City named one of Waterloo Area’s Top 15 Employers for 2010

Just months after of being identified as one of the highest performing organizations in the province in terms of workplace culture and organizational health, the City of Kitchener has learned that it has been named one of Waterloo Region’s Top 15 Employers for 2010.

This most recent honour stems from the City’s recent application to the prestigious Canada’s Top 100 Employers competition, organized by Mediacorp Canada Inc., the nation's largest publisher of employment-related periodicals and online directories.

The annual Top 100 competition also features several simultaneous regional and special interest competitions – including the naming of Waterloo Region’s Top 15 Employers (known until just recently as Waterloo Region’s Top 10 Employers.)

First application

This marks the first time that the City of Kitchener has made an application to the Top 100 program which annually profiles and recognizes exceptional employers in a range of industries from locations across Canada. While the city did not make this year’s list of Top 100 employers, its application was shortlisted to the final 300 Canadian employers – of 2,600 companies that applied.

"I'm very proud of this achievement,” said Carla Ladd, chief administrative officer for the city. "We continue to put a lot of effort into creating a great work environment because we know that our ability to keep and attract the best and brightest talent is critical to our ability to build the best future for our city."

"We're really pleased with our performance,” said Tracey Hare Connell, the city’s executive director of people services and organizational development. “Finishing among the top 300 employers in the country – of 2,600 that applied – is an amazing achievement for our first application."

Reasons for selection

In naming the City of Kitchener to Waterloo Region’s Top 15 Employers list for 2010, award judges cited reasons including:

• Providing support for ongoing employee training through a variety of in-house training, apprenticeship and mentoring programs.
• Providing generous tuition subsidies (to 100%) for courses at outside institutions and subsidies for professional accreditations.
• Helping employees balance their working and personal lives through a variety of alternative work options.

Employee Culture Survey

The City of Kitchener was identified as being among the highest performing organizations in the province in June of this year by Metrics@Work, the strategic human resources management experts who conducted and analyzed the city’s 2009 Employee Culture Survey results. The survey benchmarks employees’ perceptions of the organization and its workplace culture.

Results of the survey, conducted every other year with city staff, placed the city among the top organizations in the province in terms of workplace culture, organizational health and employee quality of worklife.

Top 100 Background

In developing this year's Top 100 list, Mediacorp Canada Inc. examined the recruitment histories of more than 75,000 employers across Canada that it tracks for its popular job search site, Eluta.ca.

From this initial group, 16,000 of the fastest-growing employers were invited to apply, plus another 8,000 companies and organizations in industries that it wanted to examine more closely. Employers completed an extensive application process that included a detailed review of their operations and HR practices.

Employers were evaluated by the editors of Canada's Top 100 Employers using eight criteria: (1) Physical Workplace; (2) Work Atmosphere & Social; (3) Health, Financial & Family Benefits; (4) Vacation & Time Off; (5) Employee Communications; (6) Performance Management; (7) Training & Skills Development; and (8) Community Involvement. Employers are compared to other organizations in their field to determine which offers the most progressive and forward-thinking programs.