Ottawa Business Journal May 21, 2018 by Great River Media inc.

Crafting change TECHOPIA PAGES 20-21

INFLUENCERS

Inside Ottawaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s galas, fundraisers and networking events

City eyes plan to allow craft brewers and other light industries more leeway to operate in retail zones > PAGES 12-13

May 21, 2018 Vol. 21, NO. 15

OBJ.social PAGES 16-19

For daily business news visit obj.ca

BUSINESS SOLUTIONS DESIGNED TO FIT YOUR STYLE

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teksavvy.com/en/business

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT FAST AND RELIABLE INTERNET OPTIONS SEE PAGE 2

HOW TO PICK THE BEST INTERNET PROVIDER FOR YOUR OTTAWA BUSINESS

ast and reliable internet service is essential to most companies. With such high stakes, selecting the best internet service provider for a business is a big decision. So, what are the most important factors for a business to consider when selecting its ISP?

SPEED A slow connection can be more than just infuriating – it can be costly to a business. Whether you’re providing a service through live chat or uploading a video to your website, slow internet can be problematic to the success of your operations. For a small business with a DSL or cable connection, a standard upload speed should range between 50 to 100 Mbps. Depending on the size, location and demands of a business, an ISP should be able to help select the best speed and connection type. Canadian ISP TekSavvy offers a range of options – learn more about them at bit.ly/teksavvy-biz.

MONDAY, MAY 21, 2018

OUTAGES While we’ve come to expect constant internet connectivity, outages still happen when, for example, construction crews accidentally damage underground lines. Many internet contracts will contain what’s called a service level agreement. In short, if you go without internet for a certain length of time, you receive some money back.

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02 teksavvy.com/en/business https://teksavvy.com/en/business

A question for business owners to ask themselves is whether a partial refund of their internet bill would adequately compensate them for the cost and disruption caused by an outage. There are, however, other options for businesses looking for greater reliability. For business customers that need constant internet access, TekSavvy offers its MultiLink solution, which combines multiple internet delivery modes – such as cable, DSL and LTE connections – into a single service. MultiLink is more than just reliable internet service, providing customers with a single, resilient and easily managed connection. “Your chances of multiple technologies going down at the same time are so slim that it’s not something you really need to worry about,” says Jean Lamoureux, TekSavvy’s Vice President – Business And Wholesale Markets.

CUSTOMER SERVICE Have you ever had to call your ISP? How long did you have to wait on hold? When you eventually got through, how familiar was the person on the other end of the line with your account? Customer service is a pain point for many internet customers and is also a key way that some providers differentiate themselves. That’s why it’s best to look for an ISP that offers a customer support solution geared towards businesses. TekSavvy, for example, assigns a rep to each of its business customers. This way, should they need

to contact the ISP with a question or concern, a business owner has a direct phone number they can call. “When they call TekSavvy, the person that picks up the phone is going to be the person that helps them for as long as they’re a customer of ours,” says Lamoureux. This keeps business customers from having to wait in a queue and helps build trust by ensuring it’s the same voice on the other end of the line every time.

PRICING Like all expenses, businesses don’t want to spend more than they have to on internet service. In the interest of driving up competition in the Canadian market, the CRTC recently gave thirdparty ISP’s license to offer their services at highly competitive rates. This makes smaller internet companies a great option for businesses of every size. TekSavvy takes this one step further, offering incentives for businesses that sign on for multiyear contracts. “Generally speaking, businesses don’t like changing their provider,” says Lamoureux. “Business owners tend to want to focus on other parts of their business, so they’re not constantly shopping around for less expensive solutions.” Is your business in the market for a new ISP? Head to teksavvy.com/en/business or contact business@teksavvy.com for more info.

Crafting change

INFLUENCERS

Inside Ottawa’s galas, fundraisers and networking events

City eyes plan to allow craft brewers and other light industries more leeway to operate in retail zones > PAGES 12-13

TECHOPIA PAGES 20-21

May 21, 2018 Vol. 21, NO. 15

OBJ.social PAGES 16-19

For daily business news visit obj.ca

Guilded age is now

Founded by five gifted Ottawa networkers a year ago, The Guild has developed a knack for bringing the business community together for a higher purpose. > PAGE 5

Well-oiled machine

Icor Technology vice-president of sales and marketing Andrew Kavalersky shows off one of the company’s four models of robots. PHOTO BY MARK HOLLERON

Ottawa robot maker Icor on a roll

East-end firm Gastops lands seven-figure federal investment to continue developing technology that helps detect wear and tear in aircraft engines.

Cutting-edge bomb-disposal devices finding new customers as far afield as Saudi Arabia Police forces and security agencies in 43 countries turn to south-end firm for the latest in robot crime-fighting technology > PAGES 6-7

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ENTREPRENEURSHIP Networking club right in founders’ wheelhouse Nearly a year after five natural-born connectors hosted their first gathering of local entrepreneurs, The Guild is thriving as a place for businesspeople to ‘come together’ and tackle issues BY CAROLINE PHILLIPS caroline@obj.ca

hat has evolved into a network of vibrant entrepreneurs connecting, sharing ideas and elevating their businesses together got its start in the most unusual and unlikely of ways: bonding over Beyoncé during a one-off spinning class. Wheelhouse Cycle owners Nadine Hogan and Heather Andrews share a love of the pop star’s music with Katie Frappier and Régine Paquette, owners of Victoire clothing boutique located right across the street in trendy Wellington West. The businesswomen had already established themselves as networkers, often gathering with like-minded, wellattuned peers in local coffee shops, until the swell of attendees no longer fit the space. A couple of years ago, the women decided to host a private evening class at their spinning studio, playing only tunes from Beyoncé’s then-new album, Lemonade. After the ride, participants were invited to head to Victoire for a special discount shopping night, enjoyed with lemon-flavoured cocktails. The evening was a smashing success. It also resulted in the women forming a new friendship with Anna Lambert,

who’s recently been named a 2018 Forty Under 40 recipient. Not only is Lambert a Wheelhouse regular, but she’s also the director of talent acquisition at Ottawabased e-commerce giant Shopify. Together, the five natural-born connectors decided to use their knack of bringing people together for a greater purpose. And with that, The Guild was born. It works like this: The women get members of the business community under one roof to tackle topics and issues that are relevant to them all. They gear their gatherings toward established entrepreneurs who may work in different areas but are dealing with the same sorts of problems or issues. “It’s a place for all of us to come together and to meet each other and to put a face to a business that you may walk by every day on the streets of Ottawa,” said Hogan. “It’s a space for us to learn from each other, and a space to connect.” The format always changes, whether it’s a guest speaker, a panel discussion or a workshop. Participants are encouraged to keep their dialogue open and honest and to never be afraid to show their vulnerable side. The founders don’t profit from The Guild; they charge $35 a ticket, which is enough to cover the costs of running the events.

Entrepreneur Manjit Basi speaks at a recent meeting of The Guild. PHOTO BY CAROLINE PHILLIPS

“At its core, The Guild is really about business owners coming together and saying, ‘I have a skill that I can teach you, and you have one that you can teach me, so together we can work to make the Ottawa community better.’” — HEATHER ANDREWS, CO-FOUNDER OF THE GUILD

The founders hold regular planning sessions to brainstorm ideas. “We never want to put on an event that we wouldn’t want to go to,” said Hogan, who along with her business partner Andrews hails from Mount Pearl, Nfld. Continued on page 15

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DEFENCE & SECURITY make it a relative minnow in a marketplace dominated by big fish such as Floridabased Harris Corp. and Virginia’s Northrop Grumman, but Icor vice-president of sales and marketing Andrew Kavalersky says the firm still wins its share of bids against its larger rivals. “We’re punching above our weight class for sure,” says Kavalersky, who joined the company in 2006 and figures he spends at least one week a month travelling to international trade shows.

“We’re always working on new technologies, trying new systems. If we only had one robot, I don’t think we would be here today.” – ANDREW KAVALERSKY, VICE-PRESIDENT OF SALES AND MARKETING AT ICOR TECHNOLOGIES

Icor vice-president of sales and marketing Andrew Kavalersky says the company has found its niche selling to police. PHOTO BY MARK HOLLERON

MONDAY, MAY 21, 2018

Icor an armed force in robotics industry

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South-end Ottawa company’s tactical and bomb-disposal technology becoming a vital tool for law enforcement officials in dozens of countries BY DAVID SALI david@obj.ca

t an industrial park in southend Ottawa, robot maker Icor Technology is giving new meaning to the phrase “the long arm of the law.” An employee in Icor’s quality-control department keeps a watchful eye on one of the firm’s freshly assembled devices, a

six-wheeled vehicle that weighs in at about 150 pounds, climbs stairs and features a mechanical extremity with a metal claw that can rotate 360 degrees and comes embedded with a camera. The robotic arm makes a soft whirring sound as it swings around during one of the machine’s final tests before it’s shipped off to a customer and becomes another hightech tool in the fight against crime. Founded in 2005, Icor makes robots

that dispose of bombs and aid in tactical operations for police forces and other security agencies in 43 countries, from Canada to Turkey. The devices have been used to investigate the scenes of such infamous crimes as last October’s mass shooting in Las Vegas in which 58 people were killed and another 851 injured. Icor now employs 45 people at its head office and production facility in Ottawa. Its annual revenues of under $20 million

While military contracts are where the big bucks are, Icor tends to leave that territory to the hefty power punchers such as Harris. Early on, Kavalersky says, Icor founders Hany Guirguis, Sasha Grant and Ken Molnar saw a niche in supplying robot technology to police forces. At the time, he explains, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan led most of the big suppliers to target military clients, he explains, so Icor decided to zero in on the opportunities in its own backyard. “Everybody was military, military, in the sandbox doing that,” Kavalersky says. “We said, it’s too late to get into there. Those ships have sailed. We saw an opportunity for a low-cost, easy-to-maintain robot for public safety (for) federal, state, municipal police (use). “We’re more of a Toyota than we are a Mercedes,” he adds. “It’s understanding our market, understanding our price point. Police departments don’t have a lot of money. We have a good product at a very competitive price.” ‘WE HAD TO BUILD A BRAND’ With just a single model in production in those early days, Icor’s sales team – that is, Kavalersky – began hitting the pavement in an effort to drum up business at police forces in Canada and the United States. “That was a challenging time to go out there because there were all these other established companies and we were hitting the market as me, myself and I in the department in those days,” he says with a laugh. “We had to build a brand.” It took a year or two, but the firm eventually reeled in a marquee customer

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– the U.S. State Department, which bought a dozen robots. The company landed another blue-chip client in 2010, when the Canadian Police College chose it to supply the organization with robots to help train its bomb technicians. The Ottawa-based institution – which provides specialized training to law enforcement officers from across the country – has become one of Icor’s biggest Canadian customers. That relationship helped the firm gain credibility with the RCMP and other major police departments, and Icor’s devices are now used by cops in every province and territory. “We thought we’d sell a few robots (to the police college),” Kavalersky says. “We have almost 70 robots in Canada now. That really helped us market our product.” Icor’s technology has come a long way. The company now has four models ranging in size from a nimble 60-pound device that can easily wheel down hallways to a 750-pound behemoth used for high-risk jobs such as dismantling vehicles filled with explosive materials. Two-way audio equipment allows law enforcement officials to use the robots to communicate with suspects, and the devices are designed to fire high-speed jets of water that can neutralize a bomb without setting it off. In the security sphere, after all, if your robots are standing still, they’re falling behind. Kavalersky says Icor invests about 10 per cent of its annual revenues in research and development, with nearly a quarter of its workforce devoted to R&D. “We’re always working on new technologies, trying new systems,” he notes. “Mr. Guirguis has always been a proponent of, you’ve got to (focus on) R&D or you die. If we only had one robot, I don’t think we would be here today.” The United States remains the company’s largest market, accounting for about 50 per cent of its annual sales. But Kavalersky and his four-person marketing team are starting to do a brisk business in other parts of the globe, with a growing number of clients in Europe. The Middle East is also a fertile sales ground, particularly Saudi Arabia and Egypt, where the ministry of the interior has purchased about 50 of Icor’s machines. Still, they aren’t mega-deals like the one Harris landed with the British Ministry of Defence last year that could be worth as much as $100 million. Icor did not bid on that contract, Kavalersky says, quickly realizing the requirements went beyond its scope. “Sometimes you take on a project that isn’t really in your wheelhouse, and then you can get hurt,” he explains. “You’re stretching your resources to the point where you’re not really well-suited for that. “When you’re competing with the really, really big boys, there’s some big opportunities there, but we’ll back off from it. We let the big boys go for the home runs and get those really big military contracts, and that allows us to focus in on the smaller contracts, which has been very good for us. We can be small and profitable.”

