All work and no play? This year's 'Canada's Top Small & Medium Employers' say that's not their way.

TORONTO, April 25, 2017 /CNW/ - There's something special about working at one of Canada's Top Small & Medium Employers that you don't often find at larger organizations.  Besides impressive HR benefits, this year's winners offer highly engaged, collaborative and fun work environments.  The 2017 winners were announced this morning by Mediacorp Canada Inc., which manages the competition.

"The defining features of employers on this year's list is their flexibility to adapt quickly to changing conditions and the ease with which they can make improvements," says Richard Yerema, Managing Editor of the Canada's Top 100 Employers project at Mediacorp.  "Since the competition was founded, we've observed that the leading SMEs have steadily expanded their benefits and HR initiatives – they offer job-seekers an attractive employment proposition combined with a dynamic and fun work environment."

"SMEs play an outsized role in Canada's economy," says Anthony Meehan, Publisher at Mediacorp. "Small and medium-sized employers are responsible for the vast majority of the jobs created in the past decade, so it's important that job-seekers be aware of the leading employers in this sector.  Many of this year's winners show tremendous year-over-year employment growth, in some cases doubling or even tripling in size."

Now in its 4^th year, Canada's Top Small & 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. Employers were evaluated by the editors at Canada's Top 100 Employers using the same criteria as the national competition: (1) Physical Workplace; (2) Work Atmosphere & Social; (3) Health, Financial & Family Benefits; (4) Vacation & Time Off; (5) Employee Communications; (6) Performance Management; (7) Training & Skills Development; and (8) Community Involvement. Employers are compared to other organizations in their industry to determine which offer the most progressive and forward-thinking programs. The annual competition is open to any employer with its head office or principal place of business in Canada.  Employers must have less than 500 employees worldwide, including employees at any affiliated companies, and be a commercial, for-profit enterprise.

Here are a few examples of the unique programs and policies the editors noted at this year's Canada's Top Small & Medium Employers:

• Among the many benefits at Toronto-based accounting software firm FreshBooks is a unique "compassion fund" to help employees through unexpected circumstances, such as subsidizing the cost of a stolen bike or an emergency vet bill.
  
• Richmond, BC-based Great Little Box Company makes a monthly award to its two top-performing employees, including a $500 donation to the charity of their choice.
  
• Montréal-based software developer GSOFT offers its employees unlimited annual vacation allowance – take as much as time as you need, so long as your job gets done – plus a year-end company holiday to a sunny destination (Cuba, last year).
  
• Next Level Games, based in Vancouver, offers exceptional family-friendly benefits including maternity and parental leave top-up for new mothers and fathers, including adoptive parents (to 80% of salary for 27 weeks), plus a subsidy for IVF treatments, if required (to $15,000).
  
• Calgary-based property management firm Strategic Group encourages its employees to assist local arts groups and charities that help the poor by providing cash donations to organizations where employees volunteer.

Additional stories from this year's Canada's Top Small & Medium Employers can be found in the special magazine published this morning in The Globe and Mail.  The winning employers will be honoured at a special luncheon in Toronto today.  The full list of winners and the editors' detailed reasons for selection were released this morning at: http://www.canadastop100.com/sme

Founded in 1992, Mediacorp Canada Inc. is the nation's largest publisher of employment periodicals. Since 1999, the Toronto-based publisher has managed the Canada's Top 100 Employers project, which includes 19 regional and special-interest editorial competitions that reach over 13 million Canadians annually through a variety of magazine and newspaper partners, including the The Globe and Mail. Mediacorp also operates Eluta.ca, the largest Canadian job search engine, which includes editorial reviews from the Canada's Top 100 Employers project and is now used by over 7 million users in Canada each year. Together with Willis Towers Watson, Mediacorp also hosts the Top Employer Summit, Canada's largest conference for senior-level HR professionals.

