This year, TIME, in collaboration with Statista, a leading international provider of market and consumer data and rankings, unveiled its inaugural list of Canada’s best companies. This initiative resulted in the identification of 125 top-performing companies that are setting benchmarks for Canadian business. Here’s an overview of how these leading companies were chosen.
Methodology
The research project titled “Canada’s Best Companies 2025” is a comprehensive analytical endeavor designed to pinpoint Canada’s highest-performing companies. The evaluation is structured around three primary criteria: Employee Satisfaction, Revenue Growth, and Sustainability Transparency (ESG).
The first criterion, Employee Satisfaction, was assessed using survey data collected over the past three years from a substantial sample of approximately 49,000 employees at Canadian companies. This assessment covered employee recommendations of their companies, as well as verified employees’ evaluations of employers across various aspects including company image, work atmosphere, working conditions, salary, overall workplace environment, and equality.
The second criterion, Revenue Growth, was determined using data from Statista’s revenue database, which compiles company growth figures over the last three years. To qualify for evaluation, companies needed to meet specific prerequisites, such as generating at least US $100 million in revenue in either 2023 or 2024, depending on the most recent data available during the research phase. Additionally, companies were required to demonstrate positive revenue growth over the past three years. Both relative and absolute growth metrics were considered in this assessment.
The third criterion, Sustainability Transparency, was evaluated based on ESG data derived from standardized Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) within Statista’s ESG Database, supplemented by targeted data research. To develop a thorough ESG index, multiple KPIs were gathered. For the environmental evaluation, these included the 2023 carbon emissions intensity and the reduction rate compared to 2021, along with the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) score. The social dimension examined the proportion of women on the board of directors and the presence of a human rights policy. The governance dimension assessed whether a company possessed a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report adhering to Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines and a compliance or anti-corruption policy.
Once the data was compiled and assessed, it was integrated and weighted within a scoring model. The scores from all three dimensions were added on an equal percentage basis to formulate the final ranking score, which had a maximum of 100 points. The 125 companies that achieved the highest scores were recognized as Canada’s Best Companies 2025 by TIME and Statista.