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The Co-operators Group: Social and human capital accounting implementation

The Co-operators Group believes that the mental wellbeing of its employees is critical to the effectiveness of the organization, so it launched an internal mental health initiative.

With one in five Canadians living with a mental illness, The Co-operators — a leading group insurance company — has firsthand experience with the impacts of an employee's mental health on productivity and engagement at the workplace, and in turn on society as a whole.

With their belief that "good health leads to good businesses," The Co-operators decided to launch a mental health initiative for their employees — a program designed to make the workplace a pathway to positive mental health.

Given the lack of standards around assessment and valuation of human capital, demonstrating the success of the program for The Co-operators would be a challenge.

Using the A4S Essential Guide to Social and Human Capital Accounting, the finance team at The Co-operators developed a unique approach to measure outputs and outcomes related to mental health.

This worked example outlines their journey by illustrating the business case, approach and implementation, collection and measurement of metrics, and reporting of results. If your organization or finance team is looking to implement a similar valuation strategy, read this worked example as a first step.