Every year, the Canada’s Top 100 Employers project recognizes employers across the country for fostering outstanding workplaces and enabling opportunity and growth for their employees. The qualities used as criteria for the competition are excellent benchmarks against which to measure the standards and success of your own company, and can serve as inspiration to encourage morale and potential of your own employees. Would your company measure up to the top 100?
What are the criteria?
How do the editors whittle down the top 100 employers out of thousands of applicants to the competition every year? Since the start of the competition over ten years ago, Canada’s top 100 employers have been selected using eight criteria. The eight criteria are fairly general and should be basic expectations of any company, but to have outstanding performance in each category is no common feat! The eight areas include:
- Physical workplace
- Work atmosphere and social
- Health, financial and family benefits
- Vacation and leave time
- Employee communications
- Performance management
- Training and skills development
- Community involvement
Who made the cut in 2013, and why?
In addition to being listed on the Canada’s Top 100 Employers competition website, The Globe and Mail also publishes a feature displaying the top 100 companies, with a brief description for each that lists a distinct quality that contributes to their success. Notable features for the winning companies include: forming partnerships with local universities to provide mentoring to undergraduate students, offering flexibility for new mothers returning to the workplace, and enabling health and wellness among employees by opening in-house fitness centres, promoting healthy eating choices or providing memberships to local gyms.
How can your company rank among the top?
There are many ways that your company could excel in these categories – and whether or not you aspire to earn your company a place among the official top 100, as a leader in your organization you should always be looking for ways to improve the success and engagement of your employees.
- Enable your young employees
Fresh out of degree programs, young professionals still have a lot to learn about success in the workplace. Provide professional training such as business etiquette to your new hires, to enable their growth in your company and beyond. - Your seasoned employees can grow, too!
Not only would new hires benefit from professional training, but top-level management employees do as well. Executive Training can improve both the individual’s and the company’s performance. - Foster a welcoming workplace culture
Workplace culture pervades every aspect of your company: employee retention, achievements, efficiency and morale. Maintaining a professional environment that encourages communication and is welcoming and safe to all employees is essential for keeping employees satisfied. - A healthy lifestyle is key to success
Since time at the office dominates a huge percentage of professionals’ schedules, it is important to ensure that wellness is balanced alongside work. Encourage health among your employees with a workplace wellness plan. - Space matters
The physical space of your office not only affects the employees who work there every day, but also can have a lasting impression on visitors. Make sure the elements of space set the right mood and message!
Success in any of these criteria will improve your employees’ experience at work; excellence in all will bring your company to an outstanding level. We’re looking forward to the announcement of Canada’s Top 100 Employers for 2014 later this fall – will yours be among the best?
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