National Capital Region's Top Employers (2024)

About the Competition

The University of Ottawa provides employees with a generous mental health practitioner benefit as part of their health benefits plan, to $3,000 annually. (Photo: B.Findley)

Background

First published in 2006, the National Capital Region's Top Employers is an annual competition organized by the editors of Canada's Top 100 Employers. This special designation recognizes the employers in the Ottawa-Gatineau metropolitan area that lead their industries in providing exceptional places to work. This year's winners were announced on February 6, 2024 in a special magazine co-published with the Ottawa Citizen. For more background on this year's competition, read the press release (English | French) issued on the announcement date.

A Health Canada scientist inspects pharmaceutical products in the warehouse.

The University of Ottawa provides employees with a generous mental health practitioner benefit as part of their health benefits plan, to $3,000 annually. (Photo: B.Findley)

A Health Canada scientist inspects pharmaceutical products in the warehouse.

Selection Process

Employers are evaluated by the editors of Canada's Top 100 Employers using the same eight criteria as the national competition: (1) 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 field to determine which offers the most progressive and forward-thinking programs.

A Health Canada scientist inspects pharmaceutical products in the warehouse.

The Library of Parliament offers employees the ability to work reduced hours with a corresponding reduction in salary averaged out over the course of a year.

Media Partner

Our media partner on the National Capital Region's Top Employers project is the Ottawa Citizen, the largest newspaper in the Ottawa-Gatineau metropolitan area. Each year, the Citizen co-publishes the special magazine announcing the winners in a special online feature on the competition, which also includes a summary of our editors' reasons for selecting each employer.

The Library of Parliament offers employees the ability to work reduced hours with a corresponding reduction in salary averaged out over the course of a year.

Eligibility Requirements

Any employer with its head office or principal place of business in National Capital Region may apply for this competition. Employers of any size may apply, whether private or public sector.

2025 Competition

Applications for our 2025 competition will be available early in 2024. Our 2025 winners will be announced in fall 2024. Join our mailing list to stay up to date and receive an application for next year's competition.

Parks Canada helps employees improve their training and skills development with tuition subsidies and in-house training programs.

National Capital Region's public, private sector employers upping their game to attract, retain talent

Nimble organizations are putting people at the centre of their recruiting strategies

The National Capital Region (NCR) benefits from a large, stable public sector workforce, and a large talent pool for tech-based enterprises. The number of workers employed by the federal public service in the NCR grew by more than 10,000 between 2022 and 2023, according to Statistics Canada. A 2023 study by CBRE Canada also reveals that tech talent in Ottawa makes up a growing 13.3 per cent of total employment, the highest of 50 North American cities. It's no wonder that both public and private sector employers are upping their game to attract and retain talented workers.

These employers vie for recognition in the National Capital Region's Top Employers competition, now entering its 19th season. The competition is organized by the editors of the Canada's Top 100 Employers project, who annually recognize companies that excel in recruitment and retention. As with the national competition, the editors of NCR's Top Employers annually release their picks for best employers. The NCR winners are chosen based on the same criteria, including: the work environment; work and social atmosphere; health, financial and family friendly benefits; vacation and time off; employee communications; performance management; training and skills development; and community involvement.

The competition is fiercer than ever, according to Richard Yerema, executive editor at Canada's Top 100 Employers: "No one is resting on their laurels. Some of the common priorities among this year's winners are flexible work options, robust time-off policies, inclusive parental leave programs and mental health support."

First-time winners of NCR's Top Employers include tech company Bandzoogle, a platform offering musicians an all-in-one solution to build a website and online store where they can sell their music, merchandise, and tickets, commission-free.

While the company has focused on a robust employee acquisition and retention effort, Bandzoogle's general manager Stacey Bedford notes that the application to NCR's Top Employers wasn't submitted by management.

"One of our staff members entered a submission for Bandzoogle into the program," she says. "That makes it that much more meaningful for myself and the whole team."

Adobe Systems Canada Inc., is a 10-plus-year winner of NCR's Top Employers. Mike Scott, senior director of customer care and Ottawa site leader, notes that the company was founded on three core principles: great ideas can come from anywhere; its people are its greatest assets; and its leaders must build a company where they'd want to work themselves.

"We constantly strive to deliver an employee experience where our people feel supported personally and professionally, empowering them to create the future," he says.

Kristina Leung, managing editor at Canada's Top 100 Employers, says she was impressed by the agility of organizations coming out of the pandemic, who moved quickly to facilitate remote work and increase benefits coverage.

"They really understand that in their workforce, every individual is dynamic and has different needs," she says. "The expectation going forward is that organizations can make changes very quickly with the right incentives and the right motivations, which is always that their people are at the heart of their decisions."

