COMPANY NAME Large Employers ADP Canada Jazz Aviation LP Killam Apartment REIT Klick Inc. Lifemark Health Group NB Power Nestlé Canada Inc. Pennecon Pfizer Canada Shaw Communications Inc. TD Bank Group Mid-Sized Employers Aéroport de Québec Inc. Allnorth Consultants Ltd. Back in Motion Rehab CBCL Ltd. Ingredion Canada Corp. Innovation Credit Union Innovative Automation Lutherwood The Town of East Gwillimbury Triovest Realty Advisors Inc. Small Employers Active International Alberta Recycling Management Authority Arrow Engineering Inc. Association des employeurs maritimes Benefits by Design Big Bang ERP Bridgeable Canadian Canola Growers Association CANARIE Inc. CBA Canada CMHA of New Brunswick Davis Orthodontics Deluxe Payroll EfficiencyOne Evolocity Financial Group Inc. FIRST Insurance Funding of Canada Gibraltar Solutions Inc. GoSecure Groupe Robin Indellient Inc. InvestorCOM Jostle Corp. Loopio Inc. MacLean Law Mainstream Municipality of the County of Cumberland N.B. Assoc. for Community Living OpenRoad Communications Polar Sklar Wilton & Associates Util-Assist Voices.com Source: Morneau Shepell B8 G THE GLOBE AND MAIL . | TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2018 WORKPLACE AWARD BUSINESS STRUCTURE SMALL MID-SIZED LARGE Privately owned MacLean Law Innovative Automation Klick Inc. Publicly traded Deluxe Payroll Ingredion Canada Corporation Pfizer Canada Not-for-profit CANARIE Inc. Aéroport de Québec Inc. * Governmental Municipality of the County of Cumberland The Town of East Gwillimbury NB Power Source: Morneau Shepell, The Globe and Mail. *No winner in this category for 2018. F lexibility is top of the mind this year: flexibility in the workplace, flexibility in em- ployee relations. This can mean everything from varied office hours and working from home to creating a more adaptable office culture and open-door commu- nication. All of that sounds great. Yet fit- ting flexibility into rigid work deadlines and everyday de- mands, that’s the real trick. Here are some ways in which the 11 category winners of the 2018 Employee Recommended Work- place Awards, created by The Globe and Mail and Morneau She- pell and presented on March 20 to recognize excellence in achieving a healthy, engaged and produc- tive work force, are putting flex- ibility to work. LEADERS LEADING BY EXAMPLE “It’s never just one thing. It’s not just flexible work arrangements, or virtual work — or, for instance, we have Friday afternoons off 52 weeks a year here at Pfizer. I can check a box that we offer them, but I think flexibility is more about a mindset. “It’s really about culture, and I think that’s what makes a differ- ence. If you give everybody Friday afternoons off, but none of the leadership team leaves before 5 p.m. on Friday, the message you send to your organization is that you don’t believe in it [flexible Fridays]. So, for me, it’s all about a mindset, and it’s all about a cul- ture.” — Laura Larbalestier, vice- president of human resources at pharmaceutical company Pfizer Canada in Kirkland, Que. Winner, large publicly traded organization. OPEN COMMUNICATION “Unless something is highly con- fidential, [employees] know what’s going on, from things go- ing on corporately to plans for the next year. When there is lack of information, people make things up, and it’s not usually positive. “So, formally, we have quarter- ly town halls, where we let every- one know up front what hap- pened last quarter and what we’re working on for the future. And then informally, it’s an open-door policy. “Anyone can come in and ask any question.” — Scott Foster, director of sales and marketing at payroll compa- ny Deluxe Payroll in Cambridge, Ont. Winner, small publicly traded organization. EMPLOYEE MEETINGS TO DISCUSS STRESS (WITHOUT MANAGERS) After a guest speaker came to the company to talk about mental- health issues, as part of the Bell Let’s Talk program to open up the dialogue, employees began to dis- cuss their own issues. “Quite frankly, I would say that ‘shocked’ might be an under- statement on how willing people were to discuss mental-health is- sues. “So, we set up a series of meet- ings with no management. We set aside an hour once a month where anybody within the com- pany can sit with a group [of fel- low employees] and have an open discussion about issues. And once a quarter that same guest speaker will come in and be engaged in that discussion. It’s basically peer to peer. We don’t want people to feel intimidated.” — Steve Loftus, president of custom machine manufacturer Innovative Automotive in Barrie, Ont. Winner, mid-sized privately owned organization. GIVING EMPLOYEES PERSONALIZED PERKS “With everything that we’re do- ing, we try to personalize, so that people self-select into the things that they’re interested in, wheth- er that is a company event or a do-it-yourself workshop, or even a club. “Our clubs range from Spanish language to rock climbing. People self-select into things that are im- portant to them. “I would say that it’s a philoso- phy in everything that we do. If I look at our renovation in the last year, we had a major expansion, and one of the things we focused on was making sure there was a wide range of different work ar- eas. “Whether it’s an open-collabo- ration space or a high-tech meet- ing room, or a parent room for nursing, it’s all an attempt for us to try to be empathetic and create diversity, and allow the unique identities of people to come to- gether. “I ultimately think that’s what fosters creativity.” — Leerom Segal, chief