Greater Toronto's Top Employers (2026) Magazine - Magazine - Page 102
102
( 2026)
SPONSOR CONTENT
Distance can’t divide the Ontario Dental Association
A
fter the pandemic,
the Ontario Dental
Association decided
to maintain the flexible work policy it had
adopted. To this day, employees of
the professional association representing 12,000 dentists in Ontario
have the choice of coming into the
office five days a week, dividing
their time between home and
office, or working fully remotely.
“We view that as a competitive
advantage, particularly now with
many employers forcing their
employees to go back to the office
four or five days a week,” says CEO
Frank Bevilacqua.
When people don’t
spend each and every
day together, sometimes having that faceto-face interaction
allows people to develop those relationships
that are key to a highly
effective, functioning
team.
— Frank Bevilacqua
CEO
To nurture teamwork in the
absence of a common workspace,
ODA has taken pains to codify
and instill a common set of values
with a unified purpose of making
a positive difference for dentistry,
striving for excellence, acting with
integrity and creating an inclusive
work environment.
Every quarter, the organization
Employees at the Ontario Dental Association work closely with member dentist volunteers to achieve the
organization’s goals.
hosts an Anchor Day event, where
all 65 employees get together for
training (recent ones have taken a
deeper dive into each of the ODA’s
values) and a fun social activity.
“When people don’t spend each
and every day together, sometimes
having that face-to-face interaction
allows people to develop those
relationships that are key to a
highly effective, functioning team,”
Bevilacqua says.
This past fall, ODA also adopted
Kudos as a way for employees to
publicly recognize other team
members who go the extra mile.
Kudos is an online platform where
employees can send thanks, acknowledge great work and interact
with each other.
Anchor Days and the Kudos
program “really deepen those
connections outside of the dayto-day work and strengthen our
shared sense of purpose,” says
Sara Cleland, senior manager,
government relations and advocacy. Cleland, who joined ODA two
years ago, is one of the employees
who works remotely.
“I work primarily out of my
home in Guelph, and then I go into
the office in Toronto for committee
meetings and opportunities to
interact with members directly,”
she says. “I just appreciate the
work-life balance it provides. I can
take a break at five o’clock and take
the dog to the park, come back and
respond to emails.”
The association combines this
flexibility with a comprehensive
benefits plan. In recent years, it
has been enhanced with a range
of mental health supports and a
defined-benefit pension through
the multi-employer CAAT Pension
Plan.