– Peter Kenter

From the official magazine announcing National Capital Region's Top Employers (2024), co-published with the Ottawa Citizen on February 6, 2024. All rights reserved.

2024 Winners

Here are the 2024 winners of the National Capital Region's Top Employers competition. Click an employer name to read our editors' full Reasons for Selection:

In the control room with Esther Bégin, French-language anchor at CPAC.

Previous winners:
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006

Consulting engineering firm Syntronic Research and Development Canada provides four weeks of starting vacation, increasing to five weeks after only three years.

Knowledge-based firms are driving economic growth in the National Capital Region

The region's tech companies must go head-to-head with the public sector to recruit top talent

The National Capital Region (NCR) is unique in that the nation's largest concentration of federal public servants exists side-by-side with a world-class hub of global innovation and technology. A 2023 study by CBRE Canada reports that Ottawa employed 94,100 tech workers — but that more than 42 per cent of them were employed by government. Vying with the public sector, the region's private sector tech companies are working hard to attract and retain the workers they need, not only by offering competitive benefits, but also by creating an authentic culture of openness and innovation, as well as providing professional development opportunities to promote career advancement.

Richard Yerema, executive editor at Canada's Top 100 Employers, notes that the public sector has had a head start, building benefit programs over generations through collective bargaining.

"How do high-tech employers compete against that," he asks. "It's not enough just to simply say we're a dynamic, cool work environment that has all these bells and whistles. They also have to up their game in terms of benefits."

National Capital Region Top Employer Orangutech is a tech consultant inspiring enterprise transformation and driving user adoption of software solutions and services centred around Microsoft 365.

"Tech employers hold an inherent advantage when it comes to competing with the public sector to recruit and retain excellent talent," says Corey Bainerman, vice-president of people and culture at Orangutech. "The best talent wants to work in the most cutting-edge companies with the best resources and tools."

However, the company also offers "extreme transparency", opportunities for career advancement and values alignment to attract, engage and retain top talent.

"It's crucial for leadership teams to be open, honest and to confidently bring employees along on the journey," says Bainerman. "Employees should clearly understand everything from company strategy to the compensation philosophy."

Orangutech also trains managers to understand each individual and to provide the appropriate opportunities to close the gap between their current state and their aspirations.

Values alignment is important to all employees, but particularly to the Gen Z workforce, Bainerman says.

"They are more selective than any prior generation about who they choose to work with. Great employers need to have a positive and unique impact on their communities and on society. They need to stand for something. That means having a clear mission and vision for the impact they seek to accomplish in the world."

As one of the world's largest global satellite operators, National Capital Region Top Employer Telesat inspires its employees by offering them the opportunity to contribute to the largest space program in Canada's history: Telesat Lightspeed. The company's next-generation low-earth-orbit satellite network will help to expand the reach of 5G networks, and enable affordable, broadband data connectivity anywhere on the planet.

"In addition to offering competitive compensation and benefits, successful tech employers focus on hiring, engaging and incentivizing top talent for innovation," says France Teasdale, vice-president of people with Telesat. "Companies that create a culture that encourages collaboration, taking informed risks, and rewarding employee innovation contributions will have an advantage. Companies that are willing to invest in employees with robust training and skills development, aligned to their career interests, will have a highly-engaged workforce that will drive future innovation."

The NCR's post-secondary institutions are an integral contributor to the ecosystem that drives local innovation. National Capital Region Top Employer Algonquin College works with partners, including an extensive network of program advisory committees, to guide programming to provide graduates who can help to populate the region's tech talent pipeline.

But Algonquin College must also compete with the tech community to attract and retain top-tier faculty, support and administrative talent. While offering its employees a dynamic and innovative workplace culture, the hiring mission begins with a meticulous process that views benefits as part of a holistic offering.

"Our comprehensive process fosters a deep understanding of the specific needs and key competencies essential for the success of any prospective faculty member and all prospective employees," says Diane McCutcheon, vice-president of human resources at Algonquin. "By aligning HR expertise with the insights of the hiring manager, we ensure a nuanced and strategic approach. This collaboration enables us to not only identify qualified candidates effectively but also to devise a fair and competitive offer structure."

Kristina Leung, managing editor at Canada's Top 100 Employers, notes that the competitive hiring environment of the National Capital Region is driving a significant cross-pollination of approaches to hiring and retention in both the public and private sector.

"We see tech companies trying to adopt traditional benefits that a public sector employer would offer and vice versa," she says. "It creates an interesting relationship in the NCR. I think you could make the case that it's the best of both worlds."

– Peter Kenter

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