It's no secret that young tech people -- software developers, web designers, code writers -- tend to gravitate to a city's core, where the lifestyle is vibrant and so many tech companies are clustered. Brown says up to a third of OTN's employees are involved in tech, and many of them could work anywhere. "It's very competitive," he says.

Indeed, the war for tech talent is one of major trends facing the 125 winners of the 2019 Greater Toronto's Top Employers competition. These days, nearly every organization requires some form of tech expertise beyond simply maintaining the enterprise computers. Retailers need shopping websites, banks need vast data systems, media need streaming -- and everyone, it seems, needs apps.

"If you're a tech employee you have a swathe of industries to choose from," says Richard Yerema, managing editor for Mediacorp Canada, which produces the list. "This means that if you're an employer in the GTA, you shouldn't be looking at just your immediate competition. You have to be aware of what other industries are doing. You're often competing for that very same talent."

And the demand is only growing. In the summer of 2018, Los Angeles-based international real estate firm CBRE reported that Toronto was the fastest-growing tech centre among all North American cities in 2017. Moreover, its rank in attractiveness to employers and tech staff -- as well as number of tech jobs -- had risen to fourth on the continent, after only the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle and Washington, D.C. CBRE counted 241,400 tech jobs in Toronto, some 8.9 per cent of all jobs.

So if you're trying to attract the best tech talent, what do you do? To an extent, the ends of the employment spectrum are moving closer together. Traditional corporations, such as Rogers Communications Inc. and Canadian Tire Corp. Inc., are revamping their workspaces, or parts of them, to make them more open, collaborative and fun -- a lot more like traditional tech firms.

But tech firms, which may be strong on foosball and flex time, also have to look at the benefits offered by traditional firms, notes Yerema. "You're competing against very serious players in the GTA. If they have a defined-benefit pension plan and generous maternity and paternity top-ups and you have none of the above, you may have to revisit some of your policies and programs. Even if you can't match that, you may need something in place to show that you will help your people plan for the longer term."

And these days all top employers try to give their employees a sense they are doing something that matters, or something innovative -- or both. Brown says OTN has not had real difficulty in finding talent. "If people are involved in healthcare informatics, this is a really fascinating place to be, because virtual healthcare is one of the leading edges," he says. "It's also attractive to see the impact of what you do, so we make sure people have a sense that, you may be developing software but you're actually changing somebody's life out there. People want to know they're doing meaningful work."

At KPMG LLP, Sebastian Distefano, Regional Managing Partner for the Greater Toronto Area, is dealing with the same phenomena. "There is a war for talent," he agrees. "The way you win that war is you make sure your total offering to your employee aligns with their passions -- in terms of working at the firm and, more broadly, in terms of supporting their passions outside of work. Young people coming out of university often want opportunities to give back, such as through volunteering. They want a purpose, and to able to make an impact. The more you can offer, the more attractive it will be. It differentiates you from others."

Yerema notes that with such a range of leading employers in the GTA, from financial behemoths to public sector organizations to standout small and medium enterprises, there is always a competitor ready to top what you offer your employees. That means you have to remain strong in all the elements that make a top employer. "It's very rare on this list to find an organization that would be wanting in any category," Yerema says. "This is one of the most vibrant employment markets on the continent."

This story appeared in the official announcement magazine for Greater Toronto's Top Employers (2019), published on December 7, 2018 in The Globe and Mail.