From an on-site beach volleyball court to ski passes, the perks of these innovative companies go beyond your usual employee benefits. It’s the attention to detail paid to health and wellness that sets these Canadian based organizations apart from other employers.
1. Free breakie
What it does: They manufacture and market organic breakfast cereal in Richmond, BC.
Why it’s on the list: Its employees get to dip into their line of hot and cold cereals and toaster pastries for a free and healthy breakfast. It also encourage enrolment in a wellness program and provide employees with an on-site fitness club.
2. Nap time
What it does: Retailer of outdoor recreation gear and clothing.
Why it’s on the list: Along with yoga classes and showers for employees who commute to work by bicycle, Mountain Equipment Co-op’s Toronto headquarters come complete with a nap room for some quick break-time shut-eye.
3. Participaction
What it does: Candy makers. They’re the people behind Snickers, M&Ms, Twix, Starburst, Skittles and much more.
Why it’s on the list: Even if employees indulge in the company’s own products a little too much, they can always work it off at the on-site fitness facility. It includes instructor-led classes, regular visits by a wellness coordinator, outdoor beach volleyball courts and an outdoor running trail. Mars Canada is rated as one of Canada’s top employers.
4. Not just fun and games
What it does: One of the most recognizable brands in the video game industry, this firm produces classic titles like the Madden franchise and The Sims.
Why it’s on the list: Their Burnaby-based studio is filled with games, a DJ setup (complete with disco ball), a basketball court, a yoga studio, a stellar gym and a subsidized cafeteria. Their fringe benefits include discounted lift tickets to Whistler, free and discounted games, RRSP match and employee stock purchase programs that let any employees buy discounted stock, with EA matching up to 10 per cent of base salary.
5. Instant vacation time
What it does: A “customer experience innovation firm” that specializes in designing unique online experiences for leading global brands.
Why it’s on the list: All employees start with three weeks of paid vacation and get a one-month sabbatical after four years of service. Performance rewards are also tailored to each employee to ensure that everyone gets what they want.
6. The air up there
What it does: A world leader in resort and adventure travel, known most for owning Whistler Blackcomb (and Vancouver.com).
Why it’s on the list: Vancouver-based staff are rewarded with free season’s passes to Whistler (good for spouses, too) Other perks include discount travel to many of its resorts and a better-than-average flex benefit program that gives each employee a say in what kind of coverage he or she gets.
7. Hail to the bus driver
What it does: Manufacturer of heavy duty transit buses.
Why it’s on the list: The Winnipeg-based company takes care of its employees with an annual staff wellness week that includes everything from flu shots to nutrition classes. They’re the only bus company certified in the OHSAS 18001 safety management system and as a result have seen a 57 per cent decrease in lost-time accidents over the past three years.
8. Play to your strengths
What it does: One of the top players in video game design field, they’ve produced award-winning games like The Hulk and The Simpson’s: Hit & Run.
Why it’s on the list: The Vancouver-based video game company, expectedly, sports a well appointed games room. Quite unexpectedly, it also has an indoor log cabin. On top of hardcore HR initiatives like well-designed career paths and leadership training for top performers, Radical also offers free passes to local ski hills, a state-of-the-art gym and on-site shiatsu massage.
9. Sporty Spice
What it does: They succinctly sum up what they do on their website with the tagline “We Build Mines.” Put another way, Cementation is an underground mine contracting and engineering company.
Why it’s on the list: Cementation’s dedication to internal sporting events puts them here. They host curling and golfing tournaments as well as weekly volleyball games for employees and their spouses.
10. Free fruit
What it does: They make a little mobile communication device called the BlackBerry
Why it’s on the list: RIM provides the now standard (for this list anyway) on-site massage services, flu shot clinics and discounted gym memberships to help employees stay healthy. It also gives new employees a free BlackBerry – on their first day – and covers usage and service fees.
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When Innovequity’s founders, Ben Bertrand and Mark Holtom, built the GCU prototype, they had a dream arrangement: access to well-equipped manufacturing and research facilities at Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT). But with the first orders on the horizon, they need to decide how they’ll manufacture the GCUs on a larger scale – and they need to do it economically and efficiently, or watch their profits disappear. Oh, and there’s one more challenge: they don’t want to do it themselves.
“Obviously we know we’re handing away a portion of the profit to a manufacturer, but that’s part of life,” says Holtom. “We have to consider the capital cost for us, risk versus reward, and recognize that there is still profit.” That leaves Innovequity with an age-old debate: to sign a contract with a Canadian manufacturer willing to take on extra business or seek a bargain overseas.
The Expert Panel
Our panel of experts weigh in on whether Innovequity should outsource their operations to China or India and why they represent the future of manufacturing in Canada
Behind the Scenes
Don’t get into bed with wishy-washy investors! This and other hard lessons the Innovequity duo learned
Video: Pick Up Sticks 
A peek at how Innovequity’s Geometric Construction System works
Links
Our round-up of useful links for start-ups from around the web
After a few weeks into my first job at a Big Federal Government Agency after I graduated from university, I was bewildered by many aspects of office-tower life. The most confounding problem, the one that seemed to exist for no reason other than to Make My Life Feel Like Crap, was the powerful rumour mill. I tried to get my work done, keep my head down, make a Good Impression, but was distracted by a slippery, hungry nest of vipers. Specifically, vipers drawing on the blood of gossip that flowed in, around and over the flimsy walls of our cubicles, sparing no one.
Psssst, June who works in accounting is pregnant again and the boss is pissed off about the timing. Brian? He only has that job because someone else got sick and there was no one else to appoint. Who’s the mystery creep-o, the person using the colour printer after hours to run off porn photos? The silent collective finger of the Mill pointed at a middle manager. Then there was the worst speculation: Who has slept with the boss? One woman, who was confrontational and largely disliked, became the target – which to the Mill neatly explained why she wasn’t fired.
One day I’d had enough with this venomous gossip. I went for drinks after work with two office friends whose “what the hell?” glances and shared eye-rolls during meetings told me they were also fed up. A martini-fuelled pact emerged that night: we wouldn’t talk trash about each other or anyone else at the office. We decided to see what would happen if we Just Said No. It went like this: Someone tells me something about you that bothers me, I promise to talk about it with you instead of behind your back. Someone baits me with trash, I blankly say “Huh?” – as if I don’t know what they’re talking about. This wasn’t about being dumb. It was about playing dumb. That ignorant “huh” means that I don’t care. Find someone else to talk to, snake-mouth.
It’s funny when someone comes to you with a particularly dirty piece of gossip and you listen politely, then innocently mumble, “Huh?” and turn back to your computer. First you become the object of the gossip: something is wrong with her. The first accusation lobbed at me was that I was sleeping with the boss. Right, that’s why I was given a raise and the office with a window. It had nothing to do with, you know, my work. The Mill threw the best they had at me and it bounced right off. The rumour reached my two friends, who listened to this juicy bit of trash, then each responded with a flat “Huh?”
We had disrupted the channel! Plugged the flow of information! That is the beauty of opting out of workplace gossip. It didn’t matter if these people think I had slept with the boss (I didn’t, for the record.) because our pact operated under the premise “Who cares?” And people, over time, appeared not to care. For my two friends and me, the rumours might as well have not existed. I was safe and I could work unfettered by this crap, at least with two other people.
The best part of opting out was unexpected. See, we had allies ready to take the pact. They saw what we were doing and began to say “Huh?” too. Soon the real culprits emerged. Over the next 18 months, the no-gossip movement at our office reached a critical mass, and the gossipers became increasingly marginalized. The three remaining gossips had no one to talk trash to except each other. And the rest of us were free to get on with our work. U
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