Released on January 16, 2008
Minister responsible for Innovation Place Lyle Stewart today congratulated Innovation Place on being named one of Canada's Top 25 Best Small and Medium Employers. The award recognizes outstanding Canadian employers that have highly engaged employees, relative to the other organizations surveyed. ‘Engagement' is a measure of involvement and commitment to the organization's success.
"Our research parks have a reputation for excellence around the world and that has been achieved in no small part through the dedication and commitment of the people who work there," Stewart said. "This award confirms our belief that people are our strength, and I congratulate the Innovation Place employees on this prestigious designation."
Innovation Place is the organization responsible for managing the province's research parks in Saskatoon and Regina as well as the Forest Centre in Prince Albert.
"It's an honour to be recognized as an organization where staff are fully engaged in their work and take great pride in supporting the company's mission," Innovation Place president and CEO Douglas Tastad said. "The true reward for me is being able to work with such dedicated individuals on a daily basis."
This is the fourth year of the Best Small and Medium Employers (BSME) in Canada study, supplementing the prestigious Globe and Mail Report on Business Magazine's 50 Best (larger) employers study, now entering its tenth year. A hallmark of these studies is the fact that the results are based on the opinions of the "ultimate experts" in employer quality, namely the employees themselves.
The list of BSME employers is compiled by Queen's University School of Business based on methodology developed with Hewitt Associates, the world's largest human resources outsourcing and consulting firm. For this year, more than 150 employers registered to participate, of which 70, including Innovation Place, ultimately qualified to compete for Best Employer status. The top 25 employers of choice who made the list are profiled in the Globe and Mail.
About Innovation Place
Innovation Place employs over 100 people and operates 1.6 million square feet of facilities that support organizations in the advanced technology sector. Innovation Place has over 180 clients in Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert; those clients contribute over $500 million annually to the provincial economy and employ 3,500 people.
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For more information, contact:
Austin Beggs
Innovation Place
Saskatoon
Phone: 306-933-7464
Email: beggs@innovationplace.com
Cell: 306-227-1636
Sandra Olszowka
Queen's University
Kingston
Phone: 877-955-1800
Email: solszowka@business.queensu.ca