Canadian HR Reporter, 2022 5-Star Rewards and Recognition Award

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This year, COR received the Canadian HR Reporter 5-Star Rewards & Recognition Award for a company sized 100-499 employees!

Click here to visit hrreporter.com to learn more

Rewarding dedicated employees

If there was ever a time when employee rewards and recognition (R&R) were needed, it’s during the ongoing pandemic. As many people struggle — whether they are retail or health care front-liners, or parents working from home while taking care of their kids, or single people increasingly isolated from coworkers — feeling valued and appreciated by their employer is much more important.

To that end, several Canadian organizations not only maintained an impressive focus on recognition during the past two years, but upped their offerings to recognize the hard work of staff and boost morale. Canadian HR Reporter spoke with three of the 13 5-Star Rewards and Recognition winners to learn about their unique programs.

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COR Receives Canada’s Healthy Workplace 2021 Great Employer Award

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COR has once again received Canada’s Healthy Workplace Great Employer Award by Excellence Canada and Canada Life. We are so very proud of our COR family and tremendously grateful to everyone who has supported our effort in building a healthy workplace! Read about the award below:

Excellence Canada announces the 2021 Canada’s Healthy Workplace Month® Great Employers

TORONTO, Dec. 06, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Excellence Canada is pleased to announce the 2021 Canada’s Healthy Workplace Month® Great Employers. These organizations are being celebrated for their planning and actions to foster physically and psychologically safe and healthy workplaces, striving to continually improve across four main areas of focus, namely:

Physical Health

This element of a healthy workplace refers to how well an organization supports employees to develop and maintain healthy behaviours (exercise, nutrition, sleep, etc.) reduce unhealthy/risky habits and make optimal use of health care opportunities. It also refers to workplace due diligence regarding Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) and the management of workplace influences that may contribute to injuries, disabilities and/or fatalities. Facility design, including air quality, noise, lighting, and other physical workplace factors are also important aspects that impact employee physical health and well-being.

Mental Health

This element of a healthy workplace refers to how the organization encourages a supportive workplace culture – the foundation of a healthy workplace. This element speaks to how the culture encourages respect, trust, support, and inclusivity. It refers to communication styles and patterns of relationships and values that influence employee health, safety, and well-being.

Social Health

Social well-being in the workplace reflects employee relationships with coworkers, interactions with management, and a sense of belonging within the organization as a whole. It is a measure of an employee’s interpersonal relationships both inside and outside of work and includes aspects such as connectedness, collaboration, recognition and rewards, engagement, influence, growth and development, and intellectual health.

Community

Being a socially responsible organization empowers employees to leverage corporate resources at their disposal to do good. Formal social responsibility programs boost employee morale and productivity in the workforce. This element of a healthy workplace refers to the interrelationship between the workplace, the community, and employee health, safety and well-being, including the way organizations are involved in the community, support environmental stewardship, economic responsibility, and social justice; and how employees are encouraged to participate, volunteer, and ‘give back’ to the community.

This year’s recipients are, in alphabetical order:

AGS Rehab Solutions Inc. Mississauga ON
CanmetENERGY-Ottawa, Natural Resources Canada Nepean ON
CHEO (Pediatric health care and research centre) Ottawa ON
Connecting Care & Points West Living Edmonton AB
Creative Options Regina Regina SK
Hamilton Health Sciences Hamilton ON
Health Standards Organization (HSO) Ottawa ON
Lethbridge College Lethbridge AB
McMaster University Hamilton ON
Saskatchewan Blue Cross Saskatoon SK
Unbounce Vancouver BC
WorkTango Toronto ON

Find out what it takes to be a Canada’s Healthy Workplace Month® Great Employer

About Excellence Canada
Excellence Canada is an independent, not-for-profit corporation that is committed to advancing organizational excellence across Canada. As a national authority on Organizational Excellence, Healthy Workplace®, and Mental Health at Work® awards, Excellence Canada provides excellence frameworks, standards, and independent verification and certification to organizations of all sizes and in all sectors. It is also the custodian and adjudicator of the Canada Awards for Excellence program.

“Canada’s Healthy Workplace Month” , “Healthy Workplace”, and “Mental Health at Work” are Registered Trademarks of Excellence Canada.

