In these evolving times of uncertainty around what workplaces will look like in the future, companies are having to find new ways to make their work environments stand out from the rest. With most tech employees now working remote indefinitely, the draw of free happy hours, catered lunches and paid commutes are no longer the appealing perks they once were. We wanted to understand what qualities really make up an award-winning and inclusive work culture across the entire company landscape.
In our quest to find the best places to work in Toronto, we went straight to the source. We asked local employees to tell us what makes their place of work "the best" in our Annual Timmy Awards recognizing the top startups, managers, and employers in 2020. Based on their responses, these companies and managers stood out from the rest. Want to know what makes these employers 'award-worthy' when it comes to keeping tech talent engaged? Keep reading to hear what your local tech community had to say about these groundbreaking Toronto tech companies:
Toronto's Best Places to Work
Charitable Impact
At a Glance:
This company makes charitable giving in Canada seamless with fundraising functionality and processes all located in one easy - to - use platform. Charitable Impact is uniquely capable of accepting non-cash donations such as publicly-traded securities, real estate, life insurance, private company preferred shares and even cryptocurrency.
Top Perks, Benefits or Stand Outs:
Professional Development, Monthly Donation Matching, Wellness Program
What Employees are Saying:
“We provide the space for thinking, imagining, and discovery paired with the tools, technology, and support to move from imagination to reality.”
ACTO
At a Glance:
ACTO is disrupting how drugs and devices are promoted and brought to market, with the vision of building the world’s first Omnichannel Education and Engagement Platform for Life Sciences™. More than ever, healthcare is of utmost global priority, and ACTO is at the forefront of solving for the life sciences industry’s most pressing challenges.
Top Perks, Benefits or Stand Outs:
Collaborative Work Environment, Professional Development
What Employees are Saying:
"Each team member brings their unique perspective, skills, and personality to ACTO. Our commitment to each other is to empower one another to be our very best."
MindBeacon
At a Glance:
MindBeacon provides digitally-enabled therapist-led mental and behavioral health support in ways that remove barriers; such as availability, access and cost. MindBeacon offers therapy across Canada, in English and French, wherever and whenever a client is most comfortable. Clients complete a personal assessment and are provided a personalized course of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) led by a dedicated therapist – all delivered on their favorite device.
Top Perks, Benefits or Stand Outs:
Remote Opportunities, Professional Development
What Employees are Saying:
“Satisfaction among users has been another consistent benchmark in effective care, as participants reported a strong positive perception of BEACON’s impact on their quality of life, and on their experience using the program.”
SADA
At a Glance:
SADA is a global leader in cloud technology services whose solutions help its customers tackle their biggest business challenges. SADA's wide range of products and services include Infrastructure modernization, productivity & collaboration tools, application development, data analytics, cloud security and asset management to name a few.
Top Perks, Benefits or Stand Outs:
Robust D&I Programs, Professional Development, Unlimited PTO, Remote Work Options
What Employees are Saying:
“At SADA, we are continuously looking for ways we can support our community to build a more equitable and inclusive company and society.”
Nielsen Canada
At a Glance:
Nielsen offers "end-to-end consumer insights for faster, smarter, better" business decisions. Nielsen's services include consumerization, innovation, marketing effectiveness and sales effectiveness all through digital insights and technological solutions.
Top Perks, Benefits or Stand Outs:
Robust D&I Programs, Opportunity for Fast Career Growth
What Employees are Saying:
“Diversity and inclusion are essential to everything we do at Nielsen. When we operate in a culture that is diverse and inclusive, innovation flourishes, our clients win, and employees are engaged and collaborate to bring the best that Nielsen can offer to the communities we measure.”
Klick Health
At a Glance:
With a slogan "There's Something Different Here", Klick Health is a full-service, innovation brand partner for the life sciences industry to tackle their clients' biggest problems with comprehensive and long-lasting solutions. The company uses the most out of the box thinking along with technical integration to elevate life science brands.
