Toronto's top employers for 2024 have been announced

City

Jack Landau

Posted on December 05, 2023

Report Inaccuracy

Toronto's top employers for 2024 have been announced

City

Jack Landau

Posted on December 05, 2023

Report Inaccuracy

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Toronto attracts workers from across Canada and all over the globe, and many companies are vying for new talent in the country's economic heart — some more attractive to potential hires than others.

The winners of the Greater Toronto's Top Employers 2024 ranking published by Canada's Top 100 include a range of business types that have offered employees the best conditions in a fast-changing work climate, where companies continue to adapt to post-pandemic work models and patterns.

This year marks the 18th annual edition of the top employers list, coming at a time when businesses are getting ever more creative in attracting employees back to in-person workspaces, often through fun and creative office environments designed to foster the connectivity challenged by years of remote work.

In other cases, companies are accepting the new reality and working on ways to better connect employees working in-office and remotely.

Among the companies on this year's list, Manulife Canada's global headquarters in Toronto recently underwent a full transformation, creating a flexible work environment designed to better connect in-person and remote workers, with features like a 21,000-square-foot subsidized cafeteria.

Similarly, Vena Solutions Inc. has rewritten its work model to better accommodate the post-pandemic work culture. Chief People Officer at Vena, Tracey Mikita, says that, before the pandemic, the tech company functioned solely as an in-person workplace, but now lets most of its workforce choose their ideal conditions.

"We continue to have really solid business results, so it's hard to justify pushing folks back to the office when people are engaged and lots of great work is getting done," says Mikita.

Mikita stated that Vena has worked towards "being less of a place where you just go to do your work, to more of a collaborative social space where teams have their meetings."

"I think there was always this worry that engagement would plummet if we moved to a remote or hybrid culture, but I would say culturally, we've proven that wrong. Our engagement scores have been at all-time highs through the pandemic and people are feeling good across the board."

"We just worked really hard to enhance communication and make the employee experience a priority."

Other businesses, like Ontario's Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB), have noted that when employees do come in, it's with a purpose.

WSIB's chief people officer Anna Filice says the company tries to host events that bring the team together at least once per month.

"Some of our locations don't actually have a physical space, so we'll meet at a local convention centre and spend a few purposeful hours together," says Filice.

"Because we're so deliberate about it, we're actually spending more meaningful time with our teams than when we were heads down in a cubicle five days a week."

This year's picks were determined via a selection process using the same eight criteria as the company's annual national Top 100 list, including workplace; work atmosphere and social; health, financial and family benefits; vacation and time-off; employee communications; performance management; training and skills development; and community involvement.

To qualify for the list, an employer — whether private or public sector — must have its head office or principal place of business in the Greater Toronto Area.

So, without further ado, here are the top 100 employers in the Greater Toronto Area for 2024: