Participants in the Grand Défi (grand challenge) ULaval pose with the sports equipment available to employees who join the health challenge at Université Laval. Université Laval, Yan Doulet Though universities are often stereotyped as ivory towers detached from practical realities, the Université Laval in Quebec City breaks that mold wide open. The administration, faculty and staff have made it their mission to create a welcoming campus environment that represents its surrounding community and fosters accessible lifelong learning, employee wellbeing, innovative research and professional development. In short, ULaval recognizes the importance of a positive organizational culture. “To develop this culture, you need everyday engagement and commitment to the values you’re representing and promoting,” says Sophie D’Amours, the rector of the university. One way ULaval does this is by including a wide range of stakeholders in strategic planning task forces so that perspectives from across the community have a voice in how the university operates. “Our students, staff, professors, and partners in the community really embraced this idea of coming along for this exercise and being a part of informing us and participating in brainstorming,” says D’Amours. As a result of this active participation, employees and other individuals with a vested interest in the university have consistently had a hand in creating the organization’s culture, and in helping Université Laval earn the No. 1 spot on Forbes’ inaugural list of Canada’s Best Employers For Company Culture. To create this new ranking, Forbes partnered with market research firm Statista and surveyed more than 40,000 Canadian-based workers employed at companies with at least 500 people in the country. Survey respondents (who remained anonymous so they could answer freely) were asked if they would recommend their employer to others and to rate it based on a range of company culture-related topics involving fairness, inclusivity and opportunity. For instance, participants were asked whether their employer recognizes good performance, encourages a healthy work-life balance, values input and ideas from employees across the organization, prioritizes collaboration among coworkers and provides avenues to advance. Respondents were also asked if they would recommend their previous employers (within the past two years) and those they knew through industry experience or through friends or family who worked there. Data from the past three years of Forbes-Statista employee surveys were incorporated into a scoring system, with heavier weights placed on the more recent data and on recommendations from current employees. Each company ultimately received a score, and the 200 organizations with the highest scores made our new list. In addition to Université Laval, two other universities ranked in the top five of this list: Humber Polytechnic (No. 4) and Université de Sherbrook (No. 5). Martin Bisaillon, vice president of human resources and community development at Université de Sherbrooke, says that it’s not an accident that the university, located in the province of Quebec, is known for its compassionate culture. Leadership has focused on building a “healthy, inclusive, and fulfilling work environment based on the real needs expressed by its community,” he says. The university consistently runs internal campaigns focused on listening, respect, and open-mindedness, he says, and the organization “greatly values work-life balance and overall well-being.” ULaval also emphasizes employee wellbeing and has taken a novel approach to promoting it: The “Grand défi” (grand challenge) ULaval is a program that offers employees support in managing various aspects of their health, including “the way they handle stress, how they sleep, and their nutrition,” says D’Amours. Conceived by a university task force as a pilot program almost two years ago, participants in the Grand défi ULaval receive one-on-one health assessments with a healthcare professional that determine the areas in which they might benefit from new habits, and then they are given the resources to change those habits over twelve weeks. Whether it involves free access to the university’s training rooms and sports equipment, consultations with a faculty nutritionist, time away from work to meditate, or testing with new cardiopulmonary technologies, everyone is provided with the support they need to improve their health. Participants also split into teams and motivate each other with friendly competition. The first cohort of the grand challenge reported positive results related to their physical health, mental health and productivity, so the program is now being implemented throughout the university. “People came to us, some crying, saying this was an incredible gift,” says D’Amours. “People may think you need to give employees more money to be happy, but it’s not always true. You need to give a fair and good salary, but there are a lot of other things that an employer could do.” Indeed, this program revealed that providing employees with a healthy environment and supportive culture can be critical to employee satisfaction and engagement. Heather Haslam, vice president of marketing at ADP Canada (No. 9), says that her company’s positive culture stems from the fact that leaders are encouraged to get to know their team members, and they’re given the time to do so. “Leaders get to know what their people’s drivers are, how they want to be recognized, what their career aspirations are, what they want to develop, and what work life balance they want,” says Haslam. For instance, “we all want to be recognized in different ways,” she says. “We have people on our team who don’t want their birthday recognized whereas I’m celebrating for the whole month of my birthday,” and leaders at ADP Canada are mindful of these individual preferences. Similarly, some employees may be working toward an opportunity to transition into a new role while Haslam says that currently, she values the flexibility she has to “jump out in the middle of the day to cheer my son on at the soccer pitch.” Each of these individual priorities are taken into account at ADP. How do ADP leaders learn what their team members need? They have a range of ways to connect with each other including regular group roundtables, weekly one-on-one meetings, anonymous polls and transparent conversations. One online platform, for example, allows each person’s manager to see how their direct reports felt about the previous week. “My leaders get to see what I loved about this week and what I loathed,” says Haslam. This knowledge is then used to give employees more opportunities to do the tasks that they love and do well. Haslam also sits down with her team as a group each week to dissect what’s working and what can be done to improve their processes. “It’s our team. Not my plan,” Haslam says. “Culture isn’t just top down. We all impact this. We all have a role, and it’s amazing what folks can come up with.” Another way that ADP Canada ensures that employees feel supported and valued: There is no stigma around taking vacations. “There is very much an understanding that we must take our necessary breaks so that when we’re back, we’re better,” explains Haslam. And best of all, there’s no “time off tax”—which she describes as having to do extra work before and after a vacation—because colleagues have each other’s backs, and step in to keep projects moving when a team member is out. This allows employees to truly disconnect while they’re away from work. Celeste Burgoyne, president of the Americas and global guest innovation at Lululemon Athletica (No. 11)—officially written as “lululemon athletica”—credits the company’s collaborative culture with helping the team get through the pandemic. “It was a time of uncertainty, and our teams showed up with unwavering courage and care,” she says. “We kept all employees on payroll, launched digital tools to support mental wellbeing, and stayed rooted in one guiding belief: if life works, work works.” For the 200 organizations on this inaugural list, each company’s culture has enhanced both the life and work of its employees. For the full list of Canada’s Best Employers for Company Culture, click here. METHODOLOGY To determine our inaugural list of Canada’s Best Employers for Company Culture, Forbes partnered with market research firm Statista and surveyed more than 40,000 Canadian-based workers employed at companies with at least 500 people in the country. Survey respondents (who remained anonymous so they could answer freely) were asked if they would recommend their employer to others and to rate it based on a range of company culture-related topics involving fairness, inclusivity and opportunity. For instance, participants were asked whether their employer recognizes good performance, encourages a healthy work-life balance, values input and ideas from employees across the organization, prioritizes collaboration among coworkers and provides avenues to advance. Respondents were also asked if they would recommend their previous employers (within the past two years) and those they knew through industry experience or through friends or family who worked there. Data from the past three years of Forbes-Statista employee surveys were incorporated into a scoring system, with heavier weights placed on the more recent data and on recommendations from current employees. Each company ultimately received a score, and the 200 organizations with the highest scores made our new list. As with all Forbes lists, companies pay no fee to participate or be selected. To read more about how we make these lists, click here. For questions about this list, please email listdesk [at] forbes.com. Forbes/Statista Got a tip? Share confidential information with Forbes. Editorial StandardsReprints & Permissions