Top Perks, Benefits or Stand Outs:
Professional Development, Creative Team Environment
What Employees are Saying:
“We’ve been told what we do is important, but we think how we do it is just as exciting. And that comes down to our people-centric culture, which gives our people clarity of mission, access to the right resources, and an environment in which to innovate and do their best work with a sense of accomplishment, belonging, and pride.”
Uberflip
At a Glance:
Uberflip is a content experience platform creating high-converting marketing campaigns and content experiences by leveraging artificial intelligence. The platform scales with you and your marketing needs with real-time personalization.
Top Perks, Benefits or Stand Outs:
Celebration of Cultural Differences, Weekly Company Standups, Quarterly Town Halls
What Employees are Saying:
“Fostering a culture that is diverse, inclusive and fosters a sense of belonging is always at the forefront of our minds here and our People & Culture team puts their heart and soul into ensuring this comes through in all of our initiatives!”
Remitr
At a Glance:
Remitr is a Toronto-based fintech startup for business payments that offers an alternative to wire transfers, cheque payments and bank visits. The established Remitr Global Network allows businesses to make fast—often one day—payments across Canada and in over 150 countries. Remitr also offers the Global Business Account for USD, GBP and EUR, removing the exorbitant banking fees of receiving international payments.
Top Perks, Benefits or Stand Outs:
Employee Welcome Events, Weekly Social Calls, Professional Development
What Employees are Saying:
“Remitr's approach to trust is a two-way street. The founders hire based on an individual's connection to the mission. Using this as a ‘North star’, the founders do no doubt intentions. At the same time, employees are given the space to ‘create delight’ within the product and within the team. Current programs foster cross-department communication and support.”
Coursera
At a Glance:
Coursera's founding mission is to deliver world-class education at no or significantly reduced cost to anyone with an Internet connection anywhere in the world with zero bias. Coursera offers "Learning for anyone, anywhere" through its digital platform.
Top Perks, Benefits or Stand Outs:
Competitive Salary & Meaningful Equity, Open Vacation Policy, Make-A-Thons, Sponsored Master's Degrees
What Employees are Saying:
“The company is raising to the unprecedented challenges the world is facing as an unrelenting force for good. I'm genuinely proud to be part of such an organization."
WorkTango
At a Glance:
WorkTango's platform leverages technology to offer a platform for employee feedback that is then translated inter measurable insights for employers. "The platform measures employee engagement and supports organizational change by gathering employee feedback through pulse surveys. WorkTango supports action across the entire employee lifecycle with powerful technology and analytics."
Top Perks, Benefits or Stand Outs:
Professional Development, Award-Worthy Culture, Company - Wide Outings and Events
What Employees are Saying:
“WorkTango was built without a mission statement. With the belief that missions end, we wanted something that was everlasting…so we instead created our Passion Statement - improve (work) lives. And that same passion fosters the work culture we have today.”
Rakuten Kobo
At a Glance:
At Rakuten Kobo, the company embodies everything you love about your favorite bookshop to the digital space. Their mission is to bring the power of reading to your world. Rakuten Kobo prides itself on understanding that stories shape who we are, and words can enhance and transform the world around us.
Top Perks, Benefits or Stand Outs:
Recognition Programs, Training & Development Opportunities, Salary bonus & Stock Options
What Employees are Saying:
“We realize that for our people to be innovative, creative and passionate they need to have healthy minds and bodies. We believe in rewarding all our employees with competitive salaries, performance based annual bonuses, stock options and training opportunities.”
Cetaris
At a Glance:
Cetaris builds comprehensive maintenance software for it's growing customer base. The company leverages data to make everything about the operations process for fleet and fixed assets more seamless and efficient. Even more impressive, the company's green initiatives are built into their platform to help their customers reduce carbon waste and shrink their carbon footprint.
Top Perks, Benefits or Stand Outs:
Learning Support, Flexible Work Hours, Bonuses, Team Events
What Employees are Saying:
“Today, 100% of respondents on Glassdoor say that they would recommend working at Cetaris to a friend. We are proud of the tight-knit community of care that our team has built together.