DEFENCE & SECURITY Gastops lands federal funding to boost oil-testing technology East Ottawa firm to work with major engine manufacturer on next-generation sensors BY DAVID SALI david@obj.ca

n Ottawa firm that makes diagnostic tools for commercial and military aircraft is part of a group of Canadian companies that will receive nearly $50 million in federal funding to develop new technologies for next-generation helicopters.

Gastops specializes in sensors that detect and measure tiny metallic contaminants in engine oil. As part of the funding program announced last month, it will work with a number of major corporate partners in the aerospace industry, including Pratt & Whitney Canada, to create and demonstrate new products designed to help extend the life of helicopter engines. Gastops CEO Dave Muir wouldn’t

Gastops CEO Dave Muir’s firm is getting a seven-figure investment from the feds. FILE PHOTO

divulge the exact amount the company will receive from the federal government, saying only it’s a seven-figure investment. Under the shared funding arrangement, Gastops will foot about 45 per cent of the total bill for the project, which will see it develop more advanced methods of monitoring and analyzing oil debris. “It’s an opportunity for us to showcase to Pratt & Whitney Canada what we can do to help them better monitor the

health of their engines and reduce … operating costs,” said Muir, adding the federal funding is “a significant amount of money for a company of our size.” Based in the Canotek industrial park, Gastops was founded in 1979. Its products act like an early warning system that alerts mechanics to the presence of metallic debris in an engine’s lubricants, a “telltale sign” of wear and tear, Muir said.

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“Ottawa is a fantastic place to attract and retain highcalibre knowledge workers on the technology side. It’s just a wonderful place to be.” – GASTOPS CEO DAVE MUIR

Gastops’ next generation of products features sensors that can be placed directly on an engine’s components to detect the presence of potentially harmful metallic debris in oil. It’s also

developing high-tech methods of determining exactly what type of metal those shards are made of as a way to more quickly pinpoint the source of the wear. Gastops will use part of the new funding to work with Pratt & Whitney, one of the world’s largest aircraft engine manufacturers, on a new oil analysis method as well as to demonstrate how its products can be integrated together. The federal Ministry of Innovation, Science and Economic Development is investing a total of $49.5 million in the new program. The cash will be dispersed to 19 industry and academic partners, including major players such as Bell Helicopter Textron Canada and CMC Electronics as well as nine universities. In addition to the most recent announcement, Gastops has a number of projects on the go with other customers and corporate partners, including the U.S. army, Lockheed Martin and General Electric. Around 110 of its 140 employees work in Ottawa, with the rest in St. John’s and Halifax. “We’ve grown a fair bit in the last year,” Muir said. “Ottawa is a fantastic place to attract and retain high-calibre knowledge workers on the technology side. It’s just a wonderful place to be.”

Gain Valuable Insights into Ottawa’s Economic Trends and Growth Sectors • Hear from a panel of Canada’s leading political pundits as they unpack this seminal provincial election. • Learn about emerging trends, the states of business confidence index and get a breakdown of the political campaign, last-minute predictions and what it all means for Ontario’s economy. David Coletto CEO Abacus Data

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COMMENTARY Star power abounds at global conference in L.A. Annual Milken Institute gathering attracted famous names from Tom Brady to Kevin O’Leary to discuss solutions to today’s most pressing issues, writes fellow panellist and Ottawa’s own Janice McDonald

MONDAY, MAY 21, 2018

nyone strolling down Wilshire Boulevard or Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles at the end of April could not miss the Milken Institute Global Conference signs hanging from every light standard. They went on for miles. Around 4,000 people descended on L.A. to attend the global event, and the city put out the red carpet to welcome everyone. The annual conference attracts some of the brightest minds in business, government, science, philanthropy and academia, and I was excited to not only attend this year but to participate as a speaker. The goal of the conference was to find collaborative solutions to the most important challenges of our time, and the overall message was one of hope with some fear mixed in. There was plenty of optimism about the overall state of the U.S. and global economies, and many panels highlighted the considerable innovations in important sectors such as transportation, energy, space travel and food. Concerns were expressed about trade barriers, rising debt levels and the perceived erosion of democracy in much of the world. Canadians could be found on many of the stages across the three days. Pierre Beaudoin, chair of Bombardier’s board of directors, Kevin Beggs, chair of Lionsgate Television Group and Dave McKay, president and CEO of RBC, were all there. So was Ailish Campbell, chief trade commissioner of Canada. A Milken veteran, she came to sell Canada to the global attendees, and she succeeded.

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FAMOUS FACES The event was held at the posh Beverly Hilton, and law enforcement officials were out in full force, with police officers visible throughout the venue and undercover officers surrounding specific speakers. Every curb was jammed with shiny black Lincoln town cars and special hotel shuttles to ferry guests around. Security was tight, with entrances closely monitored. Attendees were easy to spot because of the large conference passes with their name and picture hanging from a bright coloured lanyard and the complimentary grey fabric computer bag that everyone received and used.

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Ottawa’s Janice McDonald at the Milken global conference. PHOTO COURTESY MILKEN INSTITUTE

Celebrities such as businesswoman Arianna Huffington, director Tyler Perry and actress Ashley Judd mingled with financiers and philanthropists and many senior executives in the Trump administration, including Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. The list of notables went on and on. In an unusual pairing, famed British anthropologist Jane Goodall shared the stage with Oscar winner Goldie Hawn. Campbell was lucky enough to bump into Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in the green room before she went on stage. Her panel topic was “Can the Open World Economy be Saved?” whereas the five-time Super Bowl champion shared insights about his life in football in an interview with sportscaster Jim Grey. Campbell’s photo with the legendary QB was the envy of many. Even Canada’s own Kevin O’Leary was there. The entrepreneur and former Dragons’ Den star joined former New York Yankees great Alex Rodriguez for a panel discussion on “How to be a Man.” My session was private and by invitation only. Designed to garner candid thoughts, the session was packed as we discussed “What’s Next for Women.” Anilu Vazquez-Ubarri, managing director of human capital management for Goldman Sachs, was a panellist with me, as was Tina Tchen, an American lawyer who served as an assistant to

former president Barack Obama, chief of staff to former first lady Michelle Obama and executive director of the White House Council on Women and Girls. Kara Nortman, a partner with Upfront Ventures and founding member of a non-profit organization called All Raise that is pushing for more venture capital funding for female founders, rounded out the speakers. Richard Ditizio, president and chief operating officer of the Milken Institute, was our skilled moderator. I shared the Canadian perspective, and the audience was keen to learn about different Canadian approaches to inclusivity. The Americans in the audience seemed particularly impressed by the recent change in O Canada’s lyrics from “in all our sons command” to “in all of us command.” Nortman said, “Now we all want to immigrate to Canada!” – a sentiment shared by many. Our one-hour conversation went by all too quickly, and I hope to be back next year. There is so much more to discuss and learn while navigating a world in transition. Janice McDonald is the founder of business strategy firm The Beacon Agency, an adviser at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business and the coauthor of two national studies on women entrepreneurs.

ART DEPARTMENT Regan Van Dusen, 238-1818 ext. 254 regan@greatriver.ca Celine Paquette, 238-1818 ext. 252 celine@greatriver.ca FINANCE Jackie Whalen, 238-1818 ext. 250 jackie@greatriver.ca SUBSCRIPTIONS/DISTRIBUTION Patti Moran, 238-1818 ext. 248 subscribe@obj.ca PRINTED BY Transcontinental Qualimax 130 Adrien-Robert, Parc Industriel Richelieu Gatineau, QC J8Y 3S2 NEWS RELEASES Please e-mail to editor@obj.ca. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR We welcome opinions about any material published in the Ottawa Business Journal or issues of interest to local businesspeople. Only letters with the writer’s full name, address and telephone number will be considered for publication. Addresses and phone numbers will not be published, but they might be used to verify authenticity. Letters can be e-mailed to editor@obj.ca.

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CITY HALL

Maker House owner Gareth Davies is one of a growing number of Ottawans employed in the ‘maker’ economy. PHOTO BY MARK HOLLERON

Local craft industries looking S to make their move

BY DAVID SALI david@obj.ca

Council to mull proposal to allow microbreweries and other small manufacturing operations more leeway to set up shop in retail neighbourhoods

mall manufacturers such as craft breweries, micro-distilleries and furniture makers could soon find it easier to set up shop in busy retail districts if a city staff proposal wins council approval. Earlier this month, the city’s planning committee unanimously endorsed a plan to allow small-scale manufacturing and food processing operations in areas zoned for commercial and mixed-use activities. Current bylaws restrict such businesses to industrial districts typically located in segregated business parks away from

residential neighbourhoods and shopping areas. Those rules were originally meant to contain industrial activities that were often associated with noise, pollution, smoke, odours and freight traffic, a city staff report says. But today’s light “storefront industries” are an entirely different breed, the report says. “Businesses that start small (such as a craftsman making and selling his goods out of a single storefront) are prevented from growing or are forced to commit to a largescale production facility in an industrial park,” it says. The report doesn’t specify exactly which industries would fall under the new proposal, saying manufacturing “may be of food or beverage products or of other products in small quantities.” To qualify, businesses will need to have a retail or restaurant component but will also be allowed to sell their products to other distributors. They will face strict noise and pollution restrictions, be barred from producing hazardous materials and in most cases will be limited to a floor area of 350 square metres. “We have a growing maker culture in the city and across North America, and in strictly zoning terms, those are industrial activities,” says Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper, whose ward includes a number of microbreweries and other craft manufacturers. “Historically in cities, we’ve tried to keep industrial activities and commercial activities and residential activities separate. But clearly, a number of these activities don’t have the impacts of what you would traditionally think of as being industrial activities.” Under current bylaws, for example, brewing beer is technically an industrial activity. Restaurants are allowed to brew beer but can only sell it on their own premises. The new zoning rules would allow restaurantbased brewers to distribute their beer to other establishments while also allowing craft breweries more leeway to set up on busy streets near pubs, eateries and other businesses.

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“How do you fill main streets with just typical retail stores when people are (shopping) online and shopping at big-box stores? It becomes harder and harder for lots of places to thrive. I think changing what we think of as our traditional main street is just a good way to go forward as cities.”

