Striving for better, lifting community

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This article was published 12/09/2024 (369 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The sculpture is heavy but it depicts weightlessness.

At its base is a carving of a smiling young boy who holds a book and looks up, daydreaming. Above him, the sculpture portrays what he’s imagining: wearing aviator goggles and a blanket for a cape, the boy rides a paper airplane as it ascends into the sky.

Created by American artist Gary Lee Price and titled Journeys of the Imagination, the sculpture sits in the Johnston Group’s King Edward Street headquarters.

David Johnston, founder and chief executive officer of the group benefit plan administrator, first saw it when he was visiting Palm Desert, Calif., with his wife, Diane.

It reminds Johnston to keep using his imagination — to stay curious and creative.

“From a business standpoint, what we want people to be doing is thinking: what can we do better in business?” he says. “What can we do better in the community? What can we do better for each other and with each other?”

The Winnipeg company always strives to do things better.

In the early 1980s, Johnston’s father, Arthur, was an insurance salesman who developed a plan for offering group benefits. In 1983, Johnston started his company to put his father’s plan into action.

Since then, the Johnston Group has become one of the largest group benefit plan third-party administrators in the country. It serves 35,000 businesses across Canada, with $850 million in premiums under its administration. The company anticipates that number will hit $1 billion in the next 18 months.

The Johnston Group has been named to Canada’s Best Managed Companies list annually since 2001. In the last eight years, its workforce has more than doubled (to 450). At the beginning of the year, it purchased the building next to its headquarters so it can expand its campus.

In July, the Johnston Group acquired a company that will allow it to enhance its health and wellness offerings. Company leadership would not disclose any further details.

From the beginning, the Johnston Group has sought to administer group benefits in the best way possible, with a focus on service, according to company president Dave Angus.

“It’s always been a fundamental part of how we operate,” Angus says. “How do we service the heck out of our clients? How do we service the heck out of our advisers? And how do we take care of our people?”

Johnston Group is not an insurance company and does not take on any risk.

As a third-party administrator, the company plans, designs and administers benefits, provides billings and customer service, offers insured and self-funded program options, provides access to pay-direct prescription drug cards and offers online administration utilities.

It has three key offerings.

The Chambers Plan is endorsed by more than 900 chambers of commerce and boards of trade across Canada. Currently, 33,000 businesses — from one-person operations to companies with more than 50 employees — trust this plan with their employee benefits needs.

The Maximum Benefit plan is a one-stop shop that allows mid- to large-sized businesses to customize their benefits and pick their insurer.

Finally, CINUP is a plan that serves 350 Indigenous organizations and communities.

The company issues 3,000 new group cases annually, fields 26,000 calls monthly from advisers, employers and employees and processes more than 3,000 health and dental claims on a typical day.

“Our passion every day is asking ourselves, what more value can we bring Canadian businesses?”

Johnston is fond of saying there are three legs that make up the Johnston Group stool: customers, culture and community.

The culture component means creating an environment where staff are valued and can find meaning in their work. It’s a family company, Johnston says, not just because he and his two sons work there, but because he views all staff as part of the family.

Management’s concern about staff well-being includes a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. The company struck a committee that worked alongside senior staff to review the company’s human resources policies to make Johnston Group more equitable and diverse.

The company supports a number of employee resource groups based on diversity, including a group for LGBTTQ+ employees and their allies, a BIPOC group, and a group for French Canadian and francophone folks. These resource groups are a vehicle through which staff can organize special events to celebrate and showcase what makes them unique, as well as articulate improvements the company needs to make in order to be inclusive.

When Johnston says community is important to the company, it is backed up by its support of numerous Winnipeg organizations through donations and volunteer efforts.

The seven board rooms in the company’s headquarters are each decorated to reflect one of the organizations it supports, including the United Way, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Graffiti Art Programming and Habitat for Humanity.

The company doesn’t want to be “a one-trick-pony” when it comes to its giving, according to Angus; rather, it wants its giving to reflect the diversity of needs and services throughout the city.

He recalls attending a Johnston Group event prior to joining the company in 2016, and hearing a senior manager articulate the company’s approach to giving.

“He said our motivation for growing is so we can give more back to the community,” Angus says. “Sounds like B.S., but it’s not B.S. when you come here. It’s what drives us, actually.”

Johnston suspects his parents’ example has something to do with why he’s made giving foundational to the company.

“In a community like Winnipeg, if your company is growing, you have an obligation to give,” Johnston says. Since the city doesn’t have as many large companies as, say, Vancouver or Toronto, “every company that can needs to step up twofold or threefold. People will say that’s stupid, but that’s my thought.”

As Angus and Johnston look to the future, their priorities are to continue providing customers with a high level of service, continue creating a company where staff are treated like family and to continue contributing to the community.

Growth is an objective, but the company will never outgrow the city where it was founded, according to Johnston. His journey of imagination — strengthened by those who work with him — has taken the Johnston Group this far and he’s curious about what new heights the company might ascend to.

“I hope we (remain) a company that keeps that same personality, that same vibe,” he says, “and continues to grow and innovate and be a part of the city of Winnipeg.”

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca