BC's Top Employers (2026) Magazine - Magazine - Page 60
60
BC’S TOP EMPLOYERS (2026)
Agents of change can find a career in Maple Ridge
W
hat anybody
seeking to join
the team at the
City of Maple
Ridge needs to
know is that it’s progressive, results
oriented — and undergoing a
cultural transformation. It’s five
years into a change mandate
that is seeing the outer suburb
of Vancouver not only grow —
the population, almost 110,000
currently, is projected to increase
significantly in the next two
decades — but become more
responsive to the needs of citizens
and companies doing business
there.
The City, with a workforce
approaching 1,000, aims to be a
leader in speedy permitting and
cutting red tape. Cross-functional
training groups and task
forces work to ensure different
departments are all on the same
page. Senior leaders sit in on staff
meetings to stay in touch with
what’s happening on the ground.
Maple Ridge has branded its new
mindset One City.
Employees at the City of Maple Ridge celebrate the opening of a new electrified film kiosk, providing clean,
quiet power for film and television productions.
We’re committed
to being bold and
delivering on our
mandate to our citizens.
— Michelle Lewis
Chief Human Resources Officer
“We are a city that is growing up.
We’re maturing,” says Michelle
Lewis, chief human resources
officer. “We’re committed to
being bold and delivering on our
mandate to our citizens.”
While some workers were wary
of the change at first, the City’s
2025 employee survey indicates
engagement is at a new high
of 74 per cent and the share of
disengaged employees down to
just eight per cent.
“To see that people are believing
in the direction is great,” Lewis
says.
Employees’ willingness to
become agents of change owes
something to new “resultsoriented” hiring and promotion
practices, as well as a revamped
learning and development regime.
In addition to training specific
to their roles and departments,
staff have free access to soft skills
development through LinkedIn
Learning and the City of Maple
Ridge Academy, which offers
supervisory skills training in
partnership with the British
Columbia Institute of Technology
(BCIT).
Lewis recently attended a
manager training session where
employees practised pitching
ideas to civic politicians in
council chambers. “We have
staff in different roles within the
organization pushing themselves
out of their comfort zones,” she
says, “which is really neat to see.”
Like Lewis and many of the
City’s other employees, Jamie
Ayson-Banico lives in the
community. In fact, as a teenager,
she was a lifeguard at the Maple
Ridge Leisure Centre that she
now manages. But she worked
in recreation for the cities of
Vancouver and Coquitlam too
before joining the Maple Ridge
staff in 2024. From her first day,
she felt well supported.
“I was really impressed by the
orientation,” she says, noting how
she received training together
with employees from different
