Since January 1, 2026, Ontario employers with 25 or more employees must include the expected pay, or a pay range, in publicly advertised job postings. Under Ontario Regulation 476/24 on job posting rules, that range cannot span more than $50,000 a year, and roles paying more than $200,000 are exempt. 

Ontario is not alone. In British Columbia, all employers have had to include the expected pay or a pay range in publicly advertised job postings since November 1, 2023, as set out in the BC government’s guidance on wage and salary information in job postings. 

The change is visible in the market. Canadian HR Reporter’s analysis of salary information in job ads found that 57 percent of Canadian job postings included pay information as of June 2026, with the latest gains concentrated almost entirely in Ontario. 

Rolfe says, “the rule forces total transparency and shifts the focus to culture.” With pay on the table from the first click, he adds: “Now, the battle is won by packaging your total offering such as flexibility, mentorship, and development within that published range.”

IBC’s survey also points to a gap between how insurance professionals work and how they want to work.  

A third of respondents (33.1 percent) work fully remotely, but 38.3 percent would prefer to. Meanwhile, 17.6 percent are fully office-based, yet only 8.8 percent want to be. Nearly half (45.1 percent) say they would change jobs for working options that suit them better. Remote work also raises questions about how junior staff learn the job; a tension explored in IBC’s report on Canada’s junior insurance talent emergency and remote work. 

“The employers that get flexibility right judge output, not presence,” Rolfe says. “When it’s actually done well, managers care about whether your files or portfolios are profitable and in order, not whether they can physically see you.”

Peel Mutual Insurance Company, a mutual insurer – owned by its policyholders rather than shareholders – based in Mississauga, ON, has been named a Top Insurance Employer for the third consecutive year. Matt J. LeMaire, chief operating officer at Peel Mutual, joined almost nine years ago, when the company was shifting to a feedback-focused culture. Long-serving staff, he says, point to the leadership change around that time as the moment things began to change. 

“A lot of companies say that they’re feedback focused, but I think that we’ve really lived that,” says LeMaire. The model rests on what he calls a sense of community, where every employee has valid knowledge to share and can raise any topic with any leader at any time. 

Peel Mutual’s feedback cycle starts with an annual engagement survey. LeMaire then runs focus groups with staff in smaller cohorts “to really delve into some of the stuff that comes out in the engagement survey that we don’t get as much detail on.” What emerges becomes an action plan for the year, tackling quick fixes first and mapping longer-term solutions for more complex concerns. 

This year’s plan includes a new initiative that staff requested for roughly three years running. Peel Mutual will pilot a paid volunteer program, giving employees one or two extra paid days a year to volunteer as groups in their own communities. The company plans to unveil it to staff in the coming weeks, ahead of the 2027 launch. 

For LeMaire, the program reflects what it means to be a mutual. “It’s not just enough to just represent the community … it’s really about getting into those communities and becoming part of the fabric of those communities,” he says.

Asking for feedback carries a risk if nothing happens next. “It’s great to listen, but if you’re not actually going to do anything with it … you’re eroding that trust every single time you fail to do something,” says LeMaire. 

When an idea can’t go ahead, he tells staff directly – in a staff meeting or a separate session – and explains why. “Look, we considered this idea, this is why we can’t do it, but we’re perfectly open to reconsidering this in the future if there’s a different way to look at it,” he says. 

The consistency shows in the numbers LeMaire reports. Most staff have tenure of three to five years or more, and annual turnover sits below 2 percent. The company’s employee net promoter score – a measure of how likely staff are to recommend their employer as a place to work – consistently sits between 89 and 92.

About 95 percent of Peel Mutual’s staff work remotely, spread across Ontario, a model the company adopted at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and has kept ever since. The engagement survey includes a dedicated remote work section covering productivity, satisfaction, and any gaps in interaction, and LeMaire says satisfaction with remote work scores in the 95th percentile or higher each year. 

When the survey shows people feel isolated from colleagues or teams, the company responds with more deliberate meetings or in-person time. “The main thing that changes is really just that level of intentionality that’s required,” he says. 

That trust extends to time off. Staff receive 15 personal days a year for appointments and obligations, on top of vacation. For shorter absences, managers often skip the paperwork altogether. “Put your out of office on for like an hour. And we trust you to do that,” says LeMaire. 

In his experience, what Peel Mutual’s staff want from work differs by career stage. Its more experienced employees – some with close to 25 years at the company – value flexibility and simply being heard, while younger employees tend to be more socially minded. 
 

 

Q: How do you handle a suggestion you can’t answer straight away? 

A: “If it’s something that I have the answer to, it’s going to be a quick answer and I will explain why. But I think with other things, it’s having the confidence to go, look, I like that idea. It’s a great idea. I think there’s some merit there but let me see how that would actually play out and if it’s something that’s feasible.” 

Q: What changes when most of your team works remotely? 

A: “When you’re in an office, all you need to do is stand up, walk through the hall, and you’re gonna run into people, right? … But when you’re remote, it really requires us as a team to go, you know what, I’ve got to make some time today to check in with Sally or Bob or whoever.” 

