Slight increase in employee engagement among top employers: Survey

Cisco, EllisDon and Bennett Jones top list of 50

Cisco Canada, EllisDon and Bennett Jones top the list of Aon Hewitt's 50 Best Employers in Canada for 2013.

The employers were chosen from a group of 280 employers, based primarily on creating and sustaining a highly engaged workforce. And the 2013 survey revealed employees were slightly more satisfied with their pay . However, they were less satisfied with processes at their workplace.

The average engagement score for the 2013 Best Employers in Canada was 79 per cent, an increase of one percentage point from last year. The average for other participants in the study was 60 per cent, said Aon Hewitt.

Overall industry averages shifted in some key sectors since last year. Real estate and law firms were up strongly, by four and five percentage points, respectively, while the largest declines were in construction, engineering and pharmaceuticals, down four percentage points.

The quality of coaching, recognition and motivation provided by managers is critical to building and sustaining high engagement, said Neil Crawford, Aon Hewitt's leader of the Best Employers in Canada study.

"High employee engagement is strongly correlated with a range of productivity-related measures such as revenue per employee, absenteeism and turnover," he said. "Highly engaged employees have slightly more than one-half of the absenteeism of disengaged employees. This translates into an average difference of about six days per employee per year. If the total annual employee cost is $40,000, the productivity savings for high engagement could be as high as $1,000 per employee, per year from absenteeism alone."

50 Best Employers in Canada

1. Cisco Canada

2. EllisDon

3. Bennett Jones

4. CIMA+ Partenair de génie

5. Farm Credit Canada

6. Marriott Hotels of Canada

7. Green Shield Canada

8. Chubb Insurance Company of Canada

9. Federal Express Canada

10. McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada

11. Flight Centre Canada

12. Groupe Spinelli

13. Keg Restaurants

14. Edward Jones

15. Coastal Community Credit Union

16. LoyaltyOne

17. PCL Constructors

18. Hatch

19. Birchwood Automotive Group

20. BC Biomedical Laboratories

21. BBA

22. The Co-operators

23. SAP Canada

24. Stikeman Elliott

25. Starwood Hotel & Resorts

26. Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics

27. OMERS Administration

28. Conexus

29. Vancity Group

30. TD Bank Group

31. Novotel Canada

32. Clark Builders

33. Canadian Western Bank

34. Holland College

35. Gowling Lafleur Henderson

36. Delta Hotels and Resorts

37. Island Savings Credit Union

38. Cruickshank Group

39. MNP

40. Aecon Group

41. G&K Services Canada

42. Banque Nationale

43. Allstate Insurance

44. Golder Associates

45. Polygon Security

46. GlaxoSmithKline

47. Pomeroy Inn and Suites

48. Graham Group

49. Dillon Consulting

50. Westminster Savings

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