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Manitoba's Top
Employers (2024)
Winners from our 18th annual editorial competition
Academic advisors at the University of Manitoba, which offers top-up for new moms and an onsite daycare. (Photo: I.McCausland)

About the Competition

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Cardinal Capital Management offers generous referral bonuses when employees successfully help to recruit a new candidate.

Background

Now in its 18th year, Manitoba's Top Employers is an annual competition organized by the editors of Canada's Top 100 Employers Manitoba's Top Employers This special designation recognizes the Manitoba employers that lead their industries in offering exceptional places to work. Read the special magazine co-published with the Winnipeg Free Press on March 19, 2024 announcing this year's winners. For more background on this year's competition, read the news release issued on the same date.


Staff at the Winnipeg head office of payroll software developer Payworks, one of this year's winners.

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Cardinal Capital Management offers generous referral bonuses when employees successfully help to recruit a new candidate.

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Staff at the Winnipeg head office of payroll software developer Payworks, one of this year's winners.

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.


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Staff at the Winnipeg head office of payroll software developer Payworks, one of this year's winners.

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APTN helps employees save for the future with a defined contribution pension plan.

Editorial Partner

The Winnipeg Free Press is our editorial partner on the Manitoba's Top Employers project and announces the winners in a special magazine we co-publish each year. For our editors' detailed Reasons for Selection, please review the full list of winners. Publishing Reasons for Selection is a distinguishing feature of our competition: it provides transparency in the selection of winners and "raises the bar" so other employers can discover and adopt initiatives that work well elsewhere.


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APTN helps employees save for the future with a defined contribution pension plan.

Eligibility Requirements

Any employer with its head office or principal place of business in Manitoba 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 the Winnipeg Free Press in early 2025. Join our mailing list to stay up to date and receive an application for next year's competition.

This year marks the 18th annual editorial competition for the Manitoba's Top Employers project. (Photo: J.Boomsma/Getty)
This year marks the 18th annual editorial competition for the Manitoba's Top Employers project. (Photo: J.Boomsma/Getty)

Introduction

It's a welcoming province – just consider that "Friendly Manitoba" is engraved right on the licence plates – where big-city culture meets small-town friendliness and curling rivals hockey for popularity. It's also a place where well-managed businesses thrive, given its wealth of natural resources, a well-educated, multi-cultural workforce and strategic location in the heart of North America.

So it's no surprise that Manitoba's Top Employers 2024 are exceptional organizations, recognized for their progressive workplace initiatives and best practices. Looking at the winners, what stands out for Richard Yerema, executive editor at Mediacorp, is their remarkable stability along with a steady rate of growth.

"Year over year, it's a very calm picture with companies evolving at a nice pace," says Yerema. "There's a quiet confidence that comes with that. On the employment side, you can be in any profession and find something here for you – it's that diverse in terms of its economics."

Manitoba's rich diversity of industry ranges from high-tech manufacturing to finance, insurance, health care, education and its popular credit unions. Add in the perks and policies offered by this year's winners, such as flexible work options, continuous learning and generous parental leave top-ups, and you'll find employers that are competitive with leading companies nationwide.

For instance, Turning Leaf Community Support Services, a non-profit organization providing crisis intervention and treatment services for vulnerable people, offers competitive wages, a healthy benefits package and a strong focus on opportunities for growth and development.

"We're constantly growing so there's plenty of room for growth internally," says Andrea Whittle, recruitment manager at Turning Leaf. "We prefer to look internally first to fill all our vacancies before searching externally. If people need to increase their skill set, we have a full training department, including internal courses for leadership."

Whittle describes the organization's culture as "very person-centered", not only for participants enrolled in their programs, but for employees as well. That helped the organization manage the challenges of working throughout the pandemic and adapting to a post-pandemic environment.

"We already had a very strong culture, so the pandemic just made us more adaptable and resilient with all the changes," says Whittle. "We even grew by 50 per cent in our Intensive Home Supports program. Early on, we gave tablets and cell phones to our community participants so we didn't lose our connection with them and did social events online with staff to stay connected that way as well.

"Our current flexible arrangements are working out very well for employees," she continues. "The flexibility increases morale and allows those with families and personal commitments to find more of a work-life balance. But for the most part, we try to do as much as we can in person to make that personal connection."

With a vision focused on helping farmers succeed, the community for Canadian Canola Growers Association (CCGA) extends beyond Manitoba. For four decades, the organization has helped Western Canadian farmers better market their farm commodities and support the working capital needs of their farms by providing farmers access to cash advances. In addition, the association's work in policy development and advocacy affects positive change in seven key policy areas affecting Canada's 43,000 canola farmers.

"Agriculture is a very big part of Manitoba's economy and our people are proud to be part of this vibrant sector," says Larysa Motruk, vice president, human resources at CCGA. "Our new recruits are really inspired by what we do and how we show we care. As a relatively small organization, we are creative in how we offer learning and career opportunities, and people appreciate that."

When the pandemic hit, the organization had to quickly adjust to remote work – something its teams hadn't done before. Today, CCGA has a hybrid policy, with employees working three days in the office and two at home, with flexible options.

"Adapting to hybrid work is a learning process and we continue to make adjustments to adapt to the business and employee needs," says Motruk. "That may take some time to figure out – it might be completely different two or three years down the road. The key is to listen to what your employees are looking for and how that can work for the business, and then how we can merge those two things so we all benefit from it."

Whatever tomorrow brings, it's a fair observation that Manitoba's Top Employers will still thrive. As Yerema notes, "provinces like Manitoba that are more community-oriented have fared much better in terms of the pandemic. It's very hard to damage a solid community easily."

Boeing employees celebrate long-service milestones at a special reception at the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg. (Photo: D.Lipnowski)
Boeing employees celebrate long-service milestones at a special reception at the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg. (Photo: D.Lipnowski)

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