Best Employers in Canada list recognizes 50 firms with highest engagement

EllisDon, Cisco Canada, WestJet, CIMA+ and Bennett Jones round out top 5

EllisDon, Cisco Canada, WestJet, CIMA + and Bennett Jones have landed the top five positions on Aon Hewitt’s 2012 Best Employers in Canada list.

Two hundred and sixty-one Canadian employers took part in the Best Employers in Canada studies this year. Organizations were selected as best employers primarily on the basis of survey responses from more than 112,000 Canadian employees to gauge their level of engagement.

According to Aon Hewitt, employees are engaged when they "say, stay and strive" — they speak positively about the organization to others, are committed to remaining with their current employer, and are motivated by their organizations' leaders, managers, culture and values to go above and beyond to contribute to business success.

The average engagement score for the top 50 organizations was 78 per cent. The average for other participants was 58 per cent, said Aon Hewitt.

"Those organizations ranked highest on the list have employee engagement of close to 90 per cent," said Neil Crawford, Aon Hewitt's leader of the Best Employers in Canada study. "That's an impressive accomplishment, particularly now when many parts of the Canadian economy are showing signs of recovery and employee attraction and retention is becoming more challenging."

The 2012 Best Employers in Canada

Rank

Organization

Headquarters

1

EllisDon

London, Ont.

2

Cisco Canada

Toronto

3

WestJet

Calgary

4

CIMA+ Partners in Excellence

Laval, Que.

5

Bennett Jones

Calgary

6

Farm Credit Canada

Regina

7

OpenRoad Auto Group

Richmond, B.C.

8

McDonald's Restaurants of Canada

Toronto

9

Delta Hotels & Resorts

Toronto

10

Federal Express Canada

Mississauga, Ont.

11

PCL Constructors

Edmonton

12

Edward Jones

Mississauga, Ont.

13

JTI-Macdonald

Mississauga, Ont.

14

Marriott Hotels of Canada

Mississauga, Ont.

15

Birchwood Automotive Group

Winnipeg

16

OMERS

Toronto

17

Flight Centre

Vancouver

18

BBA

Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Que.

19

Chubb Insurance Company of Canada

Toronto

20

Coastal Community Credit Union

Nanaimo, B.C.

21

Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide (Canada)

Toronto

22

Gowling Lafleur Henderson

N/A

23

Scotiabank Group

Toronto

24

The Co-operators

Guelph, Ont.

25

BC Biomedical Laboratories

Surrey, B.C.

26

GlaxoSmithKline

Mississauga, Ont.

27

HATCH

Mississauga, Ont.

28

TD Bank Financial Group

Toronto

29

ATB Financial

Edmonton

30

LoyaltyOne

Toronto

31

Keg Restaurants

Richmond, B.C.

32

Graham Group

Calgary

33

Conexus

Regina

34

Novotel Canada

Mississauga, Ont.

35

Co-operators Life Insurance Company

Regina

36

Clark Builders

Edmonton

37

Stikeman Elliott

N/A

38

Canadian Western Bank

Edmonton

39

Earl's Restaurants

North Vancouver, B.C.

40

Aecon Group

Toronto

41

National Bank

Montreal

42

ING DIRECT

Toronto

43

MNP

Calgary

44

Island Savings Credit Union

Duncan, B.C.

45

G&K Services Canada

Mississauga, Ont.

46

Procter & Gamble

Toronto

47

British Columbia Automobile Association

Burnaby, B.C.

48

La Capitale Financial Group

Quebec

49

Ivanhoe Cambridge

Montreal

50

Régie des rentes du Québec

Quebec

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