Top Canadian Employers

Top Canadian Employers

In the Saturday, October 22, 2005 issue of the National Post, there was a special feature in the FP Working section on Canada’s best places to work। The article rated Canadian workplaces based on their benefits, perks and working conditions.

Here are some of the “Perks” companies offered that helped them attain the Best Employer Status:

VACATION
4 weeks after 1 year
4 weeks after 2 years
4 weeks after 3 years
3 weeks paid vacation to start
3 weeks + 2 paid days off + 4 extra long-weekends in summer + 3 more holidays at Christmas
3 weeks + 3 paid personal days off
3 weeks + 2 paid personal days off
Trade unused benefits for more vacation days
Extra week off when you introduce a new product
Extra vacation if employees don’t use all sick days
1 month paid sabbatical after 4 years
8 weeks paid sabbatical every 10 years
Get paid for 1st week of month-long leave
Paid days off and unpaid leave
1 paid personal day off each month
3 to 12 paid personal days
5 paid days off each year in hourly increments to run errands or deal with personal issues
Previous work experience can increase vacation entitlement
Option to buy/sell an extra week of vacation each year
Paid holidays over Christmas
Paid leave (up to 3 months) for volunteer work
2 to 5 paid days off for volunteering at charities
10 paid days off each year to tend to elderly parents and children

EDUCATION
Tuition subsidies (either for yourself or your children attending post-secondary institution)
$10,000
$5,250
$5,000
$3,000
$1,500
$1,000
Onsite and online training programs (can be a $ limit per employee)
Post-secondary scholarship program for employee’s kids
Training workshops
Management training programs co-sponsored by a university
Apprenticeship programs
Some offer full salaries
Education grants ($7,500 each)
Cash bonuses ($1,000 to $2,500) for completing courses
Individual training budgets for each employee

HEALTH & FITNESS
On-site Fitness centre (family memberships avail.)
Up to $1,400 for health club memberships
Wellness program
Annual wellness week
Flexible health benefits plan
Personal trainers
Free health benefits for family members
Free pedometers for all employees

COMMUTING
Monthly lottery covers cost for one employee

ENVIRONMENT
Employee lounge with fireplace
Staff input on office location
Onsite café
Onsite Tim Hortons or Starbucks
Onsite 4-star restaurant
Open-house days for employees
Employee opens books to employees every month
Diversity advisory councils networking groups
Rooftop patio
Parties each summer


FAMILY
Maternity top-up (100% for 27 weeks)
Maternity top-up (100% for 26 weeks)
Maternity top-up (100% for 18 weeks) as well as paternity, adoptive
Maternity top-up (100% for 17 weeks)
Maternity top-up (95% for 52 weeks)
Maternity top-up (95% for 50 weeks)
Maternity top-up (95% for 15 weeks)
Maternity top-up (93% for 52 weeks)
Maternity top-up (75% for 25 weeks)
Maternity top-up (70% for 25 weeks)
Maternity top-up (70% for 15 weeks)
Maternity top-up (55% to 80% of salary for 26 weeks)
Subsidized day care
Up to $7540 each year
Adoption subsidy for new parents ($2,800 - $5,000)
Adoption leave (18 weeks)
Paternity top-up (70% for 24 weeks)
Paternity top-up (100% for 18 weeks)
Paternity top-up (95% for 37 weeks)
Compassionate leave (8 weeks or 2 month top up)
Extended maternity leave (to 3 years)
Emergency daycare
New fathers get 3 paid days off
Family issues committee responsible for improving work-life issues
Free family retreat at company lodge
Additional week off when employee gets married
Can also give $500 and a limo
Phased-in return to work program for mothers
Quality of Life Advisor

PERKS
Original artworks by employees displayed at company’s onsite café
Referral bonus for new hires
Up to $5,000
Afternoon movie breaks at local movie theatre
Onsite theatre for movie nights with family and friends
Flexible hours/work schedule
Onsite Library
Golfing simulators
Passes to a golf range
Summer camp programs
Table hockey
Video games
All-you-can-eat cafeteria
Fresh fruit every morning
Travelling snack cart
Free healthy breakfasts
Weekly beer cart
Hot tub
BBQ
Mentoring program
Christmas party for staff, family, retirees
Free turkey to employees at Christmas
Discounted rates for friends and family on company’s services
Early quitting time before summer stat holidays
Paid day off on employee birthday
Recognition rewards
$1,000 on purchase of a hybrid vehicle
Pets allowed
Onsite music rehearsal space
Monthly draw for prizes that range from luxury care rentals to weekend getaways for two
Free use of employer’s condo/cottage/boat/etc.
Service to find daycare, schools, senior care facilities
Free tickets to local sports team

HOME
Discounted employee mortgage rates
$5,000 toward the cost of new home
Property tax rebates
Low interest home loans




PERFORMANCE BONUSES
Spa treatments
Bonus vacation in Banff or Lake Louise
Paid weekend holidays
Free trip for two
Performance rewards redeemable for travel, gift certificates and merchandise
Performance rewards tailored to each employee’s needs

BENEFITS
Company-paid pension
Pension plan contributions (15% of monthly salary)
Transfer unused health benefits to your RRSP
RRSP contributions
Year-end bonuses to $20,000
Share purchase plan
Promote-from-within strategy
Profit sharing


Top Canadian Employers can be found on the following sites:

www.canadastop100.com

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/

www.macleans.ca

www.hewitt.com/bestemployerscanada

Famous Quotes on Goal Setting

The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don't define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them.

