Recognizing the Best Places to Work

“We’ve recognized that working from home is no longer a ‘nice to have’ but it is now a ‘need to have.”

So says Laura Salvatore, Centurion Asset Management, who is one of Canadian HR Reporter’s Best Places to Work 2022 winners.

Read more: Canada’s Best Places to Work for 2022

The investment firm is firmly focused on reviewing and adjusting benefits to make sure it stays not only relevant but competitive as an employer, says Salvatore, vice president of human capital in Toronto.

“People have taken the pandemic to reprioritize what they value in life and seek out other activities that they find meaningful. Many of the questions that we get asked in interviews now are around how we, as an employer, promote positive work-life balance: Do we offer employees personal days? How many vacation days can they expect to receive? Is the work schedule flexible?”

Read more: Workers looking for big pay bump if forced back to the office full time

In surveying employees, Centurion found that 30 per cent had moved outside of the Greater Toronto Area during the pandemic, while having more family members in their homes.

“While they may have been able to commute into the office five days a week before, their needs from us as an employer had now changed,” says Salvatore.

Now, staff are asked to work in the office only two days per week, she says.

Flexibility is key

Another Best Places to Work winner, the Town of Innisfil in Ontario, also offers several flexible work options, according to Lauren Small, people and talent leader at the municipality.

These include flexible start/finish work hours, a shortened work week (with fewer hours and less pay), a compressed work week (with the same hours and full pay) and work from home up to four days per week.

“COVID has changed the nature of work with ‘where we work’ being one of those examples of Innisfil taking an agile approach, with a plan for continuous feedback for a variety of flexible work arrangements, including a hybrid model,” she says.

In the interest of work-life balance, employees have several options, including an earned days off program and a holiday closure flex bank option (up to three days).

A self-funded leave also gives employees the opportunity for personal and professional growth, or to attend to personal obligations. As well, staff are entitled to discounted daycare on “campus” plus personal use of Town-owned vehicles and paid moving expenses for select roles.

‘Huge incentives’

For another winner, a cornucopia of rewards are being presented to those workers who do best.

Citadel Mortgages agents are offered “huge incentives” based on their performance, along with travel rewards, hotel gift cards and vacation packages, according to Tristan Kirk, Citadel Mortgages’ principal broker and managing partner.

“People are looking for additional opportunities to make revenue, while getting their own personal time back.”

The company has also created specialized plans for older brokers, he says.

“We made a retirement platform that pays on their business as they transition into retirement; and when they die, it pays for two years to the beneficiary on the book of business.”

Read more: Canadians looking for retirement support

The company has also created “cool” programs and platforms to help staff, he says.

“There really is no reason to go anywhere else to be getting the training, if you’re being transparent and you have the additional revenue streams, and minimum costs — those are all things we looked at as being competitive within the market.”