BEST PLACES TO WORK 2021
SPECIAL REPORT
2 www.hrreporter.com
THE
range of employee offerings
provided by employers across
Canada is more than impressive. Gone are
the days of basic programs focused on
water bottle recognition or posters touting
a great culture. Human resources has truly
stepped up in rolling out an impressive
selection of customizable, nuanced and
hard-hitting programs that truly make for
the Best Places to Work.
Here we speak with three such employers
to hear about some of the engaging bene-
fits that made them top workplaces.
Zurich Canada focuses on
engagement, mentoring
When Ray Chaaya first joined Zurich
Canada in the spring of 2020 as lead for
to be one of the most successful programs
that people seem to really get excited
about" he says.
Also popular were virtual volunteering
experiences as part of community invest-
ment at Zurich Canada. The company
partnered with the United Way to help
senior citizens isolated by the pandemic.
"A lot of our employees were doing things
like helping them do online shopping for
their groceries, as well as having chats
with them every week just so that they
were not alone and just to check in
on them and see how they were doing,"
says Chaaya.
Another big focus at the insurance
company is mentoring, and there are four
programs available to employees in
Canada: Mentoring@Zurich; Accelerate
to support new managers; the Accelerated
Development Program (ADP), where
participants are matched with senior
managers in a speed mentoring event;
and the Leadership EngAgement Program
(LEAP), where participants are matched
with executive leaders in a speed
mentoring event.
TOP EMPLOYERS FOCUS ON
EMPLOYEE SUCCESS
employee experience and culture,
employee engagement was more about
bake sales and small events. But with the
pandemic, it "became a business impera-
tive to ensure that we still had that sense
of culture in this overnight remote
environment that happened… to ensure
that people still felt like they were part of
our community."
One of the more popular virtual
employee engagement activities proved
to be "coffee roulette" to create more
informal chatter among colleagues who
don't necessarily need to talk together for
a business reason.
"It's funny, it was one of those programs
that didn't involve a lot of work to put
together and roll out, and yet has proven
CANADIAN WORKERS HAPPY ABOUT WORK EXPERIENCE
Source: Argyle
"The mentorship program
has just taken off… we were
overwhelmed with the
applications. But we were so
excited about the potential
opportunity for folks to be
involved."
Raeleen Manjak, City of Vernon
Percentage of
workers who say
their employer
has managed the
COVID-19 crisis
well
77%
Percentage of
workers satisfied
with their
employers
72%
Percentage of
workers who
say that their
employer takes
care of them
71%
Percentage of
workers who
believe their
employer is
committed to
meeting their
expectations
65%
Percentage of
workers who say
that they trust
their employer
70%
