The DataKinetics Ltd. office in Ottawa Canada has been awarded one of the “Top-10 Best Places to Work Ottawa,” as selected by the Ottawa Business Journal and the Ottawa Board of Trade. “This is a huge honor for us’” said DataKinetics CEO Allan Zander. “Our management team has worked very hard to build a positive and welcoming culture for the company. We have always believed that our employees are our company’s most important assets, and this spotlights it perfectly.”
While the actual ranking won’t be known until the awards gala on September 28th, the company’s “Top-10” finish was announced this week, and the result was no surprise to the local employees of DataKinetics. “I can tell you that this is no joke—DataKinetics truly is one of the best places to work in Ottawa; the very best, as far as I’m concerned.” said Danny Chin, a DataKinetics software engineer. “I started working at DataKinetics 33 years ago, and have been working with many of the same people for much of that time. Some people have retired, and more have been brought on board since then, but when you work here, you generally want to stay!”
“In my time at DataKinetics, we have celebrated our 20th, 30th and 40th anniversaries, and now we’re celebrating our 45th, and things have never looked brighter than they do today. DataKinetics is a living and growing company, and even though many things have changed over the years, we still have many of the same customers we had 25 years ago. In fact, some of our customers date back before I started with the company,” Chin added.
“There’s more to it than just being a successful company with many high-profile customers—people don’t stick around just for that.” said DataKinetics Senior Software Developer Gary Weinhold (25 years with DataKinetics). “People love to work here because it is a community—being a part of a group of smart people driven to succeed while enjoying their time on the job as part of a team. It’s about a company’s energy, respect for employees, collaboration, and innovation, combined with openness, an appreciation of work-life balance, and limits on red tape, avoidance of undue stress and an ability to change direction when it makes sense,” said Weinhold.
Both Danny and Gary mentioned that the company’s success in the eyes of employees goes beyond the workplace—they have great spirit, playing volleyball at lunch, enjoying Christmas parties, and participating in charity events, with the company even providing paid volunteer days. In addition, DataKinetics has a long record of charitable activity over the years, including the Ottawa Hospital, the United Way, the Children’s Wish Foundation and many more. “One of the things we are most proud of is our long-running string of unbroken years of 100% employee contributions to these charities—unmatched in any Ottawa tech company.” said Allan Zander.
The combination of workplace and non-workplace team building has been spear-headed by Allan, who has created a culture where people are free to create and explore, and instituted many activities designed to encourage camaraderie such as Tuesday Company Lunch Day, company season’s tickets to the local hockey team—the Ottawa Senators—to be used by anyone in the company, and a healthy employee training budget. Employees also receive time off for personal days beyond regular vacation days, and are regularly recognized for important company milestones—most recently, an all-employee gourmet dinner at Allan’s home—cooked and catered by Allan himself—to celebrate the company’s 45th anniversary.
As Danny Chin put it, “The company obviously cares about the employees—that’s why I love working here, and probably why so many others stick around long-term as well.”