Environics Communications #1 on the List of Canada’s Best Workplaces

Toronto, April 13, 2010 – Environics Communications has earned the #1 ranking on the list of Canada’s 75 Best Workplaces. Generated by the Great Place to Work® Institute using a unique employee survey approach, the 2010 “Best Workplaces in Canada” list was published today in The Globe and Mail.

“We are honoured to be recognized as the number one workplace in Canada by the Great Place to Work Institute, particularly because of the strong voice given to employees in their selection process,” says Bruce MacLellan, president of Environics Communications. “A trusting and supportive workplace is deeply engrained in our firm and is a major competitive edge in our success in serving our clients.”

The Great Place to Work model is based on the concept that a great workplace is measured by the quality of three interconnected relationships within the work environment: the relationship between employees and management; the relationship between employees and their jobs/organization; and the relationship between employees and other employees.

With more than 20 years of experience, the Great Place to Work’s employee survey gathers feedback on Canadian companies, providing an accurate measurement of relationships and overarching culture. Environics team members completed the Best Workplaces survey, giving the company near-perfect marks for a caring environment, training and development, ethical management, celebration of success, community support and overall fairness, among other criteria.

Notable programs at Environics include annual profit-sharing for all employees, company-paid trips on key anniversary dates, an annual company retreat, generous professional development funding, and a friendly, relaxed culture.

The list of “Best Workplaces in Canada” was compiled for The Globe and Mail's Report on Business by the Great Place to Work Institute Canada. The competition process is based on two criteria: two-thirds of the total score comes from a 57-statement survey completed by a random selection of employees, along with their open-ended comments about their organization; the remaining one-third of the score comes from an in-depth review of the organization’s culture, including an evaluation of HR policies and procedures.

This offers a rigorous representation of the organization from an employee perspective, and an overall portrait of the workplace culture. Together they provide crucial data relative to the five trust-building dimensions of a great place to work: credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie.