At the Maples Group, there is always room to grow

After a successful 20-year career in the financial services industry, Valérie Jetté was ready to expand. Last year, she joined the Maples Group, a legal and financial services provider. “I’d reached a stage in my career where I wanted to contribute differently to the success of my organization,” says Jetté, senior vice-president in fund accounting. “And what attracted me to the Maples Group was its more entrepreneurial and nimble culture.”

To Jetté, it was important to have the opportunity to make a difference, and that’s what she found at the Maples Group. “I feel really close to senior management,” she says. “I feel like my expertise is recognized, that my skills are valued. And I’m given the latitude to manage my time effectively and make decisions.”

Those opportunities trickle down to employees at every level. “It’s part of the culture,” she adds. “It’s about empowering them, recognizing their skills and giving them that room to grow.”

There is the formal process for establishing and monitoring goals, both business and personal. In addition, employees have access to training programs, either technical in nature or around soft skills. Jetté herself recently attended an emerging leaders program at Trinity College Dublin.

The company also has a mentoring program that gives younger employees access to senior leaders, who meet them regularly and help them with advice or questions. “We really make sure our managers are coaching their employees and asking them where they want to go next,” she says, “and then we base the development goals on that.”

Olga Vellopoulos started at the Maples Group as operations manager almost three years ago, during the pandemic, and her early days were spent in an almost empty building. “It was challenging but great all at the same time,” she says, “because the learning curve was incredible.”

In fact, during the pandemic, the Maples Group hired more than 100 people in Montréal and embraced a hybrid work policy to accommodate everyone. Continued growth necessitated an office expansion, however, and with it, the chance to design a physical environment suited to the new normal.

The result is a new state-of-the-art space, designed with the employees in mind, Vellopoulos says. “There’s a lot of collaboration space to foster connection among employees. We have larger lunchrooms where employees can sit comfortably, a multi-purpose room in which we host meetings and client events, and Zoom rooms for private conversations with colleagues working from home or in other offices. It’s been a great project, and the employees love it.”

Most of the Maples Group’s social events are now held in the new space – the monthly new hires meet-and-greets, bagel birthday celebrations, ice cream days and more.

Diversity is also a cornerstone of the company’s operations in Montréal. With more than half the employees being female, forming a professional women’s networking group made perfect sense. Both Vellopoulos and Jetté are part of the group – Jetté is a co-founder – which meets monthly and is focused on supporting and elevating women’s careers and celebrating their successes.

At its inaugural event, more than 50 participants met with leaders and had open discussions about work-related issues of importance to women. “It was a huge success in terms of networking, bringing people from different departments together,” says Jetté. “And then there were senior leaders like me providing insights into my experience and success.”

After a year at the Maples Group, Jetté knows she made the right decision. “The culture is just really great – that’s one thing I noticed when I started,” she says. “The collaboration, the client focus, the dedication to excellence and, of course, the people.”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's Montreal’s Top Employers winners, published February 27, 2024 in the Montreal Gazette. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.