For BC’s Top Employers 2024, “no one is resting on their laurels”

Being named one of BC’s Top Employers is both an honour and an asset, even for companies such as Nature’s Path Foods that have earned the designation in the past.

Terry Duncan, vice-president of people and culture at Nature’s Path, explains, “Competition for talent is especially fierce, so being cited as a Top Employer is important from a marketing perspective as well as internally. It’s a great source of pride for everyone and plays a role in retention.”

The provincial competition is organized by the editors of the Canada’s Top 100 Employers project, which every year names companies that excel in recruitment and retention.

The annual list recognizes organizations that offer exceptional human resource programs. The winners are chosen based on the same criteria as the national competition, including: the work environment; work and social atmosphere; health, financial and family-friendly benefits; vacation and time off; employee communications; performance management; training and skills development; and community involvement.

And singling out the best is no easy task. “No one is resting on their laurels,” says Richard Yerema, executive editor at Canada’s Top 100 Employers.

Nature’s Path exhibits some of the common strategies among this year’s winners, including flexible work options, robust time off policies, inclusive parental leave programs and mental health support. “Many prospective employees are attracted to purpose-driven companies such as ours, and this helps ensure their motivation and efficiency when working from home,” Duncan says. “Plus, flexibility of work is especially important given the high cost of living.”

Kristina Leung, managing editor at Canada’s Top 100 Employers, is particularly struck by the agility of organizations coming out of the pandemic and their recognition of individual employee needs. She believes they will continue to “make changes very quickly, with the right incentives and motivations, which is always that their people are at the heart of their decisions.”

That is certainly the case with the City of Burnaby, a first-time BC Top Employer. “In the last two years, we’ve really focused on developing a supportive culture that embraces diversity, equity and inclusion and is truly people-first oriented,” says Anita Bhandari, the city’s chief human resources officer.

Bhandari adds, “We are constantly evolving our practices to meet a competitive market, always by asking ‘What’s the right thing to do for our people?’ Because the bottom line is, money isn’t everything; people want to be valued and have a sense of belonging.”

This degree of concern for employee well-being is something Yerema believes separates good employers from truly great ones. “All organizations run if they’re building something, making something, creating something,” he says. “But I think what top employers (show), and certainly the Top Employers project over the years shows, is that organizations can do right by their people and find ways to make them happier — and this is not counter to running a very successful organization.”

For more information on BC’s Top Employers, click here.

This story was created by Content Works, Postmedia’s commercial content division, on behalf of Top Employers.