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How the GTA’s Best Employers are chosen
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Toronto Star- The best employers in the GTA all have the same recipe for success; employees who love their work so much they’re willing to rave about it to total strangers.
Yes, those companies actually do exist. And it’s that type of impassioned employee say-so that vaults an organization to the top of the Best Employers list.
The 2011 Best Employers studies were conducted by Aon Hewitt, a consulting arm of Aon Corp., in partnership with the Queen’s University School of Business.
Best GTA Employers: The List
The main goal is to identify organizations with strong employee engagement. It is a topic that is bound to gain currency as Canada’s greying population leads to a widely predicted skilled labour shortage over the coming years.
“An employee who is engaged is someone who speaks positively about the organization they are working for,” said Neil Crawford, Aon Hewitt’s national Best Employers studies leader.
“They express a desire to stay and contribute to the organization’s success. And they are inspired and motivated by what’s going on in the organization — by the leadership, culture, management — to do their best work every day.”
A total of 251 companies participated in the 2011 Best Employers studies, which is a 20 per cent increase over the previous year.
The study is open to Canadian companies operating for three years or more. Eligible entrants must have at least 50 employees but some have more than 50,000.
Participation is free. Those that registered for the 2011 studies represent a variety of industries ranging from banking to retail.
Companies that are eventually selected as best employers make one of two lists. The Best Employers in Canada are organizations with 400 or more employees, while the Best Small & Medium Employers have 50 to 400 workers.
“Even though the two studies are geared towards larger and small/medium organizations, our research has determined that size really isn’t a factor when it comes to employee engagement,” said Einar Westerlund, director of project development at the Queen’s Centre for Business Venturing, in a press release.
“It’s as much a challenge for small organizations to engage their employees as it is for large ones.”
Once the national results are compiled, the researchers then look at the same data from a GTA perspective. That means they focus on companies that are either headquartered in the GTA or have a significant employee population here.
There are three parts to the study regardless of a company’s size. First, employees must fill out an anonymous and confidential survey that is designed to gauge their level of engagement.
Next, the company’s executive team, which includes the chief executive officer and his or her direct reports, completes a separate assessment.
Lastly, the company must provide the study’s co-ordinators with detailed information about its human resources practices and policies.
In order to qualify, there are standards on minimum returned surveys depending on the size of organization. Those technical requirements ensure a representative employee response.
“It is really the employees themselves who can tell us whether it is a great place to work or not,” said Crawford.
Overall, the 2011 results were based on survey responses from more than 134,000 employees at the participating companies.
The names of companies that did not make the final cut are kept confidential. Those businesses, however, did receive valuable feedback on how they might improve.
“I think of the top 10 on any list as being the ones that really shine,” Crawford said.
“So, if we think about organizations that make the lists — whether it is the national list or the GTA list — they generally have engagement that is somewhere in the range of 70 to 90 per cent.”
That means 70 to 90 per cent of their employees are considered engaged. Those workers exhibit three key behaviours of “say, stay and strive,” he added.
Workers who express an affinity for their company, remain loyal and go all-out for its success and generally receive inspiration from the top.
“They have a leadership team that truly values people and sees that people are their differentiator,” Crawford said.
While lots of companies pay lip service to the notion of employee engagement, top employers make it a priority in their day-to-day decisions.
As a result, they clearly articulate to employees what it takes to be successful, while being transparent about the company’s future direction.
Accordingly, top companies are accustomed to having regular conversations with staff about career development.
Those goals are then supported by their human resources programs and practices, including various compensation schemes or benefit programs.
“They do a great job of helping employees feel successful and giving them good, constructive feedback about their performance so they can get better.”
While promoting employee engagement might seem like a no-brainer, Crawford said most organizations simply don’t do it or they do it badly.
Companies, however, cannot afford to ignore the issue as Canada is on the cusp of a widely forecast skilled labour shortage. Most baby boomers plan to retire within the next 20 years. As many as one in three Canadians are fast approaching retirement age, according to Statistics Canada.
That’s prompted many experts to predict that companies will likely face a war for talent in the coming years, thrusting issues such as employee retention to the fore.
“There’ s no question that employers who make the list really value the recognition that they get because that’s a public validation that they are doing some things that potential employees should be interested in,” said Crawford.
Survey says:
• When it comes to engagement with an employer, 74 per cent of those working in the financial sector would, without hesitation, recommend their organization to a friend seeking a job while only 62 per cent in the information technology sector would do the same.
• Only 44 per cent of workers in public sector jobs say their organization motivates them to contribute more than is normally required to complete their work. In the private sector the figure jumps to 57 per cent.
• 67 per cent of workers who have been with a firm for less than one year say they rarely think about leaving. After two years, that number drops to 52 per cent. It rallies after that, peaking at 71 per cent after 26 years of service.
• Career opportunities within a company seem brightest to those who have been there less than one year. 68 per cent who have been there less than a year say things look good. That number dips to 52 per cent after two years and rallies only a little the longer you stay.
• Only 45 per cent of clerical workers believe their pay is appropriate for their job compared to 64 per cent for senior managers.
• 77 per cent of workers who work at credit unions or law firms would recommend their place of employment to a friend looking for work. 61 per cent of those in the gaming industry would do the same.
• When it comes to intrinsic motivation on a job, there is a definite generation gap. 79 per cent of mid-boomers (born 1951 to 1960) say they get a sense of accomplishment from their work. Only 67 per cent of millenials (born 1981 and later) say the same while 72 per cent of Gen Xers say they get a sense of accomplishment from their work.
• At not-for-profit organizations, 64 per cent of workers say their organization inspires them to do their best work every day.
• 83 per cent of mature workers (born before 1946) say they truly enjoy their day-to-day work tasks. Only 59 per cent of millenials say the same.
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