Alberta's Top Employers (2025) Magazine - Flipbook - Page 26
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ALBERTA’S TOP EMPLOYERS (2025)
ATCO focuses on employees’ well-being and growth
A
ndy Tan thinks for a
few moments before
honing in on the first
time he realized
Calgary-based ATCO
Ltd. was an excellent employer:
his first Hot Dog Friday.
At the end of most weeks, the
operations manager at the ATCO
Heartland Energy Centre buys hot
dogs for colleagues like Tan, and
often invites contractors or visitors
to join too. Tan, an operations
engineer who started at the ATCO
facility northeast of Edmonton in
January 2022, says he remembers
the first lunch he attended because
he was taken aback by the friendly
atmosphere, the laughter and the
way the informal event made him
feel connected to his new peers.
“You feel that sort of belonging
because people really want you to
be there,” Tan says of the culture
at ATCO. “You feel like you’re part
of a team, like you’re engaged. It’s
really an amazing thing.”
Engagement has been a running
theme throughout Tan’s time at
ATCO, a diversified energy, logistics and engineering company
with operations in Canada, the
United States, Australia, Mexico
and beyond. Tan was drawn
to ATCO partly because of its
commitment to renewable energy
initiatives – which is the focus of
his business unit, ATCO EnPower
– particularly its efforts to develop
hydrogen into an alternative
renewable fuel source.
Tan says ATCO leaders really
prioritize people throughout
its operations. They do that by
helping employees advance their
careers, and by promoting worklife balance in multiple ways.
“ATCO wants to make sure their
people are doing well,” he says.
“They are very good at creating a
safe, inclusive environment.” As
one example, he mentions ATCO’s
mental health initiatives, which
include giving employees a mental
health day off and up to $3,000 of
mental health benefits each year,
over and above other benefits.
Deanna Girard, vice president
of human resources, remembers the genesis of the $3,000
mental health benefit. During the
pandemic, there was a clear need
to increase the reimbursements
for employees’ psychological
health, and Girard suggested to a
top executive that the benefit at
the time should double to $2,000.
But the executive said, “Nope, we
need to move to $3,000,” Girard
says, recalling the conversation.
“ATCO truly is a place that cares
for people. Caring is one of our
core values, and aligns with my
own personal values.”
You feel like you’re part of
a team, like you’re engaged.
It’s really an amazing thing.
— Andy Tan
Operations Engineer
ATCO prioritizes wellness, providing its employees with a mental health day off and generous mental health
benefits.
Girard says that when ATCO
leaders think about how to treat
their employees, they consider “the whole human being,
beginning with the need for a
sense of safety and belonging
and security.” The company also
prioritizes employees’ financial
health through fair compensation programs, its benefits and
pension programs, an employee
share-purchase program, and the
many learning and development
initiatives it offers.
Another way the company
expresses its caring corporate
culture is through its Employees