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– DAYNA GUY, CO-OWNER OF HINTONBURG’S TOOTH AND NAIL BREWING CO.

“I think the risk of negative behaviours, the risk of impacts to the community, is really minimal,” Leiper says. “They’re competing with the behemoths of global brewing, and if we can help those local brewers, those local small businesses, to establish their brand and to build that brand loyalty, that’s a positive as far as I’m concerned.” Leiper says the new rules would also benefit entrepreneurs such as furniture makers and custom ironworkers who’ve been relegated to industrial parks. “It’s not manufacturing cars,” he says. “These don’t have the same impacts as what traditionally one thinks of as industrial activities.”

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MONDAY, MAY 21, 2018

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‘RETAIL CLIMATE IS CHANGING’ One of the craft breweries in the councillor’s ward, Tooth and Nail Brewing Co., is located on Irving Avenue, just off Wellington Street West. Though the area around the business is mostly zoned for commercial and residential uses, the brewery was allowed to set up there because the site had previously been a print shop designated for industrial purposes – an anomaly in that part of town. Dayna Guy, who started Tooth and Nail with her husband Matt Tweedy in 2015, says the new rules will make it much easier for other small manufacturers to establish a foothold in bustling neighbourhoods such as Hintonburg. “The retail climate is changing so much,” she says. “How do you fill main streets with just typical retail stores when people are (shopping) online and shopping at big-box stores? It becomes harder and harder for lots of places to thrive. I think changing what we think of as our traditional main street is just a good way to go forward as cities.” Fellow Hintonburg entrepreneur Gareth Davies, owner of Maker House, is also a fan of the proposal. “The change lends itself to the hybrid business models we’re seeing come out and shared-space models, where you would take what was traditionally zoned as pure retail … and now we’re allowing people to think creatively and mix their

production in with that retail space,” says Davies, who builds custom furniture such as chairs and coffee tables and sells products from 150 other craftsmen, most of them based in Ottawa. “It actually makes it more economically sound for producing more things closer to the end user, which is good for the local economy and the environment.” Davies currently operates a retail outlet on Wellington Street that has five employees but makes his furniture at a workshop in nearby City Centre. “It’s getting harder to find production space in the city as redevelopment takes place,” he says. “The City Centre building is pretty much the last bastion of urban industrial production space. That’s something that we need to cater to (in) our city zoning. There’s a huge groundswell of makers and local producers.” Leiper agrees, saying the city’s bylaws have fallen out of step with the times. “Small funky bars, restaurants, businesses, markets, are one of the reasons why people want to live in neighbourhoods like Hintonburg and Westboro,” he says. “If we can ensure that the zoning is a help and not a hindrance to that, that’s a really positive direction.” At Tooth and Nail, where loyal patrons regularly pack the 100-seat bar and restaurant, Guy says enterprises such as her brewery and Maker House boost the local economy and bring new life to neighbourhoods, adding the city should be doing all it can to help them flourish. Her business now sells its products to about 10 bars in Ottawa as well as a handful in Toronto and employs 13 people. “The more people can see examples of (businesses) that exist and are thriving, I think it encourages that,” she says. “At the end of the day, the core of our business is regulars and people who live in our neighbourhood. If you have a brewery in your neighbourhood that’s making great beer, what more could you want? I think people recognize that quality that comes in stuff that’s produced really, really locally.” City council will consider the proposal at its next meeting on May 23.

uOttawa’s SUNLAB shines light on future of green energy

Karin Hinzer Having surpassed its 10-yearanniversary last year, the SUNLAB has also spawned several student-led startups. Most notable among them is Spectrafy, the Ottawa-based company that developed the SolarSIM (Solar Spectral Irradiance Meter), a sensor that measures the sun’s spectrum and other atmospheric activity such as greenhouse gas emission levels and solar radiation. In November 2017, the firm signed a major contract with the federal government that will see its sensors installed across Canada. The completed system will be the world’s first national solar spectral network.

University’s Faculty of Engineering focused on developing photonics for devices, networks and energy

MONDAY, MAY 21, 2018

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hen Karin Hinzer first began research into renewable energy more than 10 years ago, she was convinced the technology wasn’t going to be that useful. It was only in discussing her work with a classroom full of students that the potential for the technology was put into perspective for the University of Ottawa professor. “All my students just wanted to work on things to help address global issues,” she says. Today, Hinzer continues to teach with the university’s School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and serves as the founder and director of the SUNLAB, which is Canada’s premier solar cell research facility. Shortly after founding the SUNLAB in 2007, Hinzer was also appointed as a Canada Research Chair in photonic nanostructures and integrated devices. In plain terms, Hinzer is on the forefront of Canada’s solar energy revolution. Her work with SUNLAB is an important part of the Faculty of Engineering’s photonics for devices, networks and energy research area. “Our world is changing rapidly,” says Hinzer. “To hit Canada’s agreed-upon targets under the Paris Climate accord, we have to move towards renewables extremely rapidly.” THE NEXT GENERATION For the University of Ottawa, a byproduct of housing many of the nation’s top researchers is that their expertise trickles down to the students they teach. One way the school is helping to train the next generation of innovators

in renewable energy is through NSERC CREATE TOP-SET, which stands for the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Collaborative Research and Training Experience Program, and offers Training in Optoelectronics for Power: From Science and Engineering to Technology. The program is funded by NSERC and is a partnership between the University of Ottawa, Université de Sherbrooke and McMaster University. TOP-SET helps prepare graduate students to work in optoelectronics – the study of electronics and light – specifically as it pertains to renewable energy. The main goal is to gear students up to join advanced R&D teams when they embark on their professional careers. “It’s training people for the new economy,” says Hinzer. “It’s the transformation of the energy economy in Ottawa, Canada and around the world.”

To hit Canada’s agreed-upon targets under the Paris Climate accord, we have to move towards renewables extremely rapidly. -Karin Hinzer She serves as the lead researcher for TOP-SET which started in 2017 and uses SUNLAB research space for training.

The uOttawa Centre for Research in Photonics has grown to become one of the largest and most recognised photonics centres in the world, regrouping 24 professors and over 200 graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and staff in the Advanced Research Complex, a new state-of-the-art building designed specifically for the demands of photonics. The centre has recently established a formal partnership with one of the foremost research organizations in the world – the Max Planck Society, based out of Germany – and seeks to expand its partnerships to other European and Asian institutes. The centre also houses the Nanofab, a nanofabrication facility that features cutting-edge nanotechnology equipment and characterisation tools. Although new, this core facility is already highly successful: it supports 12 researchers and about 40 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows through flat-rate access fees and offers contract-based services to industry and academia at large.

To learn more about the uOttawa Centre for Research in Photonics, visit: photonics.uOttawa.ca.

THE GREAT-DR One example of a technology that is being developed out of SUNLAB is software and hardware to control and negotiate the flow of electricity between a customer’s home energy system and the grid as part of the Grid Edge Active Transactional Demand Response project, dubbed the GREAT-DR. The advanced smart technology, which is currently being offered as a trial program through Hydro Ottawa, enables a customer’s electricity demand and generation to seamlessly interact in real-time with the electrical grid. As the public utility explains, “the GREAT-DR platform will decentralize and largely automate demand response and transactive energy right through to the grid edge – where a customer connects their devices to the electrical grid. This will give customers more control over their electricity usage. “At the same time, it will create a more resilient grid, where electricity market operators will gain stronger demand response guarantees. Local distribution companies, such as Hydro Ottawa, will have also more control and flexibility in managing their own distribution system, especially when demand fluctuates.” The University of Ottawa’s SUNLAB is key in developing the open source tools required for the project. To learn more about Prof. Karin Hinzer and her work, http://sunlab.eecs.uottawa.ca head to sunlab.eecs.uOttawa.ca.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP Continued from page 5 It’s been nearly a year since the group hosted its first gathering at Shopify headquarters on Elgin Street, featuring guest speaker Janice McDonald, the founder of consulting group the Beacon Agency and a strong female voice in Ottawa business. Since then, catering giant Sheila Whyte, Manx Pub manager Stephen Taylor and Lambert – all of whom are well-known and respected for their HR acumen – were part of a panel discussion called Surviving the SH%*Storm: Managing Your Culture & People for the Long Haul, also held at Shopify. HUMAN SIDE OF BUSINESS As well, Canadian singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards shared her story of opening her west-end café, Quitters, with the group. That session was held at Edwards’ coffee shop in Stittsville. Most recently, seasoned entrepreneur and business coach Manjit Basi was back in a public speaking role – her first time since suffering a serious concussion two years ago – to offer tips on how to be a good business leader. During the last Monday night of April, some 50 people – predominantly women – gathered at Bayview Yards, where Basi spoke about the human side of doing business.

The Guild co-founders (from left) Heather Andrews, Regine Paquette (with newborn son Maxime), Nadine Hogan, Anna Lambert and Katie Frappier. PHOTO BY CAROLINE PHILLIPS

Basi has ample experience behind her, having successfully run four locations of The Body Shop in Ottawa for a 20-year span before going on to co-found and serve as the first executive director of Synapcity, a non-profit organization focused on citizen engagement. One of the secrets to good leadership, she told her audience, is to be curious, generous and empathetic. “You’ve got to approach things with a beginner’s mind and a wondrous awe of what is happening with your people, your customers, your product and your

service,” said Basi. “You have to be in deep questioning mode all the time.” When it comes to generosity, she said, “It’s that generosity of time and the spirit of presence for that human connection that people need in your organizations.” As for being able to understand or feel what another person is experiencing, it’s important to know the reality of an employee’s situation, said Basi, who followed up with the story of a woman who was at risk of being fired because she was regularly late for work. It turned out she was a single mom with

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childcare issues. The solution was easy: Have her start later in the day when she was more available. The Guild’s next talk is on June 13 with Diane Hodgins, the CFO of the Shorefast Foundation, which owns the spectacular Fogo Island Inn located in a remote part of Newfoundland. She’ll be talking about how business, culture and community can work together to strengthen all three elements. The public can get more information at theguildottawa.myshopify.com or be added to the newsletter emailing list at theguildottawa@gmail.com.

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MOTORS

FUNDRAISER

From left, Ian Faris, president and CEO of the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce, with Kelly Mounce, Marlene Floyd and her husband, André Fortin.

From left, guest speaker Karen Jacobs, a former client of Dress for Success, with the non-profit organization’s executive director, Mary Tersigni-Paltrinieri.

From left, Catherine Priestman, president of marketing agency CP Business Solutions, and senior project manager Christina Sheffield provided the signage for the Stepping Out fundraiser for Dress for Success.

