Turns out Intuit Canada, Autodesk Canada Co. and Microsoft Corp. aren’t just well-known tech brands – they’re leaders among Canadian workplaces too.
All four companies, along with Mississauga, Ont.-based workforce management (WFM) and human capital management (HCM) software developer Kronos Inc., were recently declared among 2017’s 10 best enterprises to work for in Canada by the Canadian arm of the Great Place To Work Institute.
In fact, around 17 tech or tech-adjacent companies were on the company’s full list of Canada’s top 50 “large and multinational” workplaces, including four of Canada’s leading banks – Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), TD Bank Group, BMO Financial Group, and Scotiabank – AOL Canada, advisory firm EY, and Canadian business information giant Thomson Reuters.
Despite their employee-friendly reputations (and top five positions on Business Insider’s competing list), the Canadian subsidiaries of American tech giants Facebook Inc. and Google Inc. did not make the cut, although it’s worth noting that businesses must register with Great Place to Work in order to be considered, and there is no indication that either company – or such BI luminaries as Apple Corp., Salesforce.com, Intel Corp., eBay Inc., or Cisco Systems Inc. – has done so.
According to a supplement in April 27’s Globe and Mail, the 50 winners were chosen because they are “leaders in building high-trust, high-performance cultures that enhance business results, quality of work life and employee engagement.”
More specifically, each of the top 50 submitted a report listing the “Perks and Programs” that helped set it apart, which was then posted on Great Place to Work’s website.
Intuit, for example, extolled the virtues of its employee networking groups, which include a women’s network, “next generation” network, mosaic network for employees of African descent, and “the Green Team,” which focuses on the environment. The company, which has 343 employees in Canada, also provides biometric screenings on-site to help employees monitor their health, and runs a fitness reimbursement program worth up to $650 per year.
Also in the top 10 was a bank – ATB Financial. It emphasized “Workplace 2.0,” with an evaluation strategy based on “performance not presence,” and its company’s focus on “cultivating the right environment for people to manage all aspects of their life, including work.”
Autodesk’s Applause Program encourages employees to nominate their colleagues for an award or submit an electronic thank you card through an internal online award system, while Microsoft emphasized its employee-only online store that allows company team members to purchase Microsoft products at a discount – and the requisite tech giant refreshments that include hot drinks from Starbucks, Tim Hortons, and Starbucks subsidiary Tazo Tea.
Check out the full list here.