National Capital Region's
Top Employers (2019)
Winners from our 14th annual editorial competition
Interns hard at work solving problems at the head office of Shopify Canada in Ottawa

About the Competition

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 offering exceptional places to work. This year's winners were announced on January 30, 2019 in a special magazine published in the Ottawa Citizen. Read the press release issued the same day for more background on this year's competition.


The refreshment area at the Ottawa head office of SurveyMonkey Canada Inc. is a popular meeting spot for employees

Selection Process

Employers are evaluated by the editors of Canada's Top 100 Employers using the same eight criteria as the national competition: (1) Physical 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.


City of Ottawa public health employees dragging for ticks to test for Lyme disease

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, a special magazine published in the Citizen announces the winners, including a summary of our editors' reasons for selecting each employer.


Staff at Employment and Social Development Canada meeting in the greenspace outside their Ottawa headquarters

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.

2020 Competition

Applications for our 2020 competition will be available early in 2019. Our 2020 winners will be announced in a special magazine published in the Ottawa Citizen early in 2020. Join our mailing list to stay up to date and receive an application for next year's competition:

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Editorial Conference

To learn more about the competition, we invite you to join us at the Top Employer Summit, our annual editorial conference on the Canada’s Top 100 Employers project. This event lets you discover the latest best practices from winners, meet competition organizers and editors, and hear inspiring stories from world-class speakers – all presented in a commercial-free format. The conference is Canada’s largest annual event for senior-level HR professionals.

In designing its new Canadian head office in Ottawa, SurveyMonkey Canada Inc. started by surveying employee to get their insights and feedback
In designing its new Canadian head office in Ottawa, SurveyMonkey Canada Inc. started by surveying employee to get their insights and feedback

This year marks the 14th annual edition of the National Capital Region's Top Employers competition. When the project was launched, it was a challenge to find a mix of private- and public-sector organizations that best represented progressive workplace policies and forward-thinking human resource programs in the region. At the time, the capital was dominated by public-sector employers with few real differences in terms of the benefits offered or workplace policies.

Today, the National Capital Region is home to some of the country's most dynamic technology employers and many public-sector organizations that lead their fields not just in Canada, but internationally as well. With unemployment in the capital at a 30-year low, employers across the region are competing vigorously to attract and retain the best and brightest.

When we launched the competition in 2005, our editorial team hoped that by telling the stories of the most progressive employers, other organizations would take note -- and improve the working conditions and benefits offered to their own employees. Not only would this provide transparency in the selection of winners, but it could also improve the 'workplace literacy' of job-seekers regarding the programs and benefits that the best employers offered.

Today, we see best practices migrating quickly across employers and even between the private- and public sectors. Many of the region's private-sector employers have borrowed from the public sector the types of family-friendly benefits available to employees, such maternity and parental leave top-up, as well as better vacation allowance and flexible work arrangements.

In the public sector, we see progressive employers -- such as the Bank of Canada and the Treasury Board, to name just two -- borrowing from the tech sector when redesigning their offices to be more open, modern, innovative and collaborative.

For job-seekers in the National Capital Region, the choices have never been better when it comes to finding an excellent employer. This year's list of winners offers something for everyone and, like the region, we are confident it will keep growing stronger.

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The new Knowledge Centre at the Bank of Canada in Ottawa was constructed with employee collaboration and learning in mind

2019 Winners

Here are the 2019 winners of the National Capital Region's Top Employers competition. Click an employer name to read our editors' full Reasons for Selection:
Psychology residents at The Royal enjoying a moment in the sun
Psychology residents at The Royal enjoying a moment in the sun

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