#TeamCetaris is a multicultural and multigenerational team that supports each other and isn't afraid of asking questions. We bond over dad jokes, good food, and making sideways references to our leadership team’s preternatural love of all things Star Wars.”
Managing Information Systems 3 Inc.
At a Glance:
"Business Transformation through IT Modernization", Managing Information Systems 3 Inc. is a digital consultancy firm helping companies with their digital transformation strategy. The company offers services in four key areas; Customer Engagement, Employee Empowerment, Operations Automation and Brand Transformation.
Top Perks, Benefits or Stand Outs:
Professional Development, Long-Term Growth Opportunities
What Employees are Saying:
“Organically grown, MIS3 Inc. is a Business Value Technology Partner specializing in Business Transformation through IT Modernization. Providing a 360 degree view of IT with an application centric philosophy, MIS3 Inc. guide their clients in understanding the business value New and Emerging Next Generation technology platforms provide, to enable digital transformation.”
Swob Inc.
At a Glance:
Swob Inc.'s platform seamlessly connects hiring mangers with talent in high-turnover industries for quick and efficient sourcing. Swob offers unique filters like maximum applicant distance, email automation with candidates and job description templates.
Top Perks, Benefits or Stand Outs:
Winner of the 2018 "Pitch to Rich" Contest by Sir Richard Branson
What Employees are Saying:
“Swob is the first of its kind to target students in high turnover industries such as retail, and food services for part-time, seasonal and full-time employment. Swob helps students looking for casual, part-time, seasonal or even full-time employment and helps employers quickly and easily find students in high turn-over industries such as restaurants and retail.”
OnCall Health
At a Glance:
OnCall Health is an end-to-end virtual care and patient management solution for healthcare providers, brands and enterprises. The solution enables brands to launch and manage their virtual care programs at scale by powering the entire patient-provider journey from onboarding, secure virtual appointments to patient management tools.
Top Perks, Benefits or Stand Outs:
Collaborative & Dynamic Work Environment, Growth Opportunities, Team Events & Socials
What Employees are Saying:
“We are lucky to say that unlike most businesses, COVID has been a catalyst for growth and change for virtual care but there’s still a lot of work we can do in educating healthcare providers on best practices to ensure they see telemedicine as a viable option in the future.”
Zebra Technologies
At a Glance:
Zebra Technologies helps their customers find solutions across industries and business needs by leveraging digital innovation at every touchpoint. Zebra offers an extremely wide array of solutions to make business processes more efficient and more reliable for everyone along the fulfillment and supply chain.
Top Perks, Benefits or Stand Outs:
Robust Diversity & Inclusion Programs, Competitive Benefits, Mentorship Opportunities
What Employees are Saying:
About Director of Mobile Automation for Enterprise Mobile Computing Coby Segall, "Coby often speaks about a “Give-Give” culture. As the leader of the group, he is committed to doing whatever he can to create a positive experience for his people and ensuring that they are empowered and supported. From his team members’ perspectives, they do whatever they can to ensure deliverables are met. ”
TribalScale
At a Glance:
TribalScale builds solutions for enterprise companies to benefit the customer experience. The company takes a comprehensive and high-touch approach to digital innovation, building customized solutions to meet clients' specific business needs.
Top Perks, Benefits or Stand Outs:
Remote Opportunities, ClassPass Membership, Sponsored Professional Development
What Employees are Saying:
Discussing leadership at TribalScale, "As we all know, true leadership comes in the form of someone who can navigate a company through what we like to call rocky terrain. There isn't a better example of this than the un-chartered waters of 2020. I can talk about manager duties and how our Design Manager Ailsa Blair exemplifies them all greatly, but truly it is her daily actions, attitude, and perseverance beyond these duties that establish her as deserving for this award.”
Looking for a new tech role with a great company in Toronto? Contact a local job market expert today.
Interested in learning more about these companies? Visit our Timmy Awards website. If you missed the ceremony, you can watch the full recording of the Timmy Awards on YouTube Premiere to see who took home the "best in tech" in North America!