Q: What does winning three years in a row mean for Peel Mutual? 

A: “You can’t really rest on your laurels. It’s great to accomplish it and you know you’re doing something good, and staff are realizing it. But at the end of the day, you need to realize that things keep changing, and you need to change with them.” 

Ridge Canada Cyber Solutions, a cyber insurance specialist founded in 2016 with offices in Toronto and Vancouver, recorded the highest average employee satisfaction rating of all 26 winners this year: 91.6 percent. With a team of about 16, Ridge shows how listening works when everyone knows everyone. 

Vanessa Abraham, senior underwriter at Ridge, joined from the broker side and has grown with the company from an associate role. Coming from a larger firm, she found the change of pace striking. “It’s a very collaborative environment. Everybody has a voice at Ridge,” she says. “No matter if you are our summer student or our CEO, we meet every Monday.”

In a small firm, speaking up can feel exposed. Abraham says Ridge has built the opposite: an open-door culture where questions and concerns carry no negative consequences. That matters in a cyber market she describes plainly: “I think the challenge in the cyber market right now is really tough.” 

When the pressure builds, the team’s answer is to say so early. “I think everyone is able to put up their hand and say, ‘okay, this is where I’m struggling’,” says Abraham. The team then gathers everyone’s on-the-ground view and works through the problem together. 

She speaks from experience. “Being able to share ideas and know that they will actually be taken into consideration, it’s been really, really great for me feeling valued at the company,” she says. Now a senior underwriter, she invites the same ideas from Ridge’s current associates.

Ridge turns that openness into a practical routine. “Every week, we kind of lay out what’s on our plate so everyone knows who has some additional capacity, who might need some support,” says Abraham. If an underwriter faces a heavy renewal month, colleagues can plan to take on that person’s incoming new business. 

The system works because nobody is measured against a colleague’s workload. “We know everybody’s capacity is different,” she says. Asking for support carries no stigma. “I never feel ashamed to ask for help,” she adds. 

Ridge also shapes roles around what each employee wants from their career, even when that means reshuffling responsibilities. If someone working in one coverage line wants to learn another, the company makes room. “It’s not all focused on the company’s growth. It’s also about how we as individuals want to develop and grow in our career path,” says Abraham. 

She benefited herself, joining with a particular background and being given the chance to keep working in that sector. Recent hires have followed a different route: a few started as summer students before joining full time. 

Ridge sets no strict rules on office attendance, yet Abraham says desks are typically full three to five days a week. She puts that down to what people gain from being together. “People want to come in because it’s an easy way to learn by osmosis,” she says. Some weeks, she admits, she makes the commute “simply just because I miss my colleagues.” 

The office also gives their underwriters direct access to technical expertise. In recent years, Ridge has strategically expanded its team, including the addition of an expert who not only played a key role in the development of their in-house scanning technology but also offers underwriters someone to consult with directly on highly technical risks.
 

 

Q: How does the team keep up with such a fast-moving market? 

A: “We’re very big on sharing updates, or changes we’re seeing in the market, immediately with the rest of the team so everyone stays up to date and on the same page.”  

Q: What difference does having technology support in-house make? 

A: “It’s really helpful to have somebody in person who can support you if something goes wrong … I know I never need to stress about technical issues as they’re always addressed immediately.”  

Q: What drew you to Ridge, and how has it turned out? 

A: “I joined Ridge during peak COVID, so it was when I was feeling like I want a change, a challenge. I want something to really submerge myself in, learn some new things, take my mind off what’s going on in the world. And it has been the best challenge that I’ve had in my career so far.”

InsureLine Brokers, headquartered in Port Coquitlam, BC, has been named a Top Insurance Employer for the second year running. For CEO Aly Kanji, no other recognition compares. Of all the awards the brokerage has received, “this was the most rewarding of all awards that we’ve received because it’s something that we work at diligently and it’s something that we’re very proud of,” he says. 

That effort is harder than it looks. InsureLine’s offices, spread across multiple provinces, are all independently owned and operated franchises. Owners differ in how they run their offices and what they are willing to do, so Kanji says building one culture across the network is even more difficult and complex. 

Kanji’s goal is simple to state. “I want people to feel proud and excited to come to work,” he says. InsureLine anchors that in three core values: Own It, Innovate, and Have Fun. 

He is clear that fun does not mean easy. “Everybody wants to work hard, but they want to work hard in an environment where they’re appreciated and recognized for working hard,” he says. 

Head office sets certain standards that apply across every location, supported by a team that helps put them in place, while franchise owners decide how they place business. Kanji describes it as a balance between shared expectations and local autonomy and says the structure forces head office to be deliberate about every initiative so that it reaches front-line staff in each office.

The best-known of those efforts began during the pandemic. Most Fridays, Kanji – or another member of the leadership team when he is unavailable – hosts a 15- to 25-minute network call that anyone at InsureLine can join, covering what has happened in the industry that week. 