execu- tive officer of health marketing and business consultancy Klick Inc. in Toronto. Winner, large pri- vately owned organization. LISTENING CLOSELY TO STAFF AND NEW HIRES “We openly seek out feedback from staff and take action on those items based on the feed- back. I think that’s really impor- tant, that people feel they’re lis- tened to. They’re the ones who understand the pros and cons of actions. “We are going through unprec- edented growth right now. Our population will more than dou- ble over the next 10 years. “And so we’re hiring people who have been [in terms of expe- rience] where we’re going.” — Virginia Hackson, mayor of the Town of East Gwillimbury, Ont. Winner, mid-sized governmen- tal organization. EMPHASIS ON TOTAL HEALTH, BOTH MENTAL AND PHYSICAL “We have established working committees for each of the four health pillars: mental, physical, work and life. "We are looking at improving the health of our employees in each of these through existing programs or implementing new programs to assist [workers]. “For example, we have just completed a half-day training ses- sion for all leadership within the organization on mental health. Linking total health with safety is a focus for us, as we want to en- sure that all of our employees go home safe every day.” — Nicole Poirier, director of health, safety, environment and emergency preparedness for elec- trical utility company NB Power in Fredericton. Winner, large gov- ernmental organization. SPONTANEOUS RECOGNITION “The main initiative that we have put in place this year to improve our workplace is a recognition program. Colleagues can send feedback or a positive comment to other colleagues to thank them or congratulate them for any ac- tion. “This program promotes spon- taneous and non-monetary rec- ognition. “It was set up in March 2017, and since then, nearly 600 posi- tive messages have been sent, and a large majority of our em- ployees have participated. This has had a very positive effect on the work environment, and the number of acknowledgments sent through this program con- tinues to increase.” — Élisabeth Paquin, junior ad- viser, human resources, Aéroport de Québec in Quebec City. Winner, mid-sized not-for-profit organiza- tion. LESS SEDENTARY WORK “What we’re focusing on in the coming year is physical health and wellness, as well as focusing on supporting our employees with new programs. “So, for example, we’re going to be working with ParticipA- CTION UPnGO, which is a really exciting initiative for us. Getting our employees moving, increas- ing health and wellness in the workplace. That’s the next solu- tion that we’re looking at.” — Tracy Murray, director of fi- nance at the non-profit CANARIE Inc. in Ottawa, which helps run the National Research and Educa- tion Network, a technology net- work for researchers and educa- tors. Winner, small not-for-profit or- ganization. A CULTURE OF GRATITUDE “The pressure that our team is under is intense, and it’s really a testament to the resilience of our work force. “They’re the people who have made us have a healthy work- place and have come up with the initiatives and ideas. But they are equally adept at supporting each other, as they are with [client] families. “So, [we have] team activities, support each other and celebrate successes — more than worrying about things that haven’t gone quite right. “Gratitude is important. It makes me happy to go into work every day to have the team that I have around me.” — Lorne MacLean, founder of MacLean Family Law in Vancouv- er. Winner, small privately owned organization. FULL WELLNESS PROGRAMS “Almost half of the employees participated in it. It involved bio- metric screening and a total health index survey [like a check- up and overall health assess- ment]. “It helps them get involved and realize the areas they are do- ing well in, or areas where they might need improvement. People who are more involved tend to take more ownership of their health.” — Claire Regan, director of cor- porate communications for food ingredients company Ingredion in the Chicago area. Its Canadian subsidiary is Ingredion Canada in Mississauga, Ont. Winner, mid- sized publicly traded organization. FOCUS ON BRIDGING GAPS WHEN OFFICE IS GROWING “The Municipality of the County of Cumberland has gone through significant change over the past three years. We’ve had two other municipalities dissolve into us. So, we went from 30 employees to almost 100 in a very short period of time. “We worked hard at bringing everyone together — three differ- ent locations in a really large county — to increase our com- munication, maybe networking events after work or at the work- place as well. Our goal was to real- ly bridge a lot of gaps between the different locations.” — Allie McCormick, manager of organizational development and innovation, with the Munici- pality of the County of Cumber- land in Nova Scotia. Winner, small governmental organization. Winning workplaces put flexibility first Companies that take home awards listen to their workers, offer meaningful perks and display company-wide gratitude GUY DIXON Accepting the award for Deluxe Payroll is Nicolas Drapeau, manager of onboarding, centre. With him are Randal Phillips, executive vice-president and chief client officer for Morneau Shepell, and Gillian Livingston of The Globe and Mail. GLENN LOWSON/THE GLOBE AND MAIL Employee Recommended Workplaces 2018 Top Category Winners M O R N E A U S H E P E L L T H E G L O B E A N D M A I L 20 18 Employee Recommended Workplace