TORONTO — Don’t be surprised if the next Castrol rep you meet is all smiles and optimism.

You’d be happy too if you worked for a company that’s not only very well managed but also quickly earning a reputation as one of the best places in the country to work.

The company is Wakefield Canada, which produces Castrol products, along with a host of other automotive and heavy-duty products like H2Blu DEF.

And for a company that’s been around just over half a dozen years, Wakefield has proved it can perform with the best of them.

In 2009 and 2010, Wakefield was named among the Best-Managed Small Companies in Canada. (This is an annual snapshot sponsored by Deloitte, CIBC, the National Post and Queen’s University School of Business.)

This week, another survey showed that for the third year in a row, Wakefield has earned a place among the Top-50 Small and Medium-sized Employers in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

This employee-based survey is conducted by Aon Hewitt, a global HR consultancy along with Queen’s U., and it is part of a larger, cross-Canada study called the 50 Best Small & Medium-Sized Employers in Canada. The results of the larger study will be announced in February.

Meantime, according to a statement from Wakefield, one of the keys to success is “employee engagement."

“Wakefield has been a local company — based here, owned by Canadians and servicing only the Canadian market. The result has been that throughout the company each team member can relate directly to the results on the ground.

“We involve everyone, virtually every step of the way, and have from the very beginning,” says Bob McDonald, president of Wakefield Canada Inc.

Here is what the organizers of the Best Employers in the GTA competition pointed to: "This study,” said Neil Crawford, Aon Hewitt’s study leader, “goes beyond satisfaction — how much I like things here — and commitment -— how much I want to be here — to measure engagement; ie., how much I want to and actually contribute to improving our business results.

“Without a focus on engagement, it’s difficult for organizations to achieve sustainable success.”

Complete information on Wakefield Canada can be found here.

You can read more about the competitions here www.canadas50best.com and here.