Marie-Chantal Côté was recently named one of Benefits and Pensions Monitor's Elite Women
Marie-Chantal Côté leads one of Canada's largest group benefits businesses. If you ask her what a day in the life of her role as senior vice-president of Group Benefits at Sun Life looks like, she’ll give a humble answer.
“I wake up thinking every day about two things: I will prioritize our clients and I will prioritize our team,” she admits. “As I go through meetings, as I go through conversations, as I go to things, these are always the priorities. What does the client need for me today? What does the client need for me in the next hour? And what does the team need for me today and in the next hour?”
Côté, who was named as one of Benefits and Pensions Monitor’s Elite Women last week, says it’s a wonderful recognition but noted that she sees it as a holistic recognition for the great work that the Sun Life team does.
“I have amazing colleagues who spend their days, nights and weekends often thinking about our clients that are creative, that are innovative, that work tirelessly with sponsors and advisors and brokers to help every employer support the health of their employees. We're focused on being authentic, transparent, and leading with inspiration. It’s always nice to see the recognition, but I feel very humbled, and feel very thankful for the amazing colleagues and clients and partners that we have.”
While Côté thought she would find herself pursuing her journalism degree, she decided to pursue another path instead. Her interest in computer science led to her career at Sun Life in the late 1990s, starting in the IT department. She then moved to the client experience office and eventually found her way to group benefits.
“My passion has always been to do purposeful things,” she said. “My passion has always been to be looking towards meeting and solving client problems, using digital solutions or different product innovations, different approaches, and relationships with clients to be helpful, leading a team of amazing people to solve these complex problems. It's evolved into group benefits through the years, and I've certainly found there a place that has brought so much purpose and so much meaning to what I do.”
One thing that she highlights she loves about the group benefits space is the amount of give-and-take and collaboration between the plan sponsors and Sun Life. Not only does Côté share best practices in the group benefits space around the health and needs of employees but plan sponsors “also have in place a whole bunch of practices that we learned from,” she said.
She compares working with plan sponsors to a challenging puzzle but says it’s a good thing because while every organization is unique, the needs of employees are also unique within those organizations.
“There are growing needs across all types of employees,” she says. “Every Canadian has very unique health needs. [Finding] what is the right formula for each organization to optimize that for their employee base is a is a good challenge.”
Côté admits she also feels working in the group benefits space is rewarding, as she sees the impact that solutions have on the employees. She added Sun Life is focusing on women’s health this year and created a partnership with the Menopause Foundation of Canada.
“To see the impact that it's having across the organizations to hear from employees tell us that their organization is talking to them about menopause … It's really hard to find something more rewarding than seeing the impact that Sun Life can have on employees and on organizations.”