Denis Watley

You don't have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things - to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals.

Edmund Hillary

Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.

Stephen A. Brennan

When we are motivated by goals that have deep meaning, by dreams that need completion, by pure love that needs expressing, then we truly live life.

Greg Anderson

Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination.

Fitzhugh Dodson

I feel that the most important step in any major accomplishment is setting a specific goal. This enables you to keep your mind focused on your goal and off the many obstacles that will arise when you're striving to do your best.

Kurt Thomas

Life's up and downs provide windows of opportunity to determine your values and goals. Think of using all obstacles as stepping stones to build the life you want.

Marsha Sinetar

In life, as in football, you won't go far unless you know where the goalposts are.

Arnold H. Glasgow

Goals are dreams with deadlines.

Diana Scharf Hunt

Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find his right road.

Dag Hammarskjold

You must have long term goals to keep you from being frustrated by short term failures.

Charles C. Noble

My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose - somehow we win out

Ronald Reagan

Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.

Seneca

Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.

Aristotle

If you're bored with life -- you don't get up every morning with a burning desire to do things -- you don't have enough goals.

Lou Holtz

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

Henry David Thoreau

You can't hit a home run unless you step up to the plate. You can't catch a fish unless you put your line in the water. You can't reach your goals if you don't try.

Kathy Seligman

Crystallize your goals. Make a plan for achieving them and set yourself a deadline. Then, with supreme confidence, determination and disregard for obstacles and other people's criticisms, carry out your plan.

Paul Meyer

The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.

Bill Copeland

If you have a goal in life that takes a lot of energy, that requires a lot of work, that incurs a great deal of interest and that is a challenge to you, you will always look forward to waking up to see what the new day brings.

Susan Polis Schultz

You have to set goals that are almost out of reach. If you set a goal that is attainable without much work or thought, you are stuck with something below your true talent and potential.

Steve Garvey

Choosing a goal and sticking to it changes everything.

Scott Reed

The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goals to reach.

Benjamin Mays

Think little goals and expect little achievements. Think big goals and win big success.

David Joseph Schwartz

Progress has little to do with speed, but much to do with direction.

Author Unknown

You measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you had to overcome to reach your goals.

Booker T. Washington

I learned that if you want to make it bad enough, no matter how bad it is, you can make it.

Gale Sayers

Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal.

Earl Nightingale

Goals help focus you on areas in both your personal and professional life that are important and meaningful, rather than being guided by what other people want you to be, do, or accomplish.

Catherine Pulsifer

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.

Zig Ziglar

Shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you'll land amongst the stars.

Les Brown

All of these quotes were found on www.goal-setting-guide.com

You Can't Handle The Truth!

The Sales Version of this movie dialog... author - unknown


Sales: "You want answers?"

Finance: "I think we are entitled to them!"

Sales: "You want answers?!"

Finance: "I want the truth!"

Sales: "You can't handle the truth!!!"Sales (continuing): "Son, we live in a world that requires revenue. And that revenue must be brought in by people with elite skills. Who's going to find it? You? You, Mr. Operations? We have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom.You scoff at sales division and you curse our lucrative incentives. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what we know: that while the cost of business results are excessive, it drives in revenue. And my very existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, drives REVENUE! You don't want to know the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at staff meetings ... you want me on that call. You NEED me on that call!We use words like comps, migration, discounts, flex licensing, global purchase agreements. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent negotiating something. You use them as a punch line!I have neither the time nor inclination to explain myself to people who rise and sleep under the very blanket of revenue I provide and then question the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said "thank you" and went on your way. Otherwise I suggest you pick up a phone and make some sales calls. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to!"

Finance: "Did you expense the lap dances?"

Sales: "I did the job I was hired to do."

Finance: "Did you expense the lap dances?"

Sales: "You're goddamn right I did!"

The Eleven Rules according to Bill Gates

My boss sent this to me. If we only knew then what we know now..

The Eleven Rules of Life that Bill Gates recently gave to a 4th year class at Mt. Whitney High School in Visalia, California. It needs no introduction:

Rule #1 - Life is not fair - get used to it.

Rule #2 - The world doesn't care about your self esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule #3 - You will not make $40,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a Vice-President with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule #4 - If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule #5 - Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping - they called it "Opportunity".

Rule #6 - If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes - learn from them.

Rule #7 - Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So, before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents' generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule #8 - Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule #9 - Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.

Rule #10 - Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule #11 - Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

I have officially entered the on line age - MY OWN BLOG!

Part of my commitment to upgrade my professional skills is to get on line - My own BLOG! Baby steps! Next - my own web site! (planning for summer 2007)

I wanted a place to publish my library of sales, management, leadership, and other business related topics. Posting personal information is not my style. I would rather share funny, informative and inspirational information.

Ciao for now!

Susan