Best Employers distinguish themselves by better managing people through change
TORONTO, Nov. 08, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Released today, the 2019 Aon Best Employers in Canada Study – the country’s premier benchmark for the quality and performance of excellent workplaces – recognized 49 companies, including 30 organizations with more than 400 employees and 19 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Now in its 20th year, the Aon Best Employers in Canada Study is based on the opinions of more than 200,000 employees across approximately 240 Canadian organizations.
The Best Employers in Canada Study focuses on the factors that characterize organizations with highly engaged employees. This year, the Study found that overall employee engagement among Canada’s Best Employers was largely unchanged from last year and, as in previous years, it shows that organizations with high levels of employee engagement create a strong and compelling employment brand, excel at fostering a high-performance culture and have engaging leaders. An emerging differentiator for Best Employers, however, is their ability to effectively respond to increasing organizational disruption and to help employees manage through a rapidly changing work environment. A key trait among these Best Employers is their ability to demonstrate organizational agility and respond proactively and quickly to the forces behind these changes.
Quotes:
“The rapid advancement of technology is disrupting organizations and creating challenges that have the potential to stand in the way of realizing the full benefit of this technology on their business results, and this year’s Study demonstrates organizations that can effectively respond to those challenges also achieve high employee engagement,” said Todd Mathers, Partner and Culture & Engagement Consulting Leader, Aon in Canada. “Technology is fundamentally changing the nature of jobs and the work that many employees do. But the need for the ‘human’ element to drive organizational success is more important than ever. The vital question for employers is, ‘How do we maintain a highly engaged workforce through these changes so that our employees can continue to contribute to our success as a business and to be a competitive advantage for us?’.
“In this year’s Study, we’ve found that high-engagement organizations distinguish themselves by how quickly they respond to change and how well they manage and support employees through it,” added Mathers. “Best Employers score much higher in the survey in agility of decision-making, quickly and effectively implementing new innovations and other changes, while also excelling in the areas of employee learning and development, effective allocation of talent to get work done, and making employees feel valued. It boils down to this: Best Employers help people understand where they need to focus, give them the support they need to perform at a high level in a changing work environment, and have engaging leaders who help employees feel valued and part of the organization’s success.”
Key Facts:
- Average engagement for Platinum-level Best Employers (top 25% of all organizations) stood at 78% down slightly from 79% last year. Average engagement among Gold-level Best Employers (top 33% of all organizations) is 72% this year, compared to 73% last year.
- Among sectors, Banking and Financial Services represented the greatest number of Best Employers, followed by Software and IT, Construction and Engineering, and Insurance.
- Best Employers are more agile than other organizations, and score much higher in supporting new ideas (78% vs 55%) and investing in them quickly (68% versus 43%), and supporting employee learning and development (83% vs 62%).
- Best Employers allocate talent more effectively, scoring higher in having the people resources to get work done (66% to 44%) and in attracting the right people to achieve business goals (73% to 51%).
- Best Employers help employees feel valued, scoring higher than others in performance feedback (69% to 47%), recognition beyond pay and benefits (67% to 46%) and senior leaders’ treatment of employees as the organization’s most valuable asset (73% to 51%).
- Best Employers live up to a compelling employer brand, scoring higher in delivering on the employee experience they promise (73% to 50%) and reputation as the best place to work (78% to 58%).
Aon’s Best Employers in Canada for 2019
The following Aon Best Employers in Canada award recipients appear in the print edition of Maclean’s, the online edition of Canadian Business magazine, available on November 8, and in the November 9 edition of La Presse.
| Platinum award recipients | |
| Allstate Insurance Company of Canada – Markham, ON | Equitable Bank – Toronto, ON |
| Alterna Savings and Credit Union – Ottawa, ON | Farm Credit Canada – Regina, SK |
| ATB Financial – Edmonton, AB | Federal Express Canada Corporation – Mississauga,ON |
| BBA – Mont Saint-Hilaire, QC | Intact Financial Corporation – Toronto, ON |
| Bennett Jones LLP – Calgary, AB | Keg Restaurants Ltd. – Vancouver, BC |
| Birchwood Automotive Group – Winnipeg, MB | Libro Credit Union – London, ON |
| Canadian Apartment Property Real Estate Investment Trust – Toronto, ON | Maritime Travel Inc – Halifax, NS |
| CIMA+ – Laval, QC | Marriott Hotels – Mississauga, ON |
| Davis Auto Group – Lethbridge, AB | Meridian Credit Union – Toronto, ON |
| Dilawri’s Crown Auto Group – Winnipeg, MB | SAP Canada – Toronto, ON |
| Edward Jones – Mississauga, ON | Stikeman Elliott LLP – Toronto, ON |
| The Co-operators – Guelph, ON | |
| Gold award recipients | |
| Cintas Canada Limited – Mississauga, ON | LoyaltyOne – Toronto, ON |
| Clark Builders Group of Companies – Edmonton, AB | MNP LLP – Calgary, AB |
| Colliers International – Canada – Vancouver, BC | |
Aon’s Best Small and Medium-sized Employers in Canada for 2018
The following Aon Best Small and Medium-sized Employers in Canada award recipients (<400 employees).
| Platinum award recipients | |
| Axonify – Waterloo, ON | Prairie Centre Credit Union – Rosetown, SK |
| BlueShore Financial – North Vancouver, BC | Ryan ULC – Mississauga, ON |
| DLGL Technologies Corporation – Blainville, QC | Scott Construction Group – Burnaby, BC |
| GEF Seniors Housing – Edmonton, AB | Solutions 2 GO Inc. – Brampton, ON |
| Grantek Systems Integration Ltd. – Burlington, AB | Solvera Solutions – Regina, SK |
| Kindred Credit Union – Kitchener, ON | The Municipal Infrastructure Group – Vaughan, ON |
| Les Residences Distinction – Granby, QC | Trisura Guarantee Insurance Company – Toronto, ON |
| Nor’West Co-op Community Health – Winnipeg, MB | Vigilant – a DRW company – Montreal, QC |
| Gold award recipients | |
| Boone Plumbing and Heating Supply – Ottawa, ON | Optimus SBR – Toronto, ON |
| Cority Software Inc. – Toronto, ON | |
About the Aon Best Employers in Canada Study
The Aon Best Employers in Canada Study is the country’s premier benchmark for assessing the quality and performance of workplace excellence using global standards based on more than 20 years of learnings and best practices from Aon studies conducted all over the world, relying on data collected in more than 150 markets from over 9,000 organizations in 68 industries, including over 200,000 employees of 240 companies of all sizes in Canada. Recognized organizations have achieved outstanding results among their Canadian counterparts for engaging employees, demonstrating effective leadership, building a performance culture and leveraging the strength of their employer brand.
About Aon
Aon plc (NYSE:AON) is a leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions. Our 50,000 colleagues in 120 countries empower results for clients by using proprietary data and analytics to deliver insights that reduce volatility and improve performance.
Media contact
For further information please contact the Aon media team: Alexandre Daudelin (+1.514.982.4910)
A pdf accompanying this announcement is available at http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/78805758-c56e-4edd-b234-8d907e9e5c79