Dress for Success clothes Ottawa women in confidence Dress for Success Ottawa is all about helping women put their best foot forward as they step back into the workforce. But on May 11, it was the stylish supporters of the non-profit organization who were flashing their feet – in strappy sandals, pretty pumps and perfectly pointed stilettos – in the popular shoe competition held during the Stepping Out event. The eighth annual fundraiser was back at Lago Bar and Grill, located at Dows Lake Pavilion. Local lifestyle blogger Dominique Baker hosted the shoe showdown, which featured a parade of fabulous footwear. Contestants Kelly Mounce, Stephanie Lore and Miriam van Nie won in their respective categories. Come live auction time, Dress for Success co-founder and board member

Joelle Hall gave a good, loud finger whistle to quiet down the chatty crowd. Her assertiveness did the trick and left “Stuntman” Stu Schwartz noticeably impressed. The morning show co-host with Majic 100.3 sold off a Bloomex floral arrangement party, a VIA Rail getaway to Old Montreal and a trip to St. Lucia to top bidders that night. Attendees included Microsoft Canada’s Marlene Floyd, another cofounder of Dress for Success Ottawa and current board member, as well as one of this year’s Forty Under 40 award winners for young business leaders. Her husband, Quebec Transport Minister André Fortin, was among the minority of guys who attended. NAV Canada senior legal counsel Amanda Sarginson, board chair for Dress for Success, was there. So was board member Kate Headley, who co-

chaired the event with Nicole Darechuk. Proving the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree were sisters Danya, Ariel and Alexandra Vered, all of whom volunteered that night. Their late father, businessman Arnie Vered, was a tireless community builder. RBC regional president Tina Sarellas was seen hanging out with her gang from work, including banking adviser Jing Xu, who is a former client of Dress for Success. Earlier in the evening, Karen Jacobs told guests at a VIP reception how she benefited from Dress for Success after going back to school – in her late 50s – to become a certified paralegal through Algonquin Careers Academy. The organization provided her with appropriate clothes for job interviews. It also gave her access to a certified career coach and workshops on professional

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From left, Ariel Vered and her sister Alexandra volunteered at the Stepping Out fundraiser for Dress for Success.

etiquette and budgeting as well as tips on hair and makeup for the workplace. The best part of all, she told the room, was the boost to her confidence. She arrived at Dress for Success as an unemployed, mature woman. “In no small part to them, I’m working at a prestigious law firm in downtown Ottawa, and I love my job,” said the law clerk with Brazeau Seller.

BIRTHDAY BASH

FANTASTIC AT 50: ALGONQUIN COLLEGE CELEBRATES PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE Barbara Farber, president of Leikin Group — which owns the neighbouring College Square shopping complex — with former Algonquin College president Kent MacDonald.

college was recognized with the prestigious Chair’s Award. Algonquin College Foundation acting director Peggy Austen had inquired, during her acceptance speech on behalf of the college, how many people in the 400-plus crowd were alumni, taught at the school or had hired a graduate. “No less than two-thirds of the room put their hands up,” said Smith. “This is what builds great communities.” Attendees included former college presidents Robert Gillett, after whom the student commons building is named, and Kent MacDonald, president of St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia; Invest Ottawa CEO Michael Tremblay; and the foundation’s founding board chair, Barbara Farber, along with its current board chair, Rodney Wilson. From the culinary community were such well-established alumni chefs as Michael Moffatt, now with Thyme & Again, and Katie Brown Ardington. She recently left her position as personal chef to the prime minister to rejoin the Beckta group, assuming Moffatt’s old position as executive chef of the Beckta, Play Food + Wine, and Gezellig restaurants. Alumna Christina Tessier hadn’t been

satisfied with her career in high-tech and government when she made the decision to go back to school. She noticed that Algonquin College was offering a program in museum studies. It had never previously dawned on her that museums – which she loved – could be a career choice. She enrolled in the program that same year.

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MONDAY, MAY 21, 2018

Making it to half a century deserves more than just cake and ice cream. Algonquin College called on some 300 alumni and business partners to help it celebrate its milestone birthday earlier this month while also raising funds for DARE District, its new innovation, entrepreneurship and learning centre. Its student commons building was bathed in its signature green school colour and filled with the sensational sounds of live music. Guests visited multiple food stations and checked out memorabilia during the Walk Through the Ages-themed gala on May 3. While Justin Lavigne, a graduate of the Music Industry Arts program, gave a beautiful performance on the Steinway grand piano – a legacy gift from CBC – it was the powerful voice of Jamie Fine, accompanied by fellow Algonquin College alumnus and musician Elijah Woods, that rocked the house that night. The duo recently won the inaugural season of CTV’s reality music competition series The Launch. The room heard from Algonquin College president Cheryl Jensen, Deputy Mayor Mark Taylor and Ron Smith from presenting sponsor Yorkville Asset Management, a Toronto-based boutique money manager with an office in Ottawa. Smith recalled how, at the recent West Ottawa Business Excellence Awards, the

“And the rest is history,” said Tessier, who’s now director general of the Canada Science and Technology Museum. She’s also on the board of directors for the Algonquin College Foundation. Award-winning Ottawa-based photographer Michelle Valberg told OBJ. social how she’ll always be grateful to the school for its guidance and support. She’s also one of the more than 175,000 people to have graduated from Algonquin College. “Without them I don’t think I would be a photographer,” she said. “They were just so instrumental in me getting my career off the ground, with pushing me along and giving me encouragement, and being there to say, ‘You have talent. Do something with it.’” Jacqueline Belsito had been stuck at a crossroads at the end of high school, not knowing which level of post-secondary education to pursue. She enrolled in business administration at Algonquin, with a major in marketing and advertising. She immediately excelled and found her potential. “I flourished as an individual,” said Belsito, who’s now vice-president of philanthropy and community engagement with the CHEO Foundation. “I also made friends that I went to school with that I’m still friends with today.”

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17 OBJ.CA

The Finest Portfolio of Luxury Homes in Ottawa

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Stories and photos by Caroline Phillips

MOTORS

GRAND OPENING

Expanding Thyme & Again has kitchen party at new location When members of the public caught wind that the new Thyme & Again Kitchen + Food Shop might be ready for customers, they began lining up outside on May 4 and waiting for the doors to open. It was a good sign for owner Sheila Whyte, but, while on the subject of signs, it also meant she needed to get one hung up in the window right away – clarifying that opening day was around the corner. Thyme & Again had been busy that day preparing for its large Kitchen Party to celebrate its new second location, which opened May 8 at 1845 Carling Ave., next to Produce Depot. What a party it was, with a turnout of some 250 invited guests. Mayor Jim Watson and Coun. Jeff Leiper came by for the official ribboncutting and presentation of a framed letter of congratulations for Whyte and new

From left, Ottawa Riverkeeper board member Colleen Westeinde with Tania Kratt, Sheila Whyte and Penny Schroeder, who’s also on the organizing committee for the annual Riverkeeper Gala in support of Ottawa Riverkeeper, at the Kitchen Party.

managing partner Michael Moffatt. Several months ago, Whyte had decided it was time to launch a second location, knowing that Thyme & Again had

outgrown its space at 1255 Wellington St. W. The expansion came together nicely after she found a suitable location with ample free parking in the same general

vicinity as her other store, and after she was able to recruit Moffatt, who’d just left his longtime position as executive chef for Beckta Dining and Wine Bar and its sister restaurants. Partygoers were encouraged to tour around the new space and go behind the scenes into the kitchen area. Workers managed to transform the vacant building in very short order into a fresh, welcoming and beautiful new space envisioned by interior architect and designer Tania Kratt. Attendees included Jeff York, co-CEO of successful Canadian food retailer Farm Boy, and his wife Joanne. The crowd was thick with recognizable faces, from Ottawa restaurateur Stephen Beckta and his new executive chef Katie Brown Ardington, to retired chef Robert Bourassa and Parkdale Food Centre manager Karen Secord, to Ottawa lawyer Lawrence Greenspon and cookbook author Margaret Dickenson. Also spotted were Carley Schelck, CEO of The Urban Element, Laryssa Korbutiak of Oresta Organic Skin Care, Kichesippi Beer Co. owner Paul Meek and former Ottawa mayor Jacquelin Holzman.

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“We get to spend a whole dinner sitting next to them and bending their ear about the importance of a vibrant arts and culture sector,” he added. The gala was organized by a volunteer committee. It was co-chaired by Dan Mader, senior vice-president with NATIONAL Public Relations, and Alayne Crawford, director of corporate affairs for Shaw Communications. The evening raised a net total of $380,000 for the Writers’ Trust of Canada. The dinner was co-emceed this year by House Leader Bardish Chagger, who’s also minister of small business and tourism, and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who made his way to the podium Bollywood-style. After dinner, the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing was awarded to Tanya Talaga (Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City). The $25,000 prize went to Talaga. Her book, published by House of Anansi Press, investigates the deaths of seven Indigenous students in Thunder Bay between 2000 and 2011. “Just to be nominated was a prize in and of itself,” she told the audience.

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MONDAY, MAY 21, 2018

Politics and the Pen is one of those rare and special occasions in Ottawa where some of our country’s most influential figures come together for drinks and dinner, enjoyed with a few good jokes, while raising considerable sums of money to encourage, celebrate and support Canadian writers. A predictably sold-out crowd of 500 business leaders, politicians, writers and “anybody who thinks they’re anybody,” as it was later quipped, gathered May 9 at the Fairmont Château Laurier. So balmy was the evening air that many guests ended up on the terrace, soaking up the scenic views of Parliament Hill. Masquerading that night as an extrovert was novelist Terry Fallis, two-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour. “It’s great for people watching,” he told OBJ.social as guests began to arrive at the glitzy gala. The cocktail reception was followed by a formal dinner, where each table was joined by a politician and an author. Fallis was looking forward to rubbing shoulders with the political set that night.

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CONNECTING TECH IN OTTAWA

Ottawa’s Soshal lands SurveyMonkey contract Creative agency CEO shares insights into design trends for growing tech firms by Craig Lord

MONDAY, MAY 21, 2018

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or eight years, Ottawa-based creative agency Soshal has been building up a portfolio of clients ranging from huge brands such as Honda to local startups including Solink and ChangeJar. The firm recently spearheaded a rebranding rollout for SurveyMonkey, the California-based software giant with strong Ottawa roots. Soshal co-founder and CEO Dave Hale spoke with Techopia to break down how the team led by creative director Chad MacDonald worked with the Silicon Valley firm and why product design should be on Ottawa startups’ minds from day one. The following transcript has been condensed and edited for clarity.

It’s interesting, when we have clients that try to engage us in more of a vendorbased relationship, the irony is that the work is never as good. It often comes out more expensive and takes like three times longer to produce.

Q: What’s the process like working with a large tech firm in SurveyMonkey?

A: We see two things happening right now. There are organizations that have a design-centric culture right from the time Q: So you want the most talented that they’re founded, and so you have that fish in a relatively small pond, in cultural element injected into their product other words. Your company would from day one. be the magnet for tier-one talent in In Ottawa, there’s a handful of Ottawa. companies that take design really A: Yeah, exactly. If you’re a SurveyMonkey seriously: Shopify being one; You.i TV or anyone else, they’re actually getting being another. talent that is at a caliber that our talent On the other side, especially in could move to any of those tier-one Ottawa, the history of tech here is very markets and have great careers, but engineering-driven. That’s awesome, they’ve chosen to live in Ottawa and we can because there’s some brilliant minds here. provide a culture and an opportunity for They’re able to build a product that is them to still work with those world-class super functional and all of a sudden they’re brands but without needing to move from trying to take that product to market and it the city that they love. is a battleground these days. It’s taken us eight years to get to that It’s no longer, “Oh, we have a great

A: The clients we have where we have the best working relationship, like with SurveyMonkey, is where they’re not looking for a vendor, they’re looking for a partner to challenge their ideas and use our experience and expertise to push their work forward. We intentionally have pretty heavy client involvement, so we set up shared Slack channels and we’re in daily communication with them. It’s not like this formal process where it’s Mad Menstyle and they unveil over the billboard, “and this is what we came up with in our dark little corner!” It’s a lot more collaborative.

