OTTAWA, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ross Video is an Ottawa-based technology company with fifteen global office locations and an employee headcount fast approaching one thousand. A leading provider of solutions and services to the live production industry, Ross also prides itself on being a leading employer in Ontario and is therefore pleased to announce its official designation as a Canadian Compassionate Company (CCC) from the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association (CHPCA). The CHPCA is Canada’s national voice for hospice palliative care.
Ross CEO David Ross says, “Throughout COVID-19, our primary focus has been on ensuring the health and well-being of our employees. When they need time off work to care for a loved one who is terminally ill, the right thing to do is to offer them understanding, empathy and job protection. An official CCC designation humanizes that mindset and demonstrates our commitment to our people and their families.”
Private and public sector employers qualify as a CCC if they have formal human resource policies that accommodate employees who are unpaid caregivers with paid leave options, a supportive work culture and job protection. Eligible employers will receive a designation logo and resources that employees can access, such as how to cope with grief in the workplace, how to support a grieving colleague, and how to create an advance care plan.
CHPCA’s Champion’s Council Chair, Russell Williams, says, “The movement to grow compassion within an organization’s workplace culture is gaining momentum and employers have an important role. Unsupported employees are more likely to use more sick days, be less productive, and even quit their job if the demands of work outweigh their capacity to care for a loved one and grieve their loss. If every company followed the Ross example, productivity, employee satisfaction, retention, and recruitment would thrive.”
The Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association strives for all Canadians, regardless of where they may live, to have equal access to quality hospice palliative care for themselves and their family. According to a 2018 Statistics Canada survey, approximately one in four Canadians aged 15 and older (7.8 million people) were providing care to a family member or friend with problems related to aging, long-term health condition, or a physical or mental disability. The devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic may see the number of self-reported caregivers increase once 2020-2021 statistics become available.
Ross Director of Employee Development and Recruitment, Mary Clément says, “Most of us have experienced the death or dying of someone close to us. In the battle for top talent, we know employees are very interested in how we treat our staff. The CCC designation is another way we can demonstrate, through an independent national association’s review and official designation, that our commitments, HR policies and values put people first. At Ross, we believe that compassion belongs in every workplace.”
