Great Place to Work® is pleased to announce the 2019 list of Canada’s Best Workplaces in Manufacturing. To be eligible for this list, organizations must be Great Place to Work- Certified™ in the past year, have manufacturing operations in Canada, and at least 90% of employees working in the organization must agree their workplace is safe. We determined the BEST based on employee responses to our Trust Index Survey.
Click here to see the full list
Canada’s manufacturing industry is becoming increasingly automated. A recent RBC research paper has revealed that 50% of Canadian jobs will be disrupted by automation in the next 10 years. Of course, humans will continue to play an important role in this digital world, but skill sets will need to evolve.
Yes, digital literacy and technical skills will be essential, but “soft skills”—such as critical thinking, flexibility, collaboration and communication—will become increasingly important. Though most training and educational institutions are now teaching these 21st century skills, workplaces themselves must also create space to help existing employees develop skills for the future. And much of this requires fostering human connection.
Here’s how the Best Workplaces™ in Manufacturing are “retooling” their relationships with employees to create more human connection at work:
Connection with Customers
Quarterly Town Halls at BASF are an opportunity for leadership to share internal business updates with all employees. They are also an opportunity for employees to learn what is happening outside the organization, and forge connections with their customers. It is not uncommon for BASF to invite customers to speak at their Town Halls to provide employees with different perspectives on their product. This also creates a greater customer experience and more open communication between employees and the customer.
Connection with Community
At SC Johnson, employees are proud of their social and sustainable leadership; in Canada alone, each year over 1M dollars is invested back into local communities. Their employee-led Community Enrichment Team and a variety of community investment programs connect employees to this important work. As an example, their Dollars for Doers program encourages and recognizes employees who are engaged in a sustained volunteer commitment with a charity or non-profit. For every 40 hours an employee volunteers at a non-profit or charity the organization will receive a $500 contribution.
Connection with Co-workers
Employees are the face of diversity at Dow. Their different perspectives reflect the rich depth of experience and backgrounds that make Dow a world leader in science and technology. Networking, coaching and mentoring provide additional opportunities for people to grow personally and professionally throughout their Dow careers. They have ten employee resource groups—each with a senior executive sponsor—to bring people together to share experiences, find mentors, seek professional development, and gain access to senior leadership. Participation in the resource groups is open to all Dow employees.
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About our lists
Great Place to Work® publishes a series of Best Workplaces™ lists based on feedback from more than 300,000 employees at Great Place to Work Certified™ organizations across all industries in Canada. Employees complete an anonymous Trust Index© survey, answering questions about how frequently they experience behaviors that create a great workplace, including, the transparency of communication, degree of collaboration, quality of benefits programs, opportunity for professional development, and support for work-life balance. If 7/10 employees respond positively to the survey, the organization becomes Great Place to Work Certified™ for one year. Results from the survey are highly reliable, having a 95% confidence level with +/- 5% margin of error.
About Great Place to Work®
Great Place to Work® is the global authority on high-trust, high-performance workplace cultures. Through proprietary assessment tools, advisory services, and certification programs, GPTW recognizes the world's Best Workplaces™ in a series of national lists including those published by The Globe & Mail (Canada) and Fortune magazine (USA). Great Place to Work® provides the benchmarks, framework, and expertise needed to create, sustain, and recognize outstanding workplace cultures.
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