It’s no secret that skilled talent is precious. That’s why great employers focus on the loyalty factor. The secret? Creating a workplace culture that employees want to experience every day.

So what’s unique about this year’s Top 20 ranked organizations? You’ll have to keep reading to find out. But we will tell you this: they come from more than a dozen different industries, and they all share a commitment to excellence. Another characteristic is that almost all excel in the practice of sustainability and career development. 

For example, SwiftRadius Inc., an IT consulting firm head-quartered in Fredericton, works really hard at finding the right approach to work-life balance. Dartmouth, N.S.–based Jacques Whitford Inc. has integrated both social and environmental responsibility policies into its core operations—that helps with recruiting and retaining the best and brightest. Mariner Partners Inc., in Saint John, N.B., has a broad array of career-development initiatives, resulting in 98% retention, or expressed another way: it hires for growth, not turnover. 

How can we be so sure we got the Top 20 right? Because more than 5,000 employees were surveyed. And we work with specialists in workplace excellence research programs across North America. Read on, then take some winning ideas and put them to the test. Your employees will thank you.

An hour later MacIntosh paddled his employee through the water to his front steps. Dares ended up missing four days of work at the Fredericton–based IT consulting company SwiftRadius Inc. and a pre-paid conference in San Francisco because of his flooded basement. MacIntosh’s response? “It’s like getting the flu. You can’t do anything about it.” 

Besides good salaries and other financial perks, it’s SwiftRadius’s personal investment in its employees that makes it such a great place to work. “All three owners made generous offers during the flood, like it was nothing,” says Dares, 29, who has worked as a technical architect at SwiftRadius for a year. “The most important thing to them was that I deal with my house.” 

The company has a reputation for fostering a “people first” culture. MacIntosh, the CEO, with COO Kevin Hurley and CTO David Smith work hard to perpetuate that culture at the software company’s three offices. “There’s a vibe throughout Swift-Radius,” says MacIntosh. “People seem happy to be helping each other succeed.” That healthy work environment is paying off in terms of growth. In 2004 the company opened its first location in Fredericton and has since expanded to Saint John and Charlottetown. Since 2007 SwiftRadius has almost tripled its staff from 10 employees to 28, and in June it opened its first Halifax office. 

MacIntosh attributes the rapid growth rate to the four components of its “people first” culture, the first of which is balance. Joanne Dempster, a SwiftRadius recruit in Saint John, recalls the time she and six employees were given the option to take on a project that required eight to 10 weeks of overtime. They chose to do it—on the condition that they could set their schedules to work around personal obligations.

The team members delivered a seamless product to the client and were acknowledged for their efforts at a meeting with the entire company. “We got personal thank yous from Scott and an e-mail telling us to take our spouses out for meals on the company,” says Dempster, 36, who has worked in the IT industry for 18 years and has been with SwiftRadius for nine months. For MacIntosh, it’s a priority to recognize that employees have made temporary but significant sacrifices in their personal lives to get the job done; he calls the approach the “pursuit of balance.” 

MacIntosh also shows respect for his employees by informing them of company activities. “It’s amazing what people can do when they know in a detailed fashion what the company’s trying to do,” he says. At quarterly meetings, where employees from all offices gather to review projects and goals, MacIntosh uses a standard business tool called the RASCI (Responsible-Approval-Support-Consult-Inform) matrix, which outlines who is responsible for which part of every task. “When the management structure has an open and transparent flavour, it breeds a sense of trust,” says Dempster, adding that employees also feel comfortable identifying new opportunities within the company because of the extensive information they are given about SwiftRadius. 

MacIntosh maintains a candid atmosphere within the company because he wants employees to feel like they are part of a team. “There is a risk in consulting that you will be more affiliated with the client than the company, because you spend so much time on client sites,” says Dempster. When she was interviewed for her job as senior manager and business analysis practice lead, she asked MacIntosh how he deals with that challenge, especially since the offices are geographically dispersed. He told her about the company’s social committee, which organizes six funded events a year, including a family function where employees connect outside of work mode. Plus, he holds one of the quarterly meetings at an off-site retreat where staff attend workshops one day and socialize the next. “Having [professional] relationships with people where they know my husband and my kids’ names is a unique thing in the consulting world that SwiftRadius fosters,” says Dempster. “It also helps to be able to put a face to a name when I call somebody at another [SwiftRadius] office.” 

“The way you invest in culture is to hire people who are a good fit,” explains MacIntosh. “When you have a good culture, client successes flow. It makes it pretty easy to sell SwiftRadius.” 

When Matthew Dares was hired in late June, he was able to give his old employers six weeks’ notice, missing out on a potential SwiftRadius project. Though there wasn’t a client for Dares to take on until October, the company didn’t bat an eye. “The SwiftRadius mentality is that if you hire quality people first, the work will follow,” says Dares. “It’s amazing how simple it is and how well it’s working. When you work for a company like this you walk into client sites with a brand you’re proud of, and that’s a wonderful way to feel.”