Canada’s Top Small and Medium Employers is an editorial competition that recognizes the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that offer the nation’s best workplaces and forward-thinking human resources policies. The competition is currently in its sixth year, and recently announced the winners of its Top 100 competition, which included a variety of homegrown startups.
Employers are evaluated using eight criteria: physical workplace, work atmosphere, benefits, time off, employee communications, performance management, training and skills development, and community involvement. To be considered a small or medium enterprise, companies must have less than 500 employees worldwide and be a commercial, for-profit enterprise.
Here are ten of the 100 winners who operate in Canada’s tech ecosystem.
Wealthsimple (Toronto)
Robo-advisor Wealthsimple was selected by Canada’s Top Small & Medium Employers due to its open-concept head office, its four weeks of starting vacation offering, flexible hours, shortened work week, and telecommuting work options. Wealthsimple also offers maternity and parental leave top-up payments, up to 100 percent of salary for 24 weeks. More recently, Wealthsimple and tax prep company H&R Block partnered to provide Canadians with a solution to grow their tax refund.
Vidyard (Kitchener-Waterloo)
Vidyard, which helps marketing and sales teams leverage analytics from videos, was selected for unique its head office, equipped with a gaming area, yoga studio, hammocks, and foam pit. Vidyard also offers maternity and parental leave top-up payments and offers a variety of alternative work options. Last fall, it was announced that Vidyard would be powering HubSpot’s new video solution, offering video hosting, video analytics, and personalized video messaging.
Rangle.io (Toronto)
Digital Javascript and HTML5 consultancy firm Rangle.io permits new employees three weeks of paid starting vacation and moves employees to four weeks after two years on the job. Employees are also encouraged to get the word out and recruit their friends with generous new employee referral bonuses, up to $2,500 for successful new hires. Earlier this month, Rangle announced it is establishing its first European office in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
iQmetrix (Vancouver)
iQmetrix, a SaaS-based platform that provides management solutions to wireless retailers, was selected for its tuition subsidies for job-related courses, training initiatives, employee lounge space, fitness facility, and seven-week sabbatical after every 7 years of employment. Back into 2014, the company acquired Vancouver-based web design company Web Werkz, which builds websites for independent wireless retailers.
Uberflip (Toronto)
Uberflip’s platform allows B2B marketers to create personalized content at scale. All blogs, social, and videos are found on one platform, and users can receive insight into optimizing future content for readers. The company was selected for its tuition subsidies, in-house and online training programs, onsite fitness facility, and free healthy snack options. This time last year, Uberflip raised a $41 million CAD round led by Washington DC-based Updata Partners.
District M (Montreal)
Ad-tech company District M was chosen for its maternity and parental leave top-up payments, flexible work hours, and telecommuting work options. The company also has a share purchase plan for employees and helps them save for the longer term through an RSP program. In January, District M announced a $12 million Series A, which included an investment of $9 million from Investissement Québec and a $3 million investment from the Fonds de solidarité FTQ.
FreshBooks (Toronto)
Cloud accounting software FreshBooks placed among the winners of top employers for its social events and celebrations, and financial incentives, including a share purchase plan, signing bonuses, and referral bonuses. FreshBooks was also recognized for its maternity and parental leave payments. In February, FreshBooks launched a new bank reconciliation and double-entry accounting software into their suite of services.
Fiix (Toronto)
Fiix is a cloud-based maintenance and asset management software. The company has added nearly 30 new full-time positions in the past year and offers a number of benefits, including signing bonuses for some, year-end bonuses, and referral bonuses of up to $1,000. Fiix also provides employees a transit subsidy of $70 per month. At the beginning of this year, Fiix announced the close of a $53 million CAD Series C, led by Georgian Partners.
eSentire (Cambridge, Ont.)
eSentire’s Managed Detection and Response platform automates threat detection and delivers traceable results with AI. The company offers maternity leave top-up payments, up to 66.7 percent of salary for up to eight weeks, flexible hours, and telecommuting work options. eSentire offers referral bonuses, tuition subsidies, and paid internships. Last month, the company raised $47 million USD in funding led by majority investor Warburg Pincus.
Fleet Complete (Toronto)
Fleet Complete offers GPS fleet management software and solutions. The company offers its staff a share purchase plan, referral bonuses, a health and wellness spending account of up to $1,000, and a maternity and parental leave top-up payments for new mothers and fathers. More recently, Fleet Complete closed a previously announced investment partnership with the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.
Applications for Canada’s Top Small & Medium Employers’ 2020 competition will be available early in 2019.
Image courtesy Vidyard.
