OTTAWA, ONTARIO — The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) has again been named among the 2021 Top Employers in the National Capital Region.
Launched in 2006, the National Capital Region’s Top Employers is an annual competition organized by the editors of Canada’s Top 100 Employers. This special designation recognizes employers in the Ottawa-Gatineau metropolitan area that lead their industries in offering exceptional places to work. The editors evaluated companies on eight criteria:
- Physical workplace
- Work atmosphere and social
- Health
- Financial and family benefits
- Vacation and time off
- Employee communications
- Performance management
- Training and skills development, and
- Community involvement.
This year's winners were announced today in the Ottawa Citizen.
Read: National Capital Region's Top Employers: Winners' list
Among the reasons why the CFI was selected as one of the National Capital Region’s Top Employers:
- It offers excellent family-friendly benefits, which include maternity and parental leave top-up for mothers, fathers and adoptive parents,
- Along with four weeks of starting vacation allowance, the CFI helps employees balance work and their personal lives with a number of flexible working arrangements and up to six paid personal days off each year; and,
- As part of the organization’s health benefits plan, the CFI offers a wellness spending account that can be used for related expenses such as gym memberships and fitness equipment. This year, the CFI increased the annual allotment for wellness spending accounts from $750 to $1,000 to help cover the costs of home office set-up for employees working from home.
“CFI staff members have demonstrated extraordinary resilience and innovation in working together virtually to deliver necessary support to the research community across the country despite the challenges of the pandemic,” said Roseann O’Reilly Runte, CFI President and CEO. “This award is a tribute to a fine team and recognizes our shared efforts to understand needs and facilitate working from home while maintaining good communications, sharing ideas and finding creative ways to come together using technology.”
While it is the fifth time in a row the CFI has earned this distinction, this year’s award is of particular significance as the CFI’s staff members demonstrated their resilience and adjusted to the challenges brought on by the pandemic. Despite working remotely, the staff found innovative ways to continue to make the CFI a great place to work.