​SAP, Maritime Travel, Purdys Chocolatier among ‘best employers’

SAP Canada, Maritime Travel and Purdys Chocolatier were among the 79 employers that made it on to the Aon Best Employers in Canada list for 2017.

The companies “set the mark for engaging employees, demonstrating effective leadership, building a performance culture and leveraging the strength of their employer brand,” said Aon, and the results are based on the opinions of about 680,000 employees across about 200 Canadian organizations.

On a worldwide level, employees at Aon Best Employers in Canada rank their organizations higher than the Aon global average on collaboration (77 per cent versus 66 per cent), empowerment (78 per cent versus 68 per cent), support for new ideas (66 per cent versus 55 per cent), continual learning (68 per cent versus 57 per cent) and career development (65 per cent versus 54 per cent).

“Achieving Aon Best Employer status can be a significant indicator of organizational success in terms of results,” said Neil Crawford, partner and Canada talent practice leader at Aon Hewitt. “Our global research has shown that Aon Best Employers enjoy higher operating profits and sales growth than the average organization. Plus, they have a third less staff turnover and more internal promotions than their counterparts. On a more granular scale, we can see why: Highly engaged employees are more effective and efficient in maintaining productive customer relationships, while engendering the kind of positive work culture that all stakeholders — from other employees to customers and suppliers — can feel and appreciate.”

Among Platinum-level Aon Best Employers in Canada, an average of 80 per cent of employees are engaged, meaning they speak positively about their employers, are committed to staying and are willing to go “above and beyond” to contribute to business success.

Only seven percent of employees describe themselves as disengaged, versus the Canadian average of 15 per cent.

The Best Employers are also high-growth organizations that are more likely (by 16 per cent) to focus on organizational and HR effectiveness programs than average organizations are, and two times more likely (56 per cent) to focus on culture than average growth firms (28 per cent).