BC's Top Employers (2026) Magazine - Magazine - Page 4
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H.MOFFATT/SEASPAN
BC’S TOP EMPLOYERS (2026)
Interns at the head office of Seaspan, overlooking its shipyards in North Vancouver.
Top Employers ready to meet province’s hiring challenges
More than one million B.C. job openings forecast for the next decade
R
ecruitment for any type of
employer in British Columbia
is always a challenge, and with
the provincial government
projecting one million job
openings in the next decade, the difficulties will only grow, along with the need to
close critical skills gaps.
This year’s winners of the BC’s Top
Employers competition are well aware of
what lies ahead, and they are united in
finding new ways to attract fresh talent,
provide on-the-job training and help
advance their employees’ careers.
Nowhere is this more evident than at
Seaspan Shipyards in North Vancouver.
Seaspan is the only shipyard in Canada
that constructs polar icebreakers, which,
along with other vessels under construction or in the planning stages, require
diverse and often advanced trade skills.
“Training is conducted right here in
North Vancouver, and recipients include
women and visible minorities, whom we
focus a lot of our recruitment efforts on,”
says Joanna Sanchez, senior director, HR
Centres of Excellence at Seaspan
Shipyards.
Indeed, in February of this year,
Seaspan announced a $2.5-million
investment to create new skills training
and apprenticeship opportunities for
Indigenous people wanting to pursue a
career in the marine industry. Through
this five-year program, students will
receive trades training support in areas
such as metal fabrication, welding or other
shipbuilding trades.
This focus on training extends across
the province’s top employers, says Cypress
Weston, assistant editor of the Canada’s
Top 100 Employers project.
“B.C. employers are using their
employee base to remain modern and
innovative,” Weston says. “It’s a common
trend for employees to gain real-time
knowledge, either with suppliers or their
hands-on work, and then come back to the
organization and share that with their
colleagues.”
“We’ve also seen a lot of emphasis on
career planning and career mapping,”
adds Richard Yerema, executive editor of
the Canada’s Top 100 Employers project.
“If employees are interested in advancing,
how does that happen? What do they need
to do? What are the skills they need?”
Another Top Employer winner in the
2026 competition, BC Transit (a six-time
recipient), offers a wide variety of career
paths, from operations and information
technology to asset management and
finance.
The organization employs 2,900 people
and, as the province grows, so does the
need to attract new talent to serve their
transportation needs.
“We go to fairs, we go to schools and
other parts of the community to explain
who we are and the scope of what we do,”
says Giulia Lucchini, manager, people
experience, at BC Transit, adding they are
