Aon Hewitt's Top 50 Best Employers in Canada Study Shows Slight Increase in Employee Engagement

TORONTO, Oct. 18, 2012 /CNW/ - Aon Hewitt, the global human resources consulting and outsourcing solutions business of Aon Corporation (NYSE: AON), today released its annual list of Best Employers in Canada. The 50 Best Employers are drawn from participants in the Best Employers in Canada Study. The study, based on employee and leader insights from 280 employers, reveals that employees were slightly more satisfied with their pay; however, they were less satisfied with processes in their workplace.

The primary requirement for being recognized as a Best Employer is creating and sustaining a highly engaged workforce, measured by asking employees at these organizations directly through a survey. According to Aon Hewitt's definition, employees are engaged when they "say, stay and strive": they speak positively about their employer to others, are committed to staying with their current employer, and are motivated by their organizations' leaders, managers, culture and values to go "above and beyond" to contribute to business success.

The average engagement score for the 2013 Best Employers was 79 per cent, an increase of one percentage point from last year. The average for other participants in the study was 60 per cent. Overall industry averages shifted in some key sectors since last year. Real estate and law firms are up strongly, by four and five percentage points respectively. The largest declines were in construction, engineering and pharmaceuticals, down four percentage points.

"This year we had the opportunity to gather the opinions of nearly 190,000 Canadian employees to understand what drives employee engagement," stated Neil Crawford, Aon Hewitt's leader of the Best Employers in Canada study. "Our research continues to demonstrate that the quality of coaching, recognition and motivation provided by managers is critical to building and sustaining high engagement."

"High employee engagement is strongly correlated with a range of productivity-related measures such as revenue per employee, absenteeism, and turnover," said Crawford. "Highly engaged employees have slightly more than one-half of the absenteeism of disengaged employees. This translates into an average difference of about six days per employee per year. If the total annual employee cost is $40,000, the productivity savings for high engagement could be as high as $1,000 per employee, per year from absenteeism alone."

About the Aon Hewitt Best Employers in Canada Study
This year marks the 14th anniversary of our national survey. There were 280 Canadian employers surveyed representing a total employee population of approximately 400,000. This study helps organizations accurately assess engagement and identifies strategies to drive engagement higher with more information and insight. Participants have access to the largest Canadian database of employee opinion to benchmark their results within their industry or sector and against Best Employers.

Aon Hewitt's 2013 List of the Best Employers in Canada
The following 50 Best Employers in Canada list will appear in the October 29th issue of Maclean's magazine and in the November 20th edition of La Presse.

2013 BES Ranking	50 Best Employers in Canada - 2013	2013 BES Ranking	50 Best Employers in Canada - 2013
1	Cisco Canada	26	Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics
2	EllisDon Corporation	27	OMERS Administration Corporation
3	Bennett Jones LLP	28	Conexus
4	CIMA+ Partenaire de génie	29	Vancity Group
5	Farm Credit Canada	30	TD Bank Group
6	Marriott Hotels of Canada ltd.	31	Novotel Canada
7	Green Shield Canada	32	Clark Builders
8	Chubb Insurance Company of Canada	33	Canadian Western Bank
9	Federal Express Canada	34	Holland College
10	McDonald's Restaurants of Canada Ltd	35	Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP
11	Flight Centre Canada	36	Delta Hotels and Resorts
12	Groupe Spinelli	37	Island Savings Credit Union
13	Keg Restaurants Ltd.	38	Cruickshank Group
14	Edward Jones	39	MNP
15	Coastal Community Credit Union	40	Aecon Group Inc.
16	LoyaltyOne Inc.	41	G&K Services Canada Inc
17	PCL Constructors Inc.	42	Banque Nationale
18	Hatch Ltd.	43	Allstate Insurance Company of Canada
19	Birchwood Automotive Group	44	Golder Associates Ltd.
20	BC Biomedical Laboratories Ltd.	45	Polygon Security (Viking Fire Protection)
21	BBA INC	46	GlaxoSmithKline Inc.
22	The Co-operators	47	Pomeroy Inn and Suites Inc.
23	SAP Canada Inc.	48	Graham Group Ltd.
24	Stikeman Elliott LLP	49	Dillon Consulting Limited
25	Starwood Hotels & Resorts Canada	50	Westminster Savings

To learn more about the Best Employers studies and register online to participate, please visit the Best Employers Web site at www.hewitt.com/bestemployerscanada.

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About Aon Hewitt
Aon Hewitt is the global leader in human resources solutions. The company partners with organizations to solve their most complex benefits, talent and related financial challenges, and improve business performance. Aon Hewitt designs, implements, communicates, and administers a wide range of human capital, retirement, investment management, health care, compensation and talent management strategies. With more than 29,000 professionals in 90 countries, Aon Hewitt makes the world a better place to work for clients and their employees. For more information on Aon Hewitt, please visit www.aonhewitt.com.

About Aon
Aon plc NYSE:AON is the leading global provider of risk management, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, and human resources solutions and outsourcing services. Through its more than 61,000 colleagues worldwide, Aon unites to empower results for clients in over 120 countries via innovative and effective risk and people solutions and through industry-leading global resources and technical expertise. Aon has been named repeatedly as the world's best broker, best insurance intermediary, reinsurance intermediary, captives manager and best employee benefits consulting firm by multiple industry sources. Visit www.aon.com for more information on Aon and www.aon.com/manchesterunited to learn about Aon's global partnership and shirt sponsorship with Manchester United.

 

 

 

SOURCE: AON Hewitt

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