Aquatic Informatics Announced BC’s Top Employer for Third Year
Aquatic Informatics is proud to announce that we've been named as BC's Top Employers for the third consecutive year.
Here are some of the reasons why Aquatic Informatics was selected for the award:
- Aquatic Informatics recently revised its time-off policies to enable employees to rest, reset, and recharge -- changes include 10 wellness days per year (can be used for illness, family matters or personal days), and three floating holidays which can be used to celebrate personal or cultural traditions and holidays
- Aquatic Informatics fosters connection across the organization through a number of initiatives, including monthly company lunches, a random coffee program to match employees from different departments, and a culture committee responsible for organizing regular social events and activities
- Aquatic Informatics supports new parents with maternity and parental leave top-up payments (to a maximum of 80 per cent of salary for up to 12 weeks) and offers generous academic scholarships for employees with college-bound children (to $6,400 per child)
Learning and purpose flow through Aquatic Informatics
When Amber Jelly heard about an opening on the marketing team at Aquatic Informatics ULC, she leapt at the chance to join the company.
Only two years out of a master’s program in publishing at Simon Fraser University, Jelly had been responsible in her previous position for communications and marketing for a non-profit association representing water and wastewater professionals in B.C. and Yukon.
“I’d been drawn to water,” she says, “and I wanted to know more about it, especially the technological tools to manage water more effectively.”
In Aquatic Informatics, she found exactly what she’d been looking for.
The company creates software to organize data on source water, drinking water and municipal and industrial wastewater. Organizations use the software to improve water data integrity, streamline regulatory compliance and strengthen resilience. Founded in 2003, the company now serves customers in 60 countries.
Not only does the company operate in the area of water management that Jelly wanted to know more about, it also maintains a culture that corresponds to Jelly’s personal values.
“Before I joined the company, I watched a video in which management talked about the company’s mission,” she says. “I was inspired by what they described.”
“That mission hasn’t changed,” says Deborah Ardila, senior director of human resources. “To protect life with open and timely water information, by organizing the world’s water data, and empowering industry experts to make data-driven, smart decisions.”
Since its acquisition in 2020 by the Veralto Corporation, the company has defined its focus even more clearly, says Ardila, bringing software, hardware and services together to accelerate the digitization of water data management. For Jelly, the company’s plan to focus on solving key challenges for customers streamlines her role, as well.
Fostering new talent in the Tech Industry
“We’re getting more defined in our marketing,” she says. “That’s good for me, because I won’t have to be a master of all products.”
As the company’s marketing campaign specialist, Jelly is responsible for its presence on social media. She edits videos and manages the company’s website. “No day looks the same,” she says.
Nor has Jelly stopped acquiring new skills and new knowledge about her role and her industry. Over her first year at the company, she enrolled in a business-to-business contact course at the University of British Columbia. She participated in several in-house marketing workshops.
“And I’ve been assigned to tasks that I’ve never done before,” she says. These include pursuing paid search campaigns to enhance the company’s online presence, supporting the organization of conferences, and conducting data analytics for the company, working regularly with the parent company’s data analytics team.
“My manager gives me the opportunity to take responsibility for projects,” she says.
Aquatic Informatics has a formal learning management system, says Ardila, which includes thousands of courses delivered online or face-to-face. It also gives employees an opportunity to take leadership development courses in areas such as effective leadership and coaching.
“Whatever connected development an associate wants, we can provide,” she says.
At the same time, employees like Jelly help each other in acquiring new skills, and that support extends beyond her five-person marketing team to include other areas of the company.
“I’m learning from my peers,” she says, “but I also work a lot with salespeople and with one of our vice-presidents on security webinars.
“Knowledge sharing is really important here,” she continues. “Everyone has their own expertise, so we’re always learning from everyone else. After all, the more you collaborate, the better you can perform your role.”
This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's BC’s Top Employers winners, published February 14, 2023 in the Vancouver Sun, as well as on BC Top Employer's website.
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