The company kept it going “because it was so powerful,” says Kanji, and it remains one of the initiatives staff mention most. The calls pause for six to eight weeks over the summer, and “people are so excited for those calls to start again in September,” he adds. 

Recognition gets the same attention. InsureLine’s monthly newsletter now introduces new hires and celebrates individual accomplishments across the network, part of a push to recognize people more often. 

Career progression looks different from office to office, but development is open to everyone. InsureLine provides company-wide training, much of it free, and an annual professional development budget for each employee.  

Among InsureLine’s own staff, Kanji sees the need most clearly in younger employees. “Young people want to know that there’s progression and there’s a path for them to get somewhere,” he says. 

Kanji sees a direct line from staff experience to business results. “We have a lot of people coming to us from other corporate environments that will leave for less money because they want to be in a better environment,” he says. 

He says InsureLine is far outpacing most other insurance brokerages in organic growth and credits the relationships its people build with clients and insurers. “If we can create a better broker experience for our people, that will in turn lead to a better customer experience,” he says. 

The franchise model is part of that. Kanji argues that when consolidators – firms that grow by acquiring independent brokerages – take over an office, “you’re losing the localized decision-making,” and that the centralized decisions that follow leave employees feeling disconnected from the organization. 
 

 

Q: What does the Friday call do for people across the network? 

A: “It makes everyone feel connected. It brings people together. We’re in multiple provinces across Canada. But still, everyone gets to see each other’s faces, and it creates connections. So, people feel like they know me. Anybody can message me on Teams. There’s not this big barrier between leadership and people on the front line.” 

Q: How do you approach time away for family? 

A: “I have young kids. If they’re playing in a sports event, a sports tournament, I want to go watch them and I want my staff to feel similarly that they have the ability to go and focus on their kids when they need to focus on their kids.” 

Q: Why does local ownership matter to the people who work in each office? 

A: “I can share my opinions, I can give suggestions, I can provide feedback. That is powerful for somebody working in the office rather than being an anonymous employee in a large organization where what you say and do has no impact.” 

Artificial intelligence (AI) in the insurance workplace is set to test the same listening skills that earned Canada’s top insurance employers their place this year. The question for employers over the next 12 to 24 months is not only which tools to adopt, but how to introduce them without unsettling the people expected to use them. That question sits on top of a wider skills squeeze, set out in IBC’s analysis of whether AI can ease Canadian insurance’s talent crisis. 

“The framing matters from the start,” Rolfe says. “If leaders frame AI as just a cost-cutter, people could rightly panic.”   

His advice is direct. “I think leadership needs to get hands-on with upskilling. Let software handle the heavy admin load to free up time to properly service a client or bring more clients in,” he adds. 

At Peel Mutual, the issue surfaced through the same focus groups that shape the company’s action plan, where staff raised fears about what AI would mean for their jobs. LeMaire responded with a formal AI policy. “AI is going to be an additive,” he says. “It’s a way to enhance the quality of work that you’re doing and allow you to do better, maybe more work or quicker work, but it’s not meant to replace you.” 

In practice, that means using AI to lift administrative work off underwriters and assist claims staff, so they can spend more time on clients. LeMaire says staff will be involved in working out how each new tool fits their workflow, so it doesn’t create extra work or push them away from what they do best. 

InsureLine is taking a training-first route. Kanji says the brokerage has created a set of curated AI courses to help people work more efficiently: “to be able to, to spend more time talking to customers and less time doing administrative work.” 

The approach mirrors how the best insurance companies to work for in Canada handle every other change: ask early, explain the reasoning, and involve people rather than simply announcing it to them.

The best insurance companies to work for in Canada differ in size, structure, and business line – a largely remote mutual insurer, a high-collaboration micro-team, and a decentralized franchise network among them. What they share is a habit of listening in practice. 

Each closes the gap between what staff say and what changes. Speaking up carries no penalty, so problems surface before they turn into burnout. Connection is designed in, whether people work remotely, in independently owned offices, or side by side. Flexibility rests on trust, and development starts from what each person wants from their career. 

These practices take time, money, and attention from leaders. What makes them work is that each one treats insurance employee engagement as an ongoing conversation rather than an annual survey score. 

Best Insurance Companies to Work for in Canada | Top Insurance Employers 2026

• 
  Desjardins Group
   
  
• 
  InsureLine Brokers
   
  
• 
  Tokio Marine Canada
   
  
• 
  Arch Insurance Canada
   
  

• Acturis Canada
• Agile Underwriting Solutions
• Atlas York Insurance
• Axis Insurance Managers
• Billyard Insurance Group
• CAA Club Group of Companies
• CMB Insurance Brokers
• Crawford & Company (Canada)
• Experior Financial Group
• Fenchurch General Insurance Company
• FIRST Insurance Funding of Canada
• GoToInsure
• Mitch Insurance
• One Insurance Group
• Peel Mutual Insurance Company
• QuickFacts
• Red River Mutual
• Ridge Canada Cyber Solutions
• Royal Claims Services
• The Mutual Fire Insurance Company of British Columbia
• Western Financial Group
• Westland Insurance Group