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Canada's Best Employers 2019

This article is more than 5 years old.

Credit: University of Toronto 2

Labor markets across the globe have been particularly tight in recent months, and Canada’s has been no exception. The country’s unemployment rate has dropped to 5.6%, the lowest it has been in more than four decades. While advantageous for job seekers, this landscape has proved challenging for Canadian companies competing to attract and retain the high performers they need in order to succeed.

Forbes partnered with market research company Statista to identify the companies liked best by employees in our annual ranking of Canada’s best employers. The list, compiled by surveying 8,000 Canadians working for businesses with at least 500 employees, ranks the 300 employers that received the most recommendations.

While perennial favorite Google dominates the list yet again, it earned the No. 1 spot by a mere fraction of a point. Right on its heels in the No. 2 spot is the University of Toronto. The 192-year-old university, distributed across three campuses, with its main quad nestled in the heart of Ontario’s capital city, strives to support faculty and staff throughout the entirety of their careers. “We have 20,000 employees and a 2% turnover rate, which at other higher-education institutes is around 7%,” says Kelly Hannah-Moffat, vice president of human resources and equity at the University of Toronto. “We make a lifetime investment in people. We don’t hire for two years.”

Credit: Ken Jones

That lifetime investment begins not on an employee’s first day but rather during the recruitment process. And given the university’s reputation for strong academics, the school could seemingly bypass this careful attention to employees. “We have attracted and retained some of the best people in their fields, and I think people want to be in that environment,” says Hannah-Moffat. “Every year we advertise about 300 open positions—we receive over 137,000 applications.” The college dedicates numerous resources to attracting top talent, recruiting in the communities surrounding its campuses and committing to the hiring of 30 faculty members and 20 administrative professionals of African-American and Indigenous backgrounds.

Once they’ve joined the “True Blue,” as the university is known, faculty and staff find that their top-tier school has A-plus perks. From competitive compensation to phased retirement (a program through which some employees can gradually reduce their hours in the lead-up to their exits, while their pensions to continue to accrue), the university strives to support its workers for the duration of their professional lives. And the university is constantly reevaluating, responding to the evolving needs of the workforce with offerings such as flexible work arrangements, child-care stipends and parental leave for both biological and adoptive mothers and fathers. It’s these benefits in particular that Hannah-Moffat, a single mother of two, has found most valuable over the course of her 20 years with the University of Toronto. “I’ve always found it to be a very family-friendly workplace,” she says. “This is a place for people to excel and do work without having to worry about other things.”

Credit: University of Toronto

In the spirit of higher education, faculty and staff are encouraged to take advantage of the opportunities that come with being on a college campus, from registering for classes with the help of employee tuition assistance to attending talks by visiting speakers. “Something is always happening somewhere in the institution,” says Hannah-Moffat. “You could be at a lecture every single day.” Career development workshops are held throughout the year, giving all workers the chance to grow in their roles or pivot to something new. “We have three campuses, a wide range of divisions and lots of mobility,” says Hannah-Moffat. “People can move around and do a vast range of jobs throughout their careers.” An example of this freedom can be seen in Hannah-Moffat’s own journey at the University of Toronto. Since joining the school as a junior faculty member in 1999, she has been challenged to step out of her comfort zone, rising through the criminology and sociolegal studies department and trying her hand at administration. “There was mentoring and support for my development into an administrative role, and by that same token, a space was created for me as an academic and as an administrator to maintain my research,” she says.

From acknowledging the everyday accomplishments of faculty and staff through the True Blue Daily Recognition award to offering job-search assistance to the partners of employees through its UTemps staffing service, the University of Toronto goes to great lengths to retain its talent, and it seems to be working. “The number of faculty and staff who have been here for decades is phenomenal, and their commitment to the institution is equally impressive,” says Hannah-Moffat. But even she realizes that when it comes to employee engagement, there will always be room for improvement. “We’re in a constant state of self-reflection. For us, it’s about being the employer of choice—we want people to pick up and come work for us.”

For the full list of Canada’s Best Employers, click here.

Methodology

To determine the list, Statista surveyed 8,000 Canadians working for businesses with at least 500 employees. All the surveys were anonymous, allowing participants to openly share their opinions. The respondents were asked to rate, on a scale of zero to 10, how likely they’d be to recommend their employer to others. Statista then asked respondents to nominate organizations other than their own. The final list ranks the 300 employers that received the most recommendations.