Michael Lavis earns Canada’s Most Admired CEO — Broader Public Sector for 2021

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In 2021, COR CEO Michael Lavis earned the title of Canada’s Most Admired CEO in the Broader Public Sector from Waterstone Human Capital.

Learn more about 2021’s winners here.

Michael Lavis

Michael Lavis is the founding CEO of Creative Options Regina (COR) — a for-impact, charitable organization that develops personalized support services for people experiencing disability in Regina, Saskatchewan. Under Michael’s leadership, COR has grown to become one of Saskatchewan’s largest support providers serving both vulnerable youth and adults in-care. Michael is passionately committed to nurturing a culture of gentleness within the workplace, transforming care by focusing on employee experience.

As a purpose-driven leader, Michael embraces a culture of continuous learning, recently completing a MA in Leadership with a specialization is values from Royal Roads University. Additionally, he has a MA in Human Security and Peacebuilding, coupled with a BA in International Relations from the University of Saskatchewan, and has completed a number of leadership certificate programs. Michael has over fifteen years of global experience developing opportunities for marginalized individuals; from South America to Africa, and Southeast Asia to Canada, Michael has worked and researched extensively within various international organizations. Michael is passionately committed to strengthening the disability services sector in Saskatchewan and to forge out new beginnings for the province’s most vulnerable citizens. In addition to his work at COR, Michael serves on the Board of Directors of Service Hospitality, Caledonian Curling Club, and is an advisory committee member of the Conference Board of Canada’s Council on Workplace Health and Wellness. COR has been recognized as one of Canada’s Most Admired Corporate Cultures – Broader Public Sector (2020), one of Saskatchewan’s Top Employers (2018-2021), Canada’s Top 100 Employers (2021), and recipient of Canada’s Healthiest Workplaces Award (2019 & 2020).

Gentle Teaching Stories: “It’s all about love, feeling safe and providing a safety net to people we love.”

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Proud to be named among Canada’s Top 100 Employers (2022)

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Today, we celebrate our entire COR family!

When we laid the foundation for COR twelve short years ago, we knew we wanted to be different. We embraced the life work of Dr. John McGee and wove his philosophy of Gentle Teaching throughout all aspects of our organization. We partnered with leaders around the world to listen, learn and mould COR into what it is today!

What we didn’t realize at the time was the uniqueness of what we were crafting together! We nurtured a caring community of people by leading with purpose and rallying around a set of shared values. Together, we cultivated an environment where people feel safe and valued, while continuing to rally a growing cadre of people around a common vision: Empowering People, Inspiring Change. 

For us, nurturing a Culture of Gentleness has proven to be the perfect counter story to outdated narratives of support. At COR, we support people not clients; we craft companions not employees; we build homes not houses; we see value and dignify rather than find fault and humiliate; we engage with community rather than watch it pass us by.  And we CARE – for our entire COR family.

Our continued growth (and impact) over the past decade has garnered both provincial and national attention, most notably achieving Saskatchewan’s Top Employer recognition (2018-2021), Canada’s Healthiest Workplace Award (2019-2020), along with Canada’s Most Admired Corporate Cultures Award (2021). And today, we again raise our heads with great pride as we have just been awarded the prestigious CANADA’S TOP 100 EMPLOYERS Award for 2022.

Canada's Top 100 Employers 2022

COR is proud to be named one of Canada’s Top Employers 2022

We are so tremendously grateful to everyone who has supported us and championed our efforts over the past decade – this recognition is because of you! We are so incredibly thankful.

To our COR family: Thank you for making a difference in the lives of those we serve – everyday! We are so proud to have you as part of our family.

 

With immense gratitude,

Michael and Jim

 

Click to read full announcement.

Revealed: Best Places to Work (2021) by Canadian HR Reporter

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Today, Canadian HR Reporter unveiled its list of top employers based on key metrics, employee feedback — COR is incredibly proud to be recognized as one of CANADA’S BEST PLACES TO WORK (2021).

Revealed: Best Places to Work 2021

Cover Page: Canadian HR Reporter Magazine

 

 

Looking to hear more about why Creative Options Regina is among the 2021 Best Places to Work, Canadian HR Reporter spoke with Casey Sakires, employee experience advisor.