Gone are the days when ping-pong tables and pizza lunches were signs of a good corporate culture. Employees need more than just these perks to be engaged and committed to your company. Companies that find a way to engage, lead and challenge their employees are breaking through the noise and getting recognized for paving the way in building the corporate cultures employees want. This week, we want to tip our hats to these six companies, who are named as winners in Canada’s Most Admired Corporate Culture for 2019. They include Wave Financial, Thinkific, Unbounce, Kira Systems, Intersect and Dejero.
Leadership: CEO and co-founder of Wave Financial, Kirk Simpson is recognized as one of Canada’s most admired leaders in 2019. Since taking over the company in January 2010, Wave has grown substantially, giving entrepreneurs all around the world financial software that assists them in managing its finances. Clearly leadership is an essential pillar of these workplaces, as Unbounce has six founders who wanted to innovate a new and quicker way to make landing pages for themselves and deeply prioritize making a social impact by donating more than $100,00 to diverse charities and nonprofits.
Work-life balance: What sets these businesses is that they prioritize work-life balance and that it is embedded in its policies. Kira Systems offers flexible vacation, extensive health benefits, spending accounts for professional benefits and lots more. Unbounce work-life balance is prioritized within the company, encouraging employees to partake in its social events and utilize its long vacation policies. Dejero is also a leader when it comes to work-life balance, as they were awarded one of the best places to work in 2019 and Mental Wellness for 2020 as well as names as one of the Globe and Mail’s Employee Recommended Work Places.
Hiring the right people: All of these companies repeatedly discuss how hiring the right people is key. Thinkific demonstrates its strong team values on its career page, showing how they operate with ethics, integrity and focus on succeeding together. As simple as it sounds, one of the main reasons employees enjoy the culture there is the fact that they want employees to be, “healthy and happy at work.” Wave Financial has facilitated such a positive and collaborative workplace culture through emphasizing the focus on hiring the right people as well as the emphasis on creating workspaces for employees that have large open work areas decorated with different styles to suit the different teams’ personalities. Facilitating a healthy work environment is one of the best ways to keep employees happy and ensure that they are getting the most out of their work and experience at a company.
Challenging your employees: The CEO of Kira Systems, Noah Waisberg, says that the key to great workplace culture is when people are happy, but also feel as though they are being challenged as well as learning and growing. Kira boasts its direct feedback from its over 200 employees who feel as though they are making an impact and improving things. What continues to be said about work at this company is that they are innovative and at the forefront of AI technology and make people’s lives better in an ideal, encouraging and supportive learning environment. Intersect is so appealing to employees because of the experience for employees to stop having to build the same things over and over again but get the opportunity to use their creative skills to build digital experiences for a variety of clients. Employees are happier when they are achieving their personal and professional goals.
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Written by: Megan McClure, Marketing at Global Talent Accelerator.
