Bowen Workforce Solutions

Purpose Provides temporary and permanent employees to businesses and professionals. Offers human resources training, payroll services and career transition assistance.
Size 32 full-time employees.
 
A few years ago, the president and CEO of Bowen Workforce Solutions took six employees to a surprise lunch. She told them only to bring a sweater and that she would drive. After picking up burgers, fries and milkshakes at Peter’s Drive-In, Shannon Bowen-Smed and her workers had a picnic at the
top of Crescent Heights hill.

Overlooking downtown Calgary, she told the employees: “Look down there. You just really have no idea how many people’s lives you’ve changed, how many people can buy groceries now because you’ve given them a job and how many people have gained confidence because we placed them somewhere.”

Telling that simple, yet touching story still leaves a lump in Terry Davey’s throat. “We realized, ‘Oh my God, we really do make a difference,’” says the contracts management co-ordinator who started at Bowen 19 years ago.

“We have tear-your-hair-out days, but that was very important. She wanted us to know how hard we work for our clients.”

Most Bowen employees gush about Bowen-Smed. Since starting at Bowen at 19, and taking the reins in 1996, Bowen-Smed has taken the family-run company from a nine-person staffing agency to a workforce management company of 32 staff. And she has increased revenues from $6.7 million to $37 million in the past five years.

But it’s not all work and no fun at Bowen. Outside the office, employees sometimes make kids’ sandwiches at Brown Bagging for Calgary Kids and raise money for the United Way. And, at the office, they hold “Lounge Lizards” every couple of months — parties organized by teams who try to outdo one another when it comes to picking the theme.

Themes have included the Academy Awards, a country picnic, the Olympics, Halloween hullabaloo, a country dance — usually involving zany challenges at various stations set up throughout the office. Last Easter, they played Pin the Tail on the Bunny Rabbit, picked up plastic eggs on the floor and put them into a basket — blindfolded, and, wearing oven mitts, tore wrapping paper from a prize that had about 100 layers of gift wrap.

“The parties are always a blast,” says senior career advisor Cheryl Janzen. “The whole company gets involved in them.”
The perks aren’t too shabby, either. There are spa days and flex days. Employees can work from home, and some even work from locations as far away as Whistler, B.C.

Community work is also prominent at Bowen. Holding September golf tournaments for the past eight years, the company has raised approximately $430,000 for the Scott Smed Memorial, a foundation Bowen-Smed and her husband, Peter Smed, started in memory of their son, supporting the Calgary Region Pregnancy and Infant Loss Program and an orphanage for babies in Uganda.

bowenworks.ca

Key Employee Benefits
Flex days; committees for social activities, community service, learning, health and safety; spa days; work-life balance.

Why it’s the Best Place to Work
The company is respected and community-minded and demonstrates strong leadership. Innovative ideas are encouraged and employees are treated with respect.

Back to the "Best Places" Main Page