U of T named among Canada’s 10 best employers by Forbes magazine

The global media company's annual list of Canada's Best Employers ranks U of T 10th on its 2020 list – the highest of any university employer in Canada.

"We invest in our people so they can be their best at U of T,” said Erin Jackson, U of T's chief human resources officer in the division of Human Resources & Equity. "We have over 10,000 employees and a two per cent turnover rate, which is quite remarkable compared to other higher education institutions."

U of T attracts, retains and engages its workforce through a number of intentionally inclusive, diverse and equitable initiatives that support employees over various life and career stages. This year, HR & Equity introduced the role of Executive Director, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) to develop, enhance, and support the EDI work already being done across U of T's three campuses.

"The university has a longstanding and fundamental commitment to developing and advancing an intentionally inclusive working and learning environment," said Jackson. "From taking steps to close the gender pay gap to creating pathways for under-represented students and offering unconscious bias training for faculty and staff, we work hard to ensure our community investments are sustainable and tailored to meet the diverse needs of all members."

U of T offers eligible employees a comprehensive, competitive suite of benefits. For example, equitable compensation, generous parental leave and child care benefits, tuition waivers, phased retirement and a defined benefit pension plan are available for many faculty, librarians and staff. A True Blue Recognition Platform provides an online space to house many of the annual awards that make up U of T's formal recognition strategy and offers peer-to-peer functionality so that colleagues can informally recognize each other for small victories and day-to-day accomplishments.

The Forbes list of Canada's Best Employers surveys 8,000 Canadians working for businesses with at least 500 employees. Respondents are asked to rate how likely they would be to recommend their employer to others, and to nominate organizations other than their own. The final list ranks the 300 employers that receive the most recommendations.

U of T grads who co-founded booming startup Exact Media named to "Forbes 30 Under 30 List"

ullahnor — Thu, 12 Jan 2017 19:31:08 +0000

U of T grads who co-founded booming startup Exact Media named to "Forbes 30 Under 30 List"

ullahnor Thu, 01/12/2017 - 14:31

Cutline

(photo courtesy of Exact Media)

Ken McGuffin

John Lorinc

Author legacy

Ken McGuffin and John Lorinc

Topic

City & Culture

Entrepreneurship

Startup

Rotman School of Management

Forbes

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Other U of T alums on the list: Shopify's Satish Kanwar, Massdrop's Steve El-Hage, ROSS Intelligence's Jimoh Ovbiagele, and Cover's Ben Aneesh.

The co-founders of Toronto-based startup Exact Media, which has been described as the Airbnb of marketing, have been named to the 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 list of the young innovators and “change-makers” who are redefining industries from marketing to healthcare and education.

They are among several U of T alumni that made it to the list this year. U of T alumni were recognized in categories like consumer technology, law & policy, marketing and advertising, and retail and ecommerce.

Daniel Rodic and Elena Sahakyan are two of the four co-founders of Exact Media, a Toronto-based e-commerce sampling and coupon company. The two, who are graduates of U of T's Rotman Commerce program, were cited in the marketing and advertising category.

Exact Media buys excess space inside parcels that are being delivered to people who have made online purchases. The company then tucks samples of branded products into those spots. Brands pay Exact to find these spaces so that people purchasing towels online may receive a sample of Tide detergent or someone buying a swimsuit may get a bottle of Olay sunscreen.

The company's investors include Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, and it serves clients like Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, PepsiCo, L'Oréal, Pfizer and Mondelez,

In a recent profile in the Winter 2017 issue of U of T Magazine, Rodic says his career path was changed when he was accepted into The Next 36, an intensive entrepreneurship program co-founded by Ajay Agrawal, the Peter Munk Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Rotman School of Management.

“Through The Next 36, I got funding to start my first business, and that’s what pushed me toward a more entrepreneurial path,” Rodic says.

Rodic says the company grew out of discussions with an executive at Beyond the Rack, an online clothing retailer. The retailer was looking at ways of providing its customers with cosmetics samples. Together, they realized they could slip the samples into Beyond the Rack’s parcels.

With strong financial backing, Exact Media is planning to expand beyond North America within the next 18 months, possibly targeting the United Kingdom, Western Europe or Asia.

Forbes

U of T named among Canada’s 10 best employers by Forbes magazine

U of T grads who co-founded booming startup Exact Media named to "Forbes 30 Under 30 List"

Read more about Rodic and Sahakyan

Read more about Satish Kanwar

Read more about Ovbiagele