Q: How do you get the attention of large American firms from a midsize town?

A: There’s two factors that are attracting U.S. clients to us. One, by being Canadian, there’s a dollar conversion that makes us more costeffective to work with on an hourly-basis. There’s also (a talent advantage) by being based in Ottawa. The benefit to us has been that we can attract some of the top talent that exists in the city because we want to be in the top agency brand that you think of locally.

Soshal CEO and co-founder Dave Hale tells Techopia how the local company is handling big clients such as SurveyMonkey. Photo provided point. We feel, as a brand, that we’re pretty product and we can just tell that to confident in our position and understanding people.” Design plays this huge role in the how to leverage it to get great business. conversion process. Those very engineering-driven Q: What are the design trends companies, they can’t not look at design you’re seeing in Ottawa tech right anymore.

now?

Q: How should startups be thinking about design? A: I used to tell people that the user interface of Ubering to school from your house is one hundred times better than the user interface of applying to attend that school. That’s the breakdown for the users of 2018. They say, “I pay $10,000 a year for this service and my interaction with them from a digital standpoint sucks. I pay $10 for this other service and my experience is amazing.” That’s the example of how we need to evolve the thinking around the role that design plays. Your customer is not comparing you to their competitors, they’re comparing you to the services and products that they use day to day.

TECHOPIA LIVE

Techopia Live brings Ottawa’s hottest startups and coolest tech execs to your screen every week. The live tech show airs at 12:15 p.m. on Wednesdays on Techopia’s Facebook and Twitter channels. Check out our ever-growing video archive of 80+ Ottawa tech interviews at http://bit.ly/TechopiaLive, and if you’re reading our digital edition, click play below.

Lawyer Megan Cornell seeing ‘momentum’ in Kanata North by Craig Lord

NEWS FROM CANADA’S LARGEST TECHNOLOGY PARK - KANATA NORTH WHAT WE’RE GEEKING OUT ON: WHY COLOCATION MAKES A LOT OF SENSE FOR BUSINESSES IN CANADA

rom the Momentum Law offices at 555 Legget Dr., founder Megan Cornell has a great view of the technology firms in the research park. Joining Techopia Live earlier this month, she told OBJ and Techopia publisher Michael Curran about the exciting level of activity that she’s seeing on a daily basis. “We get to see the momentum in the park – you’d be amazed how often you can work that word into the conversation,” she said with a laugh. Though she’s been practising law for businesses in the city for 20 years, Cornell believes there’s been a renewed energy in the tech park these past five years. She attributes that to an influx of startups in diverse industries that are determined to grow to the level of KRP’s anchor tenants. The park’s emerging specialty in sectors such as autonomous vehicles has driven a new demand for talent, Cornell said. Adding to that need are non-tech firms moving in to the area – look no further than cannabis company Tweed’s sign newly affixed to the KRP building. “Not more than a week goes by where you don’t see a company out here really aggressively recruiting,” Cornell said. That means busy days at Momentum, where the need for speed has never been

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Megan Cornell. File photo greater. As firms attempt to scale globally, financing rounds are closing more quickly, which puts added pressure on legal services to maintain accuracy without slowing down the companies’, well, momentum. Cornell doesn’t see the Kanata North buzz stopping in the coming years. She expects existing companies to move up and larger firms to set up shop as the tech park’s reputation continues to to grow. “There’s not that much vacant land, but I think there’s going to be even less,” she said. “There’s no slowing Kanata North down.”

“Not more than a week goes by where you don’t see a company out here really aggressively recruiting.” - Megan Cornell

Stay informed about business news that matters most to you. Startups, venture capital, accelerators and other local news from Ottawa’s tech sector.

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TEDXKANATA APPLIES TECH SOLUTIONS TO HUMAN PROBLEMS

THE LIST Company / Address Phone / Fax / Web

Year est. in Ottawa

Major markets

Major clients

Description of specialty areas

David Ibbetson 1948 vice-president and general manager, General Dynamics Mission Systems–International

WND

Department of National Defence; U.K. Ministry of Defence; U.S. Department of Defense; more than 20 allied militaries around the world

C4ISR and defence electronics company producing technology-based integrated solutions for land, airborne, maritime and public safety applications.

Calian Group 101-340 Legget Dr. Ottawa, ON K2K 1Y6 613-599-8600 / 613-599-8650 calian.com

380

Kevin Ford president and CEO

1982

Defence and security; federal government; corrections.

Department of National Defence; Government of Canada; telecommunications companies.

Services and solutions that cover health services, training, IT and cyber security, emergency management, satellite communications.

Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions 333 Palladium Dr. Kanata, ON K2V 1A6 613-599-9199 / 613-599-7777 cwcdefense.com

375

Cathy Pomeroy vice-president of COTS solutions

1981

Aerospace and defence

Northrop Grumman; Boeing; Lockheed Martin; Raytheon; BAE Systems; General Dynamics.

Develops rugged electronic modules and embedded systems for defence applications including C4ISR systems, unmanned subsystems, mission computing and recording and storage solutions.

Entrust Datacard 1000 Innovation Dr.Ottawa, ON K2K 3E7 613-270-3411 entrustdatacard.com

350

Greg Wetmore vice-president of product at Entrust Datacard

1969

Financial; citizen/ government; enterprises

State, provincial and national governments; financial institutions; enterprises.

Identity and secure transaction technologies; financial cards; passports and ID cards; authentication; certificates; PKI; secure communications.

DRS Technologies Canada 1100-500 Palladium Dr. Kanata, ON K2V 1C2 613-591-5800 / 613-591-5801 drs.com

300

Martin Munro vice-president and general manager

1990

Defence electronics; systems integration

DND; U.S. Navy; international military forces.

Designs, manufactures and supports naval communications, IRST and deployable flight data recorders; military C4ISR applications, as well as provides turn-key electronics manufacturing.

6 7

Lockheed Martin Canada 870-45 O’Connor St. Ottawa, ON K1P 1A4 613-599-3270 / 613-599-3282 lockheedmartin.ca

300

Charles Bouchard chief executive, Lockheed Martin Canada

1995

Global defence and security; aerospace

Department of National Defence; defence and commercial industries

Corporate office for Lockheed Martin Corp.

Thales Canada 1 Chrysalis Way Ottawa, ON K2G 6P9 613-723-7000 / 613-723-5600 thalesgroup.com/canada

212

Jerry McLean vice-president and managing director

1984

Canada; government DND; Coast Guard; NAV Canada

Systems engineering/project management; concept definition. systems analysis; computer

engineering; software development and computer simulation and modelling; weapon/sensor systems control and integration; logistics engineering; in-service support.

DEW Engineering and Development ULC 3429 Hawthorne Rd. Ottawa, ON K1G 4G2 613-736-5100 / 613-736-1348 dewengineering.com

151

Ian Marsh president

1978

Defence, police services and aerospace in North America

Department of National Defence, General Dynamics Land Systems – Canada, Ford Motor Co.

Largest manufacturer of ceramic composite armour protection systems in North America for military and police vehicles, military fleet life extension and re-purpose.

CAE Canada - Defence & Security 200-350 Legget Dr. Ottawa, ON K2K 2W7 613-247-0342 / 613-271-0963 cae.com

150

Joe Armstrong vice-president and general manager

1947

Federal government; defence and security; critical infrastructure

Federal government; Department of National Defence; Defence Research and Development Canada

Modelling/simulation and training; system and software engineering; human factors; capability engineering; life-cycle support to clients in defence, public safety and security.

March Networks 303 Terry Fox Dr. Ottawa, ON K2K 3J1 613-591-8181 / 613-591-7337 marchnetworks.com

150

Peter Strom president and CEO

2000

Global security and video-based business intelligence.

Four of Canada’s top five banks; Fifth Third Bank; Bank of New Zealand; Danske Bank; Banco de Chile

Provides video surveillance and video-based business intelligence solutions used by organizations worldwide to improve security and business performance objectives.

W.R. Davis Engineering 1260 Old Innes Rd. Ottawa, ON K1B 3V3 613-748-5500 / 613-748-3972 davis-eng.com

135

Tom Davis vice-president

1975

WND

U.S. Army; U.S. Marine Corps; U.S. Navy; BAE Systems; Boeing; Leonardo Helicopters; Airbus Helicopters

Aerospace and defense; IR signature management; IR signature suppressors for aircraft and ships; specialized exhaust systems for offshore energy platforms.

Boeing 1220-45 O’Connor St. Ottawa, ON K1P 1A4 613-745-8111 / 613-745-9779 boeing.ca

130

Jim Barnes 1999 director of global marketing – Canada for Boeing Defense, Space & Security

Global commercial and defence

DND; PWGSC; Canadian Space Agency

Commercial and military aircraft; satellites; weapons; electronic and defence systems; launch systems; advanced information and communication systems; performancebased logistics and training.

Raytheon Canada 730-360 Albert St. Ottawa, ON K1R 7X7 613-233-4121 / 613-233-1099 raytheon.ca

120

Garry Venman, president

1956

Defence; air traffic control; highway management

Government, DND

Air traffic management; service and support of avionics and airborne radar.

Gastops 1011 Polytek St. Ottawa, ON K1J 9J3 613-744-3530 / 613-744-8846 gastops.com

110

David E. Muir president and CEO

1979

Defence; aviation; energy; marine

Canadian Air Force; Canadian Navy; USAF; U.S. Army; Vector; IMP; PAL; Cougar Helicopters;

Condition-based maintenance sensors systems and services; oil wear debris sensors; filter debris analyzers.

Med-Eng 2400 St. Laurent Blvd. Ottawa, ON K1G 6C4 613-482-8835 med-eng.com

Rob Reynolds vice-president and general manager

1981

North, Central and South America; Europe; Middle East;

Military forces and public safety agencies

Bomb suits, protective equipment and sensors against explosive threats; bomb disposal and EOD robots, specialized tools and search equipment; applications.

Rockwell Collins Canada 104-30 Edgewater St. Ottawa, ON K2L 1V8 613-595-2200 rockwellcollins.com

Lee Obst president

2006

Government; aerospace

Department of National Defence; GD Canada; Thales; Bombardier; Air Canada; CAE

Communications, navigation and EW systems; simulation and training systems; avionic systems; flight management systems; data fusion and networking.

Senstar 119 John Cavanaugh Dr. Ottawa, ON K0A 1L0 613-839-5572 / 613-839-5830 senstar.com

Brian Rich president

1981

Banking, commercial, corrections, education, energy and industrial

Correctional Service of Canada; DND; military organizations; airports; high-security sites

Supplier of outdoor perimeter intrusion detection solutions, video management systems and analytics, personal duress solutions.

18 19

Kongsberg Geospatial 400-411 Legget Dr. Kanata, ON K2K 3C9 613-271-5500 / 613-591-0774 kongsberggallium.com”

Ranald G. McGillis president and CEO

1992

Defence; security; C4ISR; situational awareness

DND; NAV Canada; U.S. Department of Defense; Lockheed Martin; Raytheon; Northrop Grumman; FAA

Geospatial visualization; situational awareness; command and control software solutions.

Convergint Technologies & FSC (Future Security Controls) 2170 Thurston Dr. Ottawa, ON K1G 5A7 613-526-4224 / 613-526-5216 Convergint.com

Shea Patsula general manager

2013 (Convergint) 1982 (FSC)

All levels of government; small, medium and large private.

