Earlier this week I attended the Market Yourself Smarter breakfast session in Vancouver where the results of the The Top Employers Who Walk the Talk 2006 Survey were released.  According to the handout given to attendees, the survey was focused on understanding employee engagement from the employee’s view.  The goal was to ask employees in a safe and confidential environment, how they felt about their world of work.  The survey sponsors (Market Yourself Smarter & The Collin Baer Group) wanted to understand employee views on their employer and what it means to walk the talk.  They also wanted to know if an employee would recommend their employer to their best friend as a place to work.

The Western Canada Finalist Companies recognized by ranking were:

1. University College of the Fraser Valley
2. Urban Systems
3. Flight Centre Canada
4. Pacific Western Brewing Company
5. Schlumberger Canada Ltd.
6. Rocky Mountaineer Vacations
7. VanCity Credit Union
8. The Ethical Funds Company/Credential Financial
9. British Columbia Institute of Technology
10. TransCanada Pipelines Ltd.

The results of the survey for Eastern Canada will be released on October 23, 2006 in Toronto.

So, what does it mean to you for an employer to "Walk the Talk"?

This is the theme for the 2007 Health, Work & Wellness Conference – October 17 – 20, 2007.

Here is an excerpt from the conference promo documents:

“Which one of us is not feeling the crunch of greater work-life conflict?  In order to deal with the competing demands of the 24/7 workplace along with childcare and eldercare issues for many, we’ve begun to rely on timesaving technological devices.  At first it was a godsend, a time-saver, a way to speed up and streamline how we worked and what we acheived in a busy business day.  It gave us instant access to phone calls and emails, wireless connections for our laptops and PDA’s, anywhere, any time of the day or night, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, year in and year out…it became a nightmare.  Conference 2007 will tackle this issue.  We will explore the research,  trends and solutions surrounding the 24/7 work-life conflict and the blessing and curse of technology.”

Health, Work & Wellness is planning for conference presentations in the streams of – Getting Smart, Working Smart, Growing Smart, Leading Smart and Personal Smarts.  (The main focus of the streams ranging from research to leadership to policy and practice to personal strategies.) Further information can be found in the Call for Proposals document.

Do you know an individual, organization, researcher or initiative that would make a great session?  Please encourage them to apply to present at this great conference.