Vancouver-based Earls Kitchen and Bar has topped the list of Canada’s best workplaces.
For the first time this year, Glassdoor, a California-based online jobs and recruiting site, is ranking Canada’s Best Places to Work as chosen by employees. Workers log on and nominate their company, leaving honest reviews that are publicly available.
This year Earls, a family-owned Vancouver food service company, claimed the top spot, followed by by Ceridian, Apple, Salesforce and Ericsson-Worldwide.
The list of 25 companies also includes Starbucks, Telus, Lululemon and Bombardier.
Employees say it’s the positive work environment that keeps them coming back.
“The company cares about you, so people want to stick around,” said Jenn Climie, who has been with Earls for two years.
“They really care about their employees and that’s a big thing. I think that’s why people love working here,” adds Maggie Davie, who works as a server and says she doesn’t see herself working anywhere else.
Mo Jessa began working with the company as a dishwasher. Twenty-seven years later, he’s now the president.
“Google won it last year in the US, Facebook and Twitter before that won it. So, to put Earls in the same league–I mean, we don’t have foosball tables or fancy technological advances that you’d want to be proud of,” said Jessa.
“Today’s generation wants a company to stand for something bigger and it wants to own up when it’s not doing well. I’d say the ideas of empowerment and transparency. If you promote those in your company, I think everyone can be a great employer to work for.”
The company has 66 restaurants across North America.
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