Parliament Hill (House of Commons/ Senate); RCMP; OPP; General Dynamics; CIC; Passport Office;

Integrated security solutions for government and commercial clients; system design; sales; installation and service; access control; CCTV; intrusion and biometrics.

Allen-Vanguard Corp. 2405 St. Laurent Blvd. Ottawa, ON K2G 5B4 613-739-9646 / 613-739-4536 allenvanguard.com

Mike Dithurbide president

2003

Military and public safety agencies

First responders

Develops and delivers equipment, customized training and integrated solutions for defeating terrorist and extremist threats.

12 13

MONDAY, MAY 21, 2018

Key local executive

800

OBJ.CA

(RANKED BY NUMBER OF LOCAL EMPLOYEES)

General Dynamics Mission Systems–Canada 1941 Robertson Rd. Ottawa, ON K2H 5B7 613-596-7000 / 613-820-5081 gd-ms.ca

Number of local employees

LARGEST DEFENCE AND SECURITY COMPANIES

WND = Would not disclose. Should your company be on this list? If so, please send details to research@obj.ca This list is current as of May 17, 2018. © 2018 by Ottawa Business Journal. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced by any method in whole or in part without written permission by Ottawa Business Journal. While every attempt is made to ensure the thoroughness and accuracy of the list, omissions and errors sometimes occur. Please send any corrections or additions by e-mail to research@obj.ca. OBJ lists are primarily compiled using information provided voluntarily by the organizations named. Some firms that may qualify for the list are not included because the company either failed to respond to requests for information by press time, because the company declined to take part in the survey or because of space constraints. Categories are drawn up in attempt to gather information of relevance to the Ottawa market. Research by Rosa Saba. Please send questions and comments to research@obj.ca.

FOR THE RECORD People on the move Erin Crowe has joined Kanata tech firm Martello as its chief financial officer. Crowe, who brings more than two decades of experience to the role, was previously CFO at ProSlide Technology, CFO and COO of the Regional Group of Companies and executive vicepresident and CFO of Senators Sports & Entertainment. Erin Blaskie has been named Kanata startup accelerator L-Spark’s director of marketing. Blaskie is L-Spark’s former community manager and has over a decade of experience helping to increase the visibility of technology startups and large corporations. Before joining L-Spark in 2017, she founded her own digital marketing firm that worked with more than 300 entrepreneurs and startups. Kimberly Leet has joined the ADGA Group as director of talent acquisition. She was previously senior director of recruiting services at the Associates Group and Sterling Global. ADGA employs more than 700 people

nationally, delivering professional services and solutions to its clients in the areas of defence, security and enterprise computing.

Hats off Pythian vice-president of business development Vanessa Symons has been named to CRN Magazine’s 2018 Women of the Channel list. Executives on the annual list span the IT channel, representing vendors, distributors, solution providers and other organizations that figure prominently in the channel ecosystem. CRN editors select the honorees based on their professional accomplishments, demonstrated expertise and ongoing dedication to the IT channel. The Canadian Museum of Nature has received the 2018 Gold MUSE Award for multimedia installations from its global museum peers for its Beyond Ice multimedia installation, which was created in collaboration with the National Film Board of Canada. The installation, which debuted in June 2017, transports visitors to the Arctic’s sounds, light, sights and even touch with slabs of real ice. Arctic scenes and animation by

Inuit artists projected on the ice bring the installation to life as visitors walk through it and explore the ice up close.

is based on four factors: creativity, feasibility, collaboration and bottom-line impact.

User interface software maker Crank Software has been selected as a recipient of the John Deere Supplier Innovation Award for 2017 in the Electronic Solutions division. The award is presented to select suppliers that have demonstrated innovation in a product or service they provide and

Aurore Lemarinier, visitor information project co-ordinator for Ottawa Tourism, has been named Tourism Champion of the Year by Attractions Ontario. Lemarinier was honoured for her tireless volunteer work and dedication to the promotion of Ottawa over the past year.

Contracts The following contains information about recent contracts, standing offers and supply arrangements awarded to local firms. Deloitte Inc. 100 Queen St. Description: Transformation solution services Buyer: Employment and Social Development Canada $16,000,000 EllisDon Corp. 2680 Queensview Dr. Description: Construction management services

Buyer: RCMP $8,716,995 Ross & Anglin Ltd. 2920 Sheffield Rd. Description: Bobs Lake dam reconstruction Buyer: Parks Canada $5,048,922 DEW Engineering and Development 3429 Hawthorne Rd. Description: Rigid wall shelters Buyer: DND $3,390,000 Ernst & Young LLP 99 Bank St.

Description: Forensic audits Buyer: Aboriginal Affairs & Northern Development Canada $1,000,000 Technet Electronics Inc. 159 Colonnade Rd. S. Description: Electrical hardware and supplies Buyer: PWGSC $1,000,000 Graybar Canada 1730 Bantree St. Description: Electrical hardware and supplies Buyer: PWGSC $1,000,000

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23 OBJ.CA

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HR UPDATE

ional camaraderie Your resource for profess and fresh insights.

RCE PROFESSIONALS THE HUMAN RESOU

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THE HUMAN RESOURCE PROFESSIONALS ASSOCIATION OTTAWA CHAPTER PUBLICATION

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THRIVING ON CHANGE DINNER JUNE 4, 2018 5:30 P.M. SALA SAN MARCO (215 PRESTON ST.)

People Analytics: Helping HR Become Data Driven

Welcome

to the spring 2018 issue of HR Update, a joint publication of the Ottawa Business Journal and the HRPA Ottawa Chapter. This publication can also be accessed as a virtual edition at www.obj.ca and www.hrpaottawa.ca. If you have any questions about this publication, please contact us via email at updatemagazine@hrpaottawa.ca.

For individuals interested in contributing, articles must be submitted via email to updatemagazine@hrpaottawa.ca by no later than Sept. 17, 2018 to be considered for the next edition.

HRPA Ottawa Dine and Learn Photos by Mark Holleron

2018-2019 OTTAWA BOARD OF DIRECTORS CHAIR CHERYL BANKS PAST-CHAIR MELISSA BELLOCCHI-HULL TREASURER/SECRETARY ERIN TAILLEFER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT BRENDA KIRKWOOD MENTORING MACKENZIE SMITH COMMUNICATIONS CAITLIN TRAYNOR STUDENT LIAISON MAURICE LE MAIRE REGULATORY LIAISON ANTHONY LAWLEY CONTACT US HRPA OTTAWA CHAPTER, GENERAL INQUIRIES & ACCOUNTING PHONE: 613-224-6466 E-MAIL: infohr@hrpaottawa.ca WEBSITE: www.hrpa.ca/Ottawa MEMBERSHIP CHANGES 150 Bloor Street West, Suite 200, Toronto, ON, M5S 2X9 PHONE: 416-923-2324 TOLL-FREE: 1-800-387-1311 FAX: 416-923-7264 EMAIL: info@hrpa.ca WEBSITE: www.hrpa.ca/Ottawa Join the HRPA Ottawa Chapter Group on LinkedIn @OttawaHRPA CHAIR: ANGELA ZIMMER EDITORIAL COMMITTEE: BRIGITTE LALONDE ERENDIRA PEREZ LARISSA VOLINETS SCHIEVEN PUBLICATION SUBMISSIONS: updatemagazine@hrpaottawa.ca SALES WENDY BAILY VICTORIA STEWART

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11 ways a professional association can boost your career BECOMING A MEMBER OF HRPA HAS A LONG LIST OF BENEFITS – AND THEY’LL HAVE A FAST, TANGIBLE IMPACT ON YOUR CAREER GROWTH

ultivating a career in HR means that you are in the business of people. You probably care a great deal about those around you, and you’ve probably worked very hard to grow your career to this point. But if there’s one point of commonality among HR professionals, it’s this: you are always striving to grow and improve, to create the very best workplace and culture you possibly can. If that sounds like you, there is one small step that can have massive returns for your career, your development and your workplace, regardless of the profession you choose: joining a professional association such as HRPA. The benefits of becoming a member has a direct and measurable impact on your career growth, and you don’t have to take our word for it. Here are some of the most significant benefits of being a member. Professional designations: Our tiered designation model means you can get the designations employers want faster, and our thorough but accessible competency framework means you will have the knowledge you need to meet emerging business challenges. Earn the Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP), the

Certified Human Resources Leader (CHRL) or Certified Human Resources Executive (CHRE) designation as you move up in your career! Exclusive job board access: Through Hire Authority, the No. 1 HR job board in Canada, you will have members-only access to thousands of high-level HR job postings at top organizations. And for employers, this means your job postings will give you access to the top HR talent in Canada. Higher pay, faster promotions: According to just-released PayScale research, professionals with an HRPA designation earn significantly more and receive faster promotions than HR practitioners without one. Mentoring programs: Meet your match, and watch your career and personal development blossom with our specialized mentorship programs. Skills self-assessment tools: All members have access to free tools that pinpoint and prioritize competency areas for further development. We even have tools for HR departments to assess their capability to drive organizational effectiveness. Professional development programming: Our extensive PD programming provides courses for every

area of HR, designed in close partnership with business leaders, top executives and world-class thought leaders. Gain the knowledge and skills to climb the career ladder, and watch your investment pay dividends. Highly targeted networking opportunities: Meet leaders in your field and your industry, build reciprocal partnerships, and watch how far you can go when you’re surrounded by the best people. Extensive member savings: We are pleased to offer exclusive savings with more than 1,500 vendors, including fitness memberships, travel discounts, insurance, wellness organizations and consumer products. Personalized access to HR research and reference librarians: Our research and whitepapers provides thought leadership for the most topical HR challenges – and our reference librarians can conduct personalized research just for you! Access to our HR hotline: Have a burning HR question that you’d like some advice on? There’s an app for that … well, actually, a hotline! Exclusive volunteer opportunities: Want the chance to work behind the scenes with high-profile speakers such as Hillary Clinton, Margaret Trudeau, Chris Hadfield and Clara Hughes? Our volunteers have. Want to get a board appointment under your belt, or gain not-for-profit experience? Check our ivolunteer platform for amazing opportunities! To read more about our extensive member benefits, please visit https://www. hrpa.ca/membership/member-benefits.

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MENTORING COMMITTEE UPDATE The Ottawa chapter of HRPA has successfully run a mentoring program over the past few years under the committee matching format. This program is a great opportunity for HRPA members to participate as either a mentor or a mentee. The Ottawa Chapter has joined with the Algoma, North Bay, Northwestern Ontario, Northumberland, Timmins and Sudbury chapters to form one mentoring community. By joining together, we are able to strengthen our connections and open our networks to different geographical locations. MENTORCITY The HRPA has partnered with MentorCity, a Canadian company that has developed an online mentoring platform that makes it easy to connect mentors and mentees in meaningful mentoring relationships. MentorCity: Allows mentors and mentees to find their own matches;

• Provides mentors and mentees with access to a resource centre filled with materials to support successful mentoring relationships; • Includes a discussion room for mentors and mentees to share experiences, ideas and resources with other mentors and mentees; and, Is easy to use and is PIPEDA-compliant. MENTOR-MENTEE MATCHES Matches are suggested through MentorCity based on information collected through a brief survey that is completed by each participant. The paired matches can discuss goals and complete an agreement including (but not limited to) the term commitment depending on each relationship. MENTORING RELATIONSHIP The mentoring relationship is a partnership between a mentor and mentee where the goal is to support the professional development of human resources professionals and nurture growth. The mentoring relationship is driven by specific goals set by the mentee. The mentee’s professional development will be enriched through the guidance, knowledge

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and experience of the mentor and also through any networking activities or group discussions that take place. It is also an opportunity for the mentor to learn something new, hone or develop new skills and build a relationship with an interesting human resources professional who is eager to learn from you. The mentoring relationship is flexible and unique to its members. Each mentor and mentee can agree on the frequency of meetings and location. There is no minimum time commitment requirement. Each relationship will agree on its goals and objectives within the timeframe that will work for both parties. Both mentors and mentees who engage in a formal mentoring relationship (who complete a mentoring agreement) are eligible to earn certified professional development (CPD) hours toward CHRP recertification. We deeply thank our past participants for their valued contribution year after year towards the success of the program. Ready to become a mentor, mentee or have any questions? Please reach us at Ottawamentoring@hrpa.ca.