Canada's Top Small & Medium Employers 2017 Winners

/N SPRO Inc. (Montréal QC)
360insights (Whitby ON)
Abilis Solutions (Montréal QC)
Accompass (Toronto ON)
ACL Services Ltd. (Vancouver BC)
Aeryon Labs Inc. (Waterloo ON)
AGNORA Inc. (Collingwood ON)
Ambyint Inc. (Calgary AB)
Artis REIT (Winnipeg MB)
Auto West Ltd. (Richmond BC)
Benevity, Inc. (Calgary AB)
Big Viking Games Inc. (London ON)
Caltrax Inc. (Calgary AB)
CBCL Limited (Halifax NS)
Champion Petfoods LP (Edmonton AB)
Chandos Construction Ltd. (Edmonton AB)
Clearpath Robotics, Inc. (Kitchener ON)
ClearTech Industries Inc. (Saskatoon SK)
Clio (Burnaby BC)
CM Labs Simulations Inc. (Montréal QC)
Community Trust Company (Mississauga ON)
Connected Lab Inc. (Toronto ON)
CONTAX Inc. (Toronto ON)
Copperleaf Technologies Inc. (Vancouver BC)
Cowell Motors Ltd. (Richmond BC)
CREIT Management LP (Toronto ON)
Crestline Coach Ltd. (Saskatoon SK)
Croesus Finansoft Inc. (Laval QC)
Diamond Schmitt Architects Inc. (Toronto ON)
Direct Focus Marketing Communications Inc. (Winnipeg MB)
EMKAY Inc. (Toronto ON)
eSentire (Cambridge ON)
Excel Funds Management Inc. (Mississauga ON)
Fresche Solutions Inc. (Montréal QC)
FreshBooks (Toronto ON)
Fusion Project Management Ltd. (Vancouver BC)
Geo. H. Young & Co. Ltd. (Winnipeg MB)
Great Little Box Company, The (Richmond BC)
GroupHEALTH Global Benefit Solutions Inc. (Surrey BC)
GSOFT (Montréal QC)
Harbour Air Group (Richmond BC)
HB Studios Multimedia Ltd. (Lunenburg NS)
Hemmera Envirochem Inc. (Burnaby BC)
HockeyTech Inc. (Waterloo ON)
Hostway Corporation (Vancouver BC)
Igloo Software (Kitchener ON)
Intelex Technologies Inc. (Toronto ON)
Intelligent Mechatronic Systems Inc. / IMS (Waterloo ON)
iQmetrix (Vancouver BC)
Kenway Mack Slusarchuk Stewart LLP (Calgary AB)
Kinaxis Inc. (Ottawa ON)
Lawton Partners Financial Planning Services Ltd. (Winnipeg MB)
McLeod Law LLP (Calgary AB)
Medgate Inc. (Toronto ON)
MessagePoint (Toronto ON)
Next Level Games Inc. (Vancouver BC)
Nicola Wealth Management Ltd. (Vancouver BC)
North Strategic Inc. (Toronto ON)
Noseworthy Chapman Chartered Professional Accountants (St. John's NL)
O2E Brands (Vancouver BC)
People Store Staffing Solutions Inc. (Mississauga ON)
Perley-Robertson, Hill & McDougall LLP / s.r.l. (Ottawa ON)
Peto MacCallum Limited (Toronto ON)
Points (Toronto ON)
Prophix Software Inc. (Mississauga ON)
Pushor Mitchell LLP (Kelowna BC)
Pythian Group Inc. (Ottawa ON)
QHR Technologies Inc. (Kelowna BC)
R.F. Binnie & Associates Ltd. (Burnaby BC)
REDspace Inc. (Bedford NS)
Reid's Heritage Group of Companies (Cambridge ON)
Reunion Island Coffee Ltd. (Oakville ON)
RLB LLP (Guelph ON)
Rocky Mountaineer (Vancouver BC)
Rodan Energy Solutions Inc. (Mississauga ON)
Rogers Insurance Ltd. (Calgary AB)
Scalar Decisions Inc. (Toronto ON)
Sealweld Corporation Inc. (Calgary AB)
Sekure Merchant Solutions (Montréal QC)
Selectpath Benefits & Financial Inc. (London ON)
Sentry Investments Corp. (Toronto ON)
Sigma Systems Canada LP (Toronto ON)
Solink Corporation (Kanata ON)
Sortable (Kitchener ON)
Source Atlantic Limited (Saint John NB)
Speed Shift Media (New Westminster BC)
Strategic Group (Calgary AB)
Swish Maintenance Limited (Peterborough ON)
TeraGo Networks Inc. (Thornhill ON)
TextNow (Waterloo ON)
theScore, Inc. (Toronto ON)
Trisura Guarantee Insurance Company (Toronto ON)
Uken Studios Inc. (Toronto ON)
Ventana Construction Corporation (Burnaby BC)
Verafin Inc. (St. John's NL)
Voices.com Inc. (London ON)
Voonyx Inc. (Lac-Beauport QC)
Watters Environmental Group Inc. (Concord ON)
Wild Rose Brewery (Calgary AB)
Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Burnaby BC)

SOURCE Mediacorp Canada Inc.

For further information: Kristina Leung, Senior Editor, at 416-964-6069 x1464

RELATED LINKS
http://www.canadastop100.com