from IST’s Project Management Office and UWaterloo’s Project and Portfolio Community of Practice in collaboration with the Employee Career Advisor Sue Fraser.