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How to make a positive first impression GOOD INITIAL PERCEPTIONS CAN OPEN THE DOOR TO BUILDING STRONGER AND MORE SUCCESSFUL RELATIONSHIPS

t only takes five seconds to make a first impression. The people we meet quickly determine through their perception of us whether they like us, trust us and want to do business with us. Implementing the following 10 tips in business situations when you are meeting someone for the first time will help you to make a positive first impression:

MANAGE YOUR IMAGE Communication experts believe that 55 per cent of the total message presented by a person during a first meeting consists of

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BE AWARE OF YOUR POSTURE Good posture instantly creates an impression of confidence.

SMILE The best way to make others comfortable and at ease when you first meet them is by giving them a genuine smile. It helps to create a friendly environment that encourages conversation.

INTRODUCE YOURSELF TO OTHERS Never wait to be introduced. Take the initiative. It is how you make your presence known and demonstrate to others that you are engaging and personable.

6 their personal appearance. How we dress does have an impact on people’s perception of us. People respond and give more respect to those who are dressed professionally.

PROJECT A STRONG PROFESSIONAL PRESENCE Professional presence is a necessary life, business and leadership skill. It broadcasts who you are and determines how you are seen, heard and respected by others. It affects other first impressions of you and opens the door to allow others to discover and appreciate your innate skills.

MASTER YOUR HANDSHAKE A handshake is the physical greeting that goes with our words. When you introduce yourself to another person or are responding to an introduction, have a firm but friendly handshake. Firm handshakes are a sign of confidence, credibility and professionalism.

MAKE DIRECT EYE CONTACT Direct eye contact is very important in the business arena because it tells the other person that you are listening to them and can actually make you a better listener. In addition, it makes the person with whom you are speaking feel that they are important, valued and heard.

LET YOUR PEOPLE SKILLS SHINE THROUGH Let the other person be the centre of

attention. Ask them questions about themselves. By doing so, you will demonstrate that you are interested in others and what they have to say. Once the conversation has finished, they will leave thinking that you were very attentive, gracious and a good conversationalist.

ALWAYS CLOSE A CONVERSATION Never end a conversation without saying “thank you” or “it was a pleasure to meet you.” Ending a conversation graciously and professionally with another person will leave a positive impression.

FOLLOW UP Honour any promises you made to a new contact during a conversation, such as connecting with them for coffee to learn more about their business, or promising to send a great article via email. If someone has taken you out for a business lunch or provided a random act of kindness, send them a thank-you email along with a handwritten thank-you card. By doing so, you will enhance your credibility and opportunity to continue to build upon that professional relationship. Implementing these 10 tips in business situations when you are meeting someone for the first time will help you to always leave a positive first – and lasting – impression, all of which will open the door to building stronger and more successful relationships. Erin Crotty is the founder and director of BloomStra Consulting.

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For more information contact Andrina Rockwell 613-738-4856

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Navigating Modern Day Realities: Stress & Adaptability

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BUILDING YOUR TEAM IN A GROWTH ENVIRONMENT A case study into the transformation of a 28-year-old Ottawa ‘startup’

et me share our story about how we have been transforming our company. Human Resource Systems Group (HRSG) is a 28-year-old Ottawa company. We like to call ourselves a 28-year-old startup because we are transforming ourselves from a professional services company to a software company with the goal of doubledigit revenue growth. We specialize in talent management, using competencies as the key ingredient to assess and develop talent. To achieve our goals, we have been implementing a three-step plan. FIND A DISRUPTOR TO CREATE CHANGE For HRSG, this consisted of an individual with an impressive track record of building successful software companies. He brought fresh and ambitious ideas as well as a critical eye of our strengths and weaknesses. His first two tasks were to determine if we had the talent to achieve our goals and to create a product vision and strategy. DEVELOP AN HR PLAN Given the product vision, we created HR plans for all departments. We had major gaps to address in order to achieve our vision and growth goals. Each department needed to build an organization structure to support growth. This meant significant staff increases in our product development, sales and marketing groups implemented gradually over two years as revenue increased. Defining these jobs in terms of key competencies was critical.

BUILD LEADERSHIP ACCOUNTABILITY Putting leaders in place was an important step that paid off immediately. Several individuals from within HRSG were promoted to leadership positions. Their jobs were to build great products, create processes that scaled to our growth targets, find and implement tools to support these processes, and build our talent through hiring and development. We were encouraged to look outward for best practices and new ideas. Conferences, new partnerships, certification programs and conducting research became the new norm.

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HOW ARE WE DOING AFTER OUR FIRST YEAR? It isn’t yet over, but we’re making progress. We have released new software, steadily increased revenue, implemented many of the processes and tools to support our growth, and doubled our staff complement to 64. From an HR professional’s point of view, the biggest impact (apart from our disruptor), has been promoting people and building accountability. Giving our talent, the opportunity to improve the organization and create a foundation built on best practices has resulted in increased motivation, productivity and innovation as well as a collegial leadership team. Are we anxious about achieving our growth targets? Yes. But challenge brings determination, energy and new thinking. Lorraine McKay is the co-founder and chief marketing officer at Human Resource Systems Group.

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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Human Resource Management in Public and Not-for-Profit Sectors Certificate Public sector organizations and not-for-profits experience HRM issues and problems that are quite different from the public sector. Yet, many training and education programs focus only on HRM in the private sector, mainly targeted at large firms. This program is different. Here we focus on issues that are important for the public and not-for-profit sectors, including legislation, compensation, performance management, labour relations, and talent management. Visit www.hrpa.ca/Ottawa for more information.

communication. Never assume they are going to read through a long email.

TELL MORE STORIES It’s common for staff to listen to their leadership team share a new strategic plan or mission statement, only to leave the meeting unsure of how the new changes affect their role as an employee. Why not lead with how new changes will impact staff and then share the detail about the changes? Give your team a reason to pay attention (and not be bored!). Another tip in Medina’s book is that you lose an audience after 10 minutes. Tell a story, share an anecdote and do something to hit the reset button that will help the brain pay attention again.

The dos and don’ts of communicating change TIPS TO MAKING YOUR MESSAGES MORE ENGAGING

magine you received two emails at the same time. Which of the following subject lines would you click on and open first? All staff in the Manulife Pension Plan... If you can’t win Lotto 6/49… Communicating change, or any information, is best absorbed by employees

if it has a “hook” that piques their curiosity. According to John Medina, author of Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home and School, the mind is not capable of paying attention to things that are boring. Here are three tips to help you keep your team engaged in what you have to say.

ASK YOURSELF, “WOULD I READ THIS IF I DIDN’T WORK IN HR?” Challenge yourself to tweak your written communications and make them more interesting. Little additions, such as including a picture, can make a big difference. Offer a summary of what you want employees to take away from the

ASK – DON’T TELL How many times have you asked managers to pass on information to their staff only to find out it didn’t happen? Try engaging your managers in a conversation and ask what approach they’re going to take. Let’s say the request is for employees to fill out an online form that normally takes weeks to be completed. Spice things up and offer a prize to the first manager who gets three employees to complete the task. Enlist the help of managers. It will make it easier the next time you ask. Janet Hueglin Hartwick is the president of Soilleirich Communications Group. This article is an abridged version of the Conversations At Work presentation given at the HRPA Ottawa Dine & Learn event on March 22.

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How Hydro Ottawa unlocks the full value of its millennial workforce Local utility named one of Canada’s 2018 Top Employers for Young People for fifth consecutive year

or decades, it was widely assumed by most organizations that the process of onboarding new, younger hires largely involved a one-way transfer of knowledge: Junior staff would learn from an organization’s more senior staff. What that model overlooks, however, is the potential for long-term employees to learn from newer hires. Hydro Ottawa is one such organization that sees the full value of what younger employees can bring to the utility. As part of its Diversity and Inclusion Plan, the utility is committed to hiring from a broad cross section of society – including its younger generations. “Once we’ve got youth within our organization, we want them to contribute to meaningful work,” says Cindy Newell, Hydro Ottawa’s Director of Organizational Development.

6 HR UPDATE SPRING 2018

INVESTING IN THE NEXT GENERATION Jeff Bradford, 30, is one of Hydro Ottawa’s youngest leaders. As the supervisor of distribution operations, a position he has held for that last year, he oversees a team of journeypersons who install underground electrical infrastructure around the city. Bradford’s team is typically tasked with ensuring that new developments, including the incoming light-rail line, are connected to the power grid. The job is critical to the utility’s operations, and the lives of Bradford’s nine team members rest in his hands when they’re out in the field. “The approach used to be to promote people based on service,” says Bradford. “Now, it’s based on your work ethic, your experience and what you bring to the table.” Having recently celebrated his 10year anniversary with Hydro Ottawa, Bradford attributes his ability to attain

this supervisory role to the mentorship he has received through his employer. He was selected as part of an internal advancement program, which sees promising young employees groomed to move into leadership roles. YOUTH VALIDATION Hydro Ottawa has a Youth Council, composed of millennial employees that helps ensure the organization’s youngest voices are heard. The Council meets quarterly, with President and CEO Bryce Conrad as executive sponsor, and creates extensive opportunities for younger employees to network, both within and outside of Hydro Ottawa. Younger employees are also encouraged to have a voice in other areas of Hydro Ottawa’s operations. Youth make up 17 per cent of members across the utility’s working groups.

These measures ensure decisions that affect the entire Hydro Ottawa workforce aren’t only being made from the top-down. They also serve as an example of how the organization invests in the development of its younger employees. To keep new talent flowing into the company, Hydro Ottawa also offers five apprenticeship programs. At present 21 per cent of the company’s trades workforce is composed of apprentices. And the efforts to employ more youth are paying off for Hydro Ottawa. The utility was recently announced as one of Canada’s 2018 Top Employers for Young People for the fifth consecutive year. The award is presented each year by the Canada’s Top 100 Employers project and recognizes organizations that serve as leaders in attracting and retaining younger employees.

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HRPA Ottawa Photo Gallery Check out additional photos from our recent events. www.hrpa.ca/ottawa

It’s true that we have limited direct control of the behaviour of others. But we do have control over your own feelings, what we say and how we say it. often report losing their confidence when faced with conflicting information. Documenting the relevant facts/evidence and rehearsing the various scenarios in advance will help keep you anchored.

