37,000 employee surveys power Forbes' best culture ranking: 42 Ontario firms shine

Company culture has transitioned from a soft HR concept to a hard metric in the war for talent. With Gallup research now showing engagement and culture as the top reasons workers quit, Forbes' new list — generated from one of Canada's largest employee-driven surveys — gives HR professionals a clear picture of which employers set the standard and a practical framework for evaluating their own culture initiatives.

Forbes has released its second annual ranking of Canada's Best Employers for Company Culture, a list built on the direct feedback of more than 37,000 Canadian employees. Conducted in partnership with market research firm Statista, the survey asked workers whether they would recommend their employer to others and to rate their employer on aspects of culture including fairness, inclusivity, and opportunity. The resulting top-100 list provides a data-driven snapshot of organizations that have built a compelling internal environment, and it reveals significant regional and sectoral patterns.

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Forbes has released its second annual ranking of Canada's Best Employers for Company Culture, a list built on the direct feedback of more than 37,000 Canadian employees.

The top of the list is again dominated by higher education and healthcare institutions. Université Laval in Quebec secured the No. 1 spot for the second consecutive year, followed by Université de Sherbrooke at No. 2. The highest-ranked Ontario employer was Oak Valley Health, a community hospital system, at No. 3. Manitoba Public Insurance came in fourth, and Alberta's Bethany Care Society, a seniors' care provider, rounded out the top five. Ontario as a whole made a particularly strong showing, with 42 of the 100 spots attributed to organizations based in the province. Among the other Ontario employers in the top 10 were George Brown College, Canadian Blood Services, Niagara Health System, and Home Hardware—a mix of post-secondary education, healthcare, not-for-profit, and retail. This pattern underscores the preponderance of public-sector and mission-driven organizations in the upper tiers of culture rankings, likely reflecting sustained investment in employee experience within these sectors.

The methodology behind the list is noteworthy. Rather than relying on HR-submitted data or executive interviews, Forbes and Statista solicited anonymous, voluntary ratings directly from employees. This design elevates the employee voice and aligns with broader HR trends toward continuous listening and people analytics. The survey's dimensions—fairness, inclusivity, opportunity—are increasingly central to employer value propositions in a tight labor market. In fact, the Forbes report itself noted that 'the intangible yet strong collective sense throughout the workplace can be summed up in one word: culture.' This perspective is reinforced by recent global research from Gallup, which found that 'engagement and culture' were the most prominent factors cited by employees who left their jobs. For organizations, this makes culture not just a soft factor but a measurable driver of retention and performance.

The geographic concentration of top employers in Ontario and Quebec is partly a function of population and economic density, but it also signals that these provinces may be ahead in institutionalizing culture-building practices. For smaller provinces and territories, the list could serve as a catalyst to examine why they are underrepresented and to invest in frameworks that amplify employee voice. The second-annual nature of the ranking also allows for trend analysis: repeat appearances by certain institutions suggest that a strong culture is maintained over time, while newcomers may indicate organizations that have successfully turned around their employee experience.