Local companies among employers honoured on annual Greater Toronto Top Employers List

Three Durham Region companies have been named to this year’s Greater Toronto’s Top Employers list, an annual competition now in its 20th year celebrating employers with exceptional human resources programs and forward-thinking workplace policies.

“The Greater Toronto Area is one of the world’s most dynamic and multicultural urban centres,” said Stephanie Leung, an editor at Mediacorp, who manages the Canada’s Top 100 Employers project. “There’s a unique vibrancy here that shows up not just in the employers chosen as Greater Toronto’s Top Employers, but in the composition of their workforces. None of these employers needs to be persuaded of the merits of workplace diversity or inclusion – it’s in their DNA because their organizations need to attract the best and brightest of those who live and work here.”

GTA winners also expanded the number of initiatives to help employees with the return to more in-office presence, from social events to in-person professional development sessions and investments in re-imagined workplaces.

“While there’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ when it comes to return in-office work,” notes Kristina Leung, managing editor of the Canada’s Top 100 Employers project, “employers in the GTA are finding the policy that works best for their industry, making sure employees have the tools and support needed to make the transition. Competition for talent in the GTA is still acute, but so is competition for a company’s products or services in the marketplace. The ‘right’ return-to-office policy is the one that balances these two competing interests in a sensitive way.”

While City of Toronto employers made up the bulk of the list, companies from across the GTA added to the flavour, including Municipal Property Assessment in Pickering (1,792 employees); Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health in Whitby (1,000 employees); and Computer Room Services of Ajax (355 employees).

Here’s what the project editors had to say about the three companies:

Municipal Property Assessment Corporation

• Municipal Property Assessment Corporation offers a five-day paid shutdown between the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, in addition to three weeks of starting vacation allowance and up to five personal days annually.
• The corporation also helps employees plan securely for the future with contributions to a defined benefit pension plan and offers a number of helpful financial benefits along the way, including discounted home and auto insurance, low-interest home loans and discounted auto lease rates.
• Municipal Property Assessment Corporation prioritizes an inclusive well-being approach through a formal wellness program — the program includes an in-house workplace wellness specialist who offers coaching and consultations, monthly wellness campaigns, specialized and quarterly wellness sessions (including financial well-being), flexible work options, and wellness training for managers.

Computer Room Services employees at a hockey game

Computer Room Services Corporation

• The Ajax company helps ensure employees save for the future through contributions to a retirement savings plan — and offers phased in options to help employees transition into retirement.
• Computer Room Services Corporation recognizes the importance of family and offers support for all stages of life, including parental leave top-up (to 80 per cent for 12 weeks).

Ontario Shores

• Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health offers employees free access to its on-site fitness facility, which also includes instructor-led fitness classes (for a fee) and employees arrange their own sports activities, including ball hockey, indoor soccer, volleyball, badminton, pickleball, dragon boat racing and basketball.
• Ontario Shores also encourages ongoing employee development with tuition subsidies for courses taken at outside institutions (up to $1,500) and a variety of in-house and online training programs, including more than 80 online interactive training modules, webinars, podcasts and online presentations throughout the year
• Ontario Shores empowers staff to develop creative solutions for improving patient care and staff well-being through its annual Innovation Fund. In the past year projects funded include a staff smudge and wellness room with three heated massage chairs, interactive light technology to combat loneliness and enhance engagement for geriatric patients, enhanced palliative care training for clinicians and compassionate care carts for patients and their families
• The mental health centre also offers paid compassionate and bereavement leave, as well as flexible work arrangements that include remote work and flexible hours to help employees thrive both personally and professionally.

Ontario Shores employees at a Green Matters event

Editors at Mediacorp review employers on eight criteria, which have remained consistent since the project’s inception: (1) Workplace; (2) Work Atmosphere & Social; (3) Health, Financial & Family Benefits; (4) Vacation & Time Off; (5) Employee Communications; (6) Performance Management; (7) Training & Skills Development; and (8) Community Involvement.

The competition is open to any employer, public or private sector, with its head office or principal place of business in the Greater Toronto Area.