POSITIVE OUTCOMES TO DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS Constructive behaviour change is possible if dialogue is managed correctly

t’s the conversation that virtually all HR professionals dread. Whether it’s talking to an employee about poor performance or addressing complaints about hygiene or unprofessional behaviour, people rarely react well to negative feedback. Even if you have never been on the receiving end of one of these “difficult conversations,” we all intuitively understand how we might react when confronted with criticism of our behaviour or performance at work. Based on research from cognitive psychology, evolutionary psychology and neuroscience, we now have a better understanding of the underlying factors that lead people to react the way they do. In short, it’s a survival response. For all of us, our jobs are critical to our survival. We depend on the income we earn to provide the necessities (and luxuries!) of life. It’s that simple. Any threat to our income sparks the exact same fight-or-flight

survival response as physical threats did to our hunter-gatherer ancestors, such as the approach of a predator. What all difficult conversations have in common is that they involve telling the individual that some of their behaviours are unacceptable in the workplace. The natural reaction for the employee is to think that their job is at risk. This is interpreted by our brains as a threat to our survival and generates either a fight or a flight response. As a result, some employees will shut down emotionally – a psychological version of fleeing from the situation. Others may physically storm out of the room. In other cases, individuals may have a fight reaction that can involve simple disagreement or, in more extreme cases, outright hostility. Neither the flight nor the fight response is constructive for change and can often make a situation worse. Assuming the decision has not been taken to dismiss the employee, the objective

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of a difficult conversation should be positive behaviour change. That involves helping the employee continue to feel like a valued and productive member of the team. To do that, we must approach difficult conversations in a way that avoids making the person feel any more defensive than they already are. It’s true that we have limited direct control of the behaviour of others. But we do have control over your own feelings, what we say and how we say it. That is the key to success. Here are some simple insights to help you on your way to achieving more positive outcomes: BE PREPARED The anxiety of having a difficult conversation leads many people to avoid them until the last minute. “Winging it” is a surefire way to a bad result. These conversations always twist and turn when faced with denials or as new information is shared from the employee. HR managers

FOCUS ON THE FACTS TO KEEP IT IMPERSONAL Changing your behaviour is one thing. Changing who you are as a person is much harder. We all know this. So, if you frame the problem in personal terms, unsurprisingly, people take it personally and get defensive. Always talk about the behaviour – not the individual. When discussing problematic behaviour, descriptions should be factual and specific to avoid doubt and confusion. Explain in simple, clear and objective terms what the impact of their behaviour has been. MANAGE YOUR OWN FEELINGS THROUGH EMPATHY A guaranteed way to have a difficult conversation go off the rails is for you to react to the employee’s negative emotions with your own. Managing your emotions and keeping the conversation positive is critical. Being empathetic will make it easier for you to be less reactive and it will demonstrate you are there to help. Remember that it’s always much worse to be on the receiving end and that the goal is to help the employee succeed. THINK ABOUT YOUR DELIVERY How you deliver information is almost as important as what you say. A soft tone will have a much better impact than an aggressive tone. Using non-judgmental language keeps the conversation impersonal and reduces the risk of triggering defensiveness. Demonstrating active listening will also help signal your concern for their perspective. Finally, using supportive, open and non-confrontational gestures such as nodding and slightly leaning towards the speaker will reinforce the message that you are focused on helping the employee be successful. Gareth Doherty is the founder of Think/able Solutions. SPRING 2018 HR UPDATE 7

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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

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HOW TO SUCK AT HIRING Simple steps to becoming even worse at recruiting top talent

iring awesome people is hard. There is no shortage of quick and dirty tips and tricks floating around online that provide HR pros with guidance on how they can revolutionize their hiring, and suddenly have droves of “A players” show up at the door. The core problem, however, is that change is hard, maintaining the status-quo is comfortable and being average is safe. Since it’s easier to relax in a land of mediocrity and pay ridiculously high agency fees as opposed to taking different strategies into account and learning new skills that will actually make your business better, here is a shot in your arm that will hopefully make you think. 8 HR UPDATE SPRING 2018

Chicken catcher. Any questions about what that job entails? Didn’t think so. They could have called this job a “Poultry Logistics Specialist” or “Avian Transportation Guru,” but nope. Chicken catcher. As a celebration of ridiculousness, I magicians online these days … or clowns. Bravo Moonfleet, bravo. present to you the following five tips that will Anyway, if you assume that your target Are you being direct with your target guarantee that you not only don’t improve at audience has already drunk your internal audience? hiring, but actually get worse at it. Kool-aid and understands your organization’s Nah, me neither. I’d rather tell an inside lingo, you’re dead wrong. joke that no one laughed at. HOW TO SUCK AT HIRING TIP #1: Here’s a great example of an awesome job Use ridiculous job titles that you think are title that is crystal clear and leaves nothing HOW TO SUCK AT HIRING TIP #2: cool, but no one outside of your organization to the imagination, courtesy of Moonfleet Make your job postings read like a “Here’s actually understands. Poultry. the 137 reasons we won’t hire you” checklist. I used to call myself a “recruitment and You know what I find people really enjoy? talent branding magician.” Being evaluated against ridiculous criteria Guess what? that have no bearing on potential success I used to be an idiot! AND feeling like an easily replaceable human I thought it was funny and did it to battery during the whole selection process as make myself stand out as someone that opposed to a human being. was approachable, but surprisingly enough, I’m still pissed that the Pittsburgh peeps aren’t super comfortable approaching Penguins drafted Sidney Crosby over Marek

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media social @OTTAWAHRPA

chapter

keeping you connected www.hrpa.ca/ottawa

Zagrapan in the 2005 NHL entry draft. Who? Marek Zagrapan, what’s wrong with you? Zagrapan was a tough, 6-foot, 190-pound centre with a left-hand shot, and could play the penalty kill like a mofo. He matched the job description for a centre perfectly! Crosby, on the other hand, was and still is undersized, AND he’s made of glass. Sure, Crosby has led the Penguins to three Stanley Cups, but those were random wins and had nothing to do with his performance. Right? Then again, maybe the Penguins were on to something and understood that there may be more to success as a centre on their team than what was listed on the job description. Nah, that sounds like crazy talk. Are you evaluating talent for their potential success at your organization, or against nonsense tangibles like years of experience doing X with no regard for performance? I know lots of people with many years of experience who happen to suck at their job. Do you? HOW TO SUCK AT HIRING TIP #3: Have and enforce an archaic social media policy. There is no better way to let the world know that you don’t trust your employees than not giving them access to their social media while at the office or having a social media policy that includes an “opinions expressed are mine and not necessarily those of my employer” bullet point.

It’s really too bad that you can’t police what your people are saying offline so it makes total sense that you should try to make up for it by doing everything you can to control what they are saying online. I love seeing multiple people from the same organization sharing and tweeting the exact same cold marketing-approved messages that were crafted with love by some out-of-touch PR person with absolutely no faith in others to engage their personal connections in real life. I suppose a better course of action could be to inspire, educate and empower our employees about social media and how their day-to-day actions can affect the success of our businesses – especially as it relates to hiring – and then trust them to act like adults. After all, the sum of our employees’ social media following is easily a factor of 100 times larger than our organizations’, and our employees have something within their networks that no organization or recruiter on the planet has within their network: credibility. Nah… It’s easier to live in a fantasy world where we think we can control everything people say and do. HOW TO SUCK AT HIRING TIP #4: Have a completely chaotic, disorganized and time-consuming selection process that only a NASA engineer could actually understand and implement within a calendar year. The more complicated the better – that’s what I always say! Sure there’s a “war for talent” and all,

but from my experience, people love to play hurry up, fake a dentist appointment for an interview on short notice and then wait for weeks at a time for feedback … and then do it all over again when you’re ready to get off your hump and have your potential new hire meet with someone else to ask them the exact same questions all over again. I don’t know about you, but I sleep much better at night when I know that I have completely wasted a stranger’s time and added mountains of stress to their home life while I got to enjoy playing puppet master because my mom didn’t hug me enough as a child. Alternatively, I suppose you could map out and share with your potential new hires a simple, efficient and repeatable selection process where all parties knew what, when and with whom to expect so everyone could make good use of his or her time to discuss what success at your organization looks like. Which brings me to how to suck at hiring tip No. 5... HOW TO SUCK AT HIRING TIP #5: Have absolutely no clue what a successful hire looks like, and how to identify potential in another human being. One of my favourite pasttimes is putting a blindfold on, resting my forehead on the nub of a baseball bat, putting the head of the bat on the ground, spinning around as many times as it takes to disorient myself to the point of falling over, and then throwing a dart at a moving dartboard in an attempt to hit a bullseye. That’s how typical hiring decisions should

be made, right? What’s so wrong with interviewing 10 or 12 people just to figure out what I am – and am not – looking for? Nothing, that’s normal! Then again, I suppose it may be of value to me, everyone on my team as well as the people that I am meeting to actually put some thought towards what success looks like in my next hire, and what I will be measuring everyone against prior to wasting a dozen people’s time and sick days. Hmm. Nah, that sounds too smart. Phew! See, that wasn’t so bad. Although the bar for sucking at hiring is set pretty low, if you follow these five tips, I guarantee your agency spend will increase this year, as will your time to fill. It’s a good thing that peeps are lining up at your door begging you to hire them, especially at 95 cents on the dollar, right? No worries, don’t lose too much sleep. Lots of your competitors suck at hiring too, so your inability to hire the people you need to make your business successful is a common problem. In the event that you’d prefer to not suck at hiring, I hear you. Challenging the status-quo of suckiness, though scary, can be an exhilarating experience. You may even find out that hiring doesn’t have to be so hard. John Fleischauer is the chief operating officer at Pivot and Edge.

Marijuana in the Workplace — Are you Ready?

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SPRING 2018 HR UPDATE 9

HRPA OTTAWA CHAPTER EVENT UPDATES NOW COME DIRECTLY FROM HRPA Please watch for them on Tuesdays in “Your HRPA Daily Newsletter” and add reply@membermail.hrpa.ca to your safe senders list so you don’t miss out! You can also visit www.hrpa.ca/ ottawa and click on “Chapter Events.” Looking to get on the list? Send an email to infohr@hrpaottawa.ca.

the form in the order in which they are asked. When creating an outline, identify the allegations, and make sure you have the information and documents needed to respond to each one. If there’s something missing, circle back to the documents you’ve gathered and your witnesses to fill the gap.

INTS

PLA COM

COMPLETE ‘FORM 2’ You can download the form from the HRTO’s website. Most of the questions are fairly self-explanatory. For any section that asks you to explain what happened, write “see attached Schedule A” rather than trying to squeeze everything into the form. WRITE UP YOUR SCHEDULE A A good response is one that is easy for the reader to understand and follow. You want to tell your story, not just respond to the applicant’s version. Organize your information in a way that makes sense and is relevant to your defence, whether or not it was directly raised by the application. Generally, it is helpful to go through the events chronologically, using dates and headings to separate themes and ideas. You should include blanket statements denying all of the allegations and that the organization or individual violated the Human Rights Code, in case you forget to address a specific ground or allegation. Keep in mind that the HRTO does not have the power to deal with claims of unfairness between parties, unless related to a ground under the Human Rights Code. The HRTO can only address applications that allege a violation of the Human Rights Code. If the application makes allegations of unfairness that aren’t connected to a protected ground, clearly identify this.

How to respond to human rights complaints STEPS TO ANSWERING – AND DEFENDING YOURSELF AGAINST – ALLEGATIONS

s an employer, or as someone who works in human resources, you might find a letter from the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal (the “HRTO”) sitting on your desk. Applications to the HRTO have been increasing in popularity as we see more and more media