PR and Social Media agencies aren’t exactly a mainstay on Canada’s Top Employers list so it’s a bit of a big deal when our agency ranks.

Keeping good company and treating people well seems simple enough but award rankings look at so much more than that. For most industries the idea of adding workplace luxuries seems out of reach.

Part of what we are sharing today is a look at how we keep an engaged culture and rank as a top employer.

Flexibility First

Working parents and millenials make up the bulk of our workforce and there are two motivators both groups have in common, purpose and flexibility. We offer meaningful work and understand that part of what enables employees to operate at their best is flexibility. This doesn’t mean working from a beach in Thailand but instead embracing remote work, more vacation, and the ability to offer flexible schedules that adapt to school and childcare needs.

Parental Leave Top Up = Retention

There are many “soft” investments a company can make in the spirit of culture building that range from organic food delivery to foosball tables. Where many employer rankings get serious is looking at the dollars and cents being invested into things like RRSP contributions, childcare, and maternity and parental leave top up. We’ve opted to exceed in the area of parental leave and offer top up for employees that have been with us for two years or more and in many cases we have paid 100% top up for long term employees. Yes, this comes at a cost but we believe the benefit far outweighs the expense.

Entrepreneurs in Residence

Our belief is that we are stronger together. We have a brilliant group of people on our team and we wouldn’t want to lose someone because they are pursuing a bright idea when that idea might be something we could do together. Enter our In Residence Program, where a portion of our annual profits are reinvested into new ventures and new entrepreneurs within our team. Since launching, we’ve already greenlit two business concepts for investment.

Training and Health

We are a team of life-long learners in an industry that is constantly changing. This means making significant investments into the team’s knowledge to ensure they’re armed with the skills to stay at the forefront of our field. We also understand that rest and recovery, and good health, are critical parts of optimal performance. On that front, we offer competitive vacation time, a weekly delivery of organic food for the office, and the option to work out in our onsite gym and disconnect when the need arises.

We continue to look at identifying what matters to people in our business and for future success we also look at:

Diversity and Inclusion

Take a quick scan through our team page and we have seen a trend we are working diligently to change. The inclusiveness and diversity of an organization is not only important for success in society, it’s also something that more and more grants and award rankings are placing a high priority on. Consider looking at your diversity and inclusion policies to see how they can be improved upon.

Social and Environmental Impact

While we are first to acknowledge we’re in the for-profit sector, and that some lofty standards for social and environmental impact might be out of reach, considering our impact on the environment and our people is a conversation we think is important one to continue having. A good portion of our team comes from companies that are B Corp Certified. They continue to encourage our team as a whole to adopt higher standards around transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.