Qlik employees connect with the future and each other

Jacob Martin says he was unfamiliar with Qlik until a posting about a hackathon Qlik was hosting caught his attention. He was studying computer engineering at Carleton University at the time and thought it would be a good learning experience.

He was right. Qlik is a global leader in data integration and analytics solutions that help businesses derive value and insights from their data. Their solutions provide advanced, enterprise-grade AI and machine learning, data integration and analytics. The hackathon was Martin’s hands-on introduction to Qlik’s products.

“The competing teams worked with Qlik’s data visualization tools on a real challenge designed around the company’s typical day-to-day demands,” says Martin, who also used the hackathon as an opportunity for networking.

His initiative led to a summer internship with Qlik in Ottawa and ultimately full-time employment as a software engineer in 2019.

He has since been promoted to technical lead, resilient engineering. He provides technical leadership to a team of software engineers in France who ensure Qlik’s customer-facing developers have the tools they need to serve organizations worldwide.

Since he started, Martin says, several colleagues have celebrated 10th anniversaries. In that period, he adds, friends who launched their careers elsewhere have more typically “jumped around.”

Indeed, the demand for workers with tech skills has traditionally meant the tech sector has a high turnover rate. But chief people officer Ruthann Wry says that’s simply not the case at Qlik.

“We’re the kind of place where people come and stay,” Wry says, citing herself as a typical example. “A former boss asked me to come work at Qlik and I told her that I would only stay for six months. That was 10 years ago.”

Overall, Qlik’s annual attrition rate is less than nine per cent, Wry says. She attributes the below-industry-average number, in part, to the pride and satisfaction people feel working on the leading edge of technology and innovation, including Qlik’s data-driven AI revolution.

Still, Wry says that when employees are asked what they like about Qlik, “the product” is only one of the three usual answers. The other two centre on its people and culture.

She says that’s held true even throughout a series of acquisitions, notably Talend in 2023. It took resilience and perseverance, Wry says, but the efforts and goodwill of key leaders from both companies ensured a smooth integration.

That included, for example, harmonizing both companies’ fitness and wellness programs into what Wry describes as the “Cadillac” of all benefits programs.

“We are genuine, we listen, and we care,” she says.

Those core attributes are key to Qlik’s thoughtful approach to the post-pandemic workplace. Unlike some other organizations, Qlik chose not to impose an official five-days-a-week return to office policy, says Wry.

Qlik believes face-to-face connections are important, so it encourages employees to go to the office two to three days a week, she adds. But officially, Qlik has a hybrid work model so leaders and employees can determine what works best for them and their teams.

For his part, Martin says he enjoys the flexibility and work-life balance of being able to choose when he works from home and which days he’ll go to the office. Wednesday is almost always one of them.

“That’s the day they put on an awesome fully catered lunch!” Martin says. “And I’m not alone. The office is usually quite busy on Wednesdays.”

Still, it’s the human connections that are the biggest draw, he says. “The people I work with are amazing,” Martin adds. “The company is built on collaboration and everyone, no matter how senior, is always eager to help.”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's National Capital Region's Top Employers winners, published March 4, 2025 in the Ottawa Citizen. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.