To develop this year's list, we started by reviewing the recruitment histories of over 55,000 employers across Canada that we track for our job-searching periodicals, including our search engine Eluta.ca. Much of the work we do at Mediacorp involves monitoring weekly recruitment at thousands of Canadian employers, reporting new job announcements and recording which employers are the most active in their field or region.

From this initial group, invitations were sent to over 10,000 of the fastest-growing employers, 1,500 other companies and organizations in areas that we wanted to look at more closely this year. Employers were asked to complete an extensive application process that included a thorough review of their operations and human resource practices. Our objective at this stage was really to uncover the best employee perks and HR benefits in each industry. We looked for the really interesting and novel things employers are doing. More than 1,500 employers across the country started the application process to be considered for the 2007 edition of Canada's Top 100 Employers.

This year's edition also shows readers the internal grades our editors assigned to employers in the seven key areas we review: (1) Physical Workplace; (2) Work Atmosphere & Social; (3) Health, Financial & Family Benefits; (4) Vacation & Time Off; (5) Employee Communications; (6) Performance Management; and (7) Training & Skills Development. The grading system lets readers quickly identify what's really remarkable about each employer -- and where there's room for improvement.

In addition to these criteria, we also examined each employer's charitable efforts and involvement in the community. In the first year of our competition, in 2000, a strong correlation was observed between charitable work and how an employer treats its own employees. Employers who take a broader view of their responsibilities to the community, it turns out, are almost always better places to work.

In choosing the finalists, we considered how each employer compared to others in its industry. Our list of winners includes large and small employers from a range of industries, offering very different benefits and working conditions. The common thread that runs through all the finalists is that each is a leader in its industry. From software innovators to city governments, the employers chosen as this year's Top 100 stand out from others in their industry in attracting and retaining quality employees.