Drawing talent north: Sudbury firm develops creative space for tech innovation.

• Author: Kelly, Lindsay
• Position: MINING - Jannatec Technologies

Jannatec Technologies president Wayne Ablitt had been having difficulty attracting the best and brightest engineering minds to his Sudbury firm, and so he set his eye to the offices of some of the most iconic tech companies--think Google or Facebook--for inspiration.

"Over a period of time, we started to look at other businesses and why they were successful in getting some of these star candidates, because a company is only as good as the employees that you have," Ablitt said.

Welcome to Sudbury's JET Lab--an acronym for Jannatec Edge of Technology --anything but a traditional engineering department.

The new, 4,500-square-foot office, located in the Northern Centre for Advanced Technology (NORCAT), has been designed as a relaxed, informal work space aimed at encouraging free thought and creativity. Ablitt hopes it will serve as a recruitment and retention tool to bring the most qualified engineers and tech designers on board.

"You spend basically half your time of your life when you're awake at your job, so we want to build a healthier environment for our employees to work in, and we want them to feel that they're coming to something very positive and something that's moving forward," said Ablitt, who co-founded Jannatec, which specializes in communications technologies for underground mining.

Vetting candidates through traditional routes had proven frustrating; job postings had turned up few quality candidates, and of those that did apply, few stayed for a job, Ablitt said.

So Ablitt and his management team made a decision that might seem surprising in the current mining downturn: a $350,000 investment in the new space.

Designed by Terry Vendetti Interiors, the JET Lab is a bright, open space with lots of natural light. There are desks and a boardroom, but there are also couches, a lounge area and a kitchen, all against a funky backdrop of glass walls, vibrant primary colours and wall tiles of synthetic grass.

Fourteen employees will move into the new space, and there is room to add between six and eight more.

Yet the changes are more than just cosmetic.

Jannatec's research and development manager, Jason Buie, said that moving the R&D and service departments into a purpose-built space reduces interruptions and distractions and lets the company's engineers devote their attention to innovation.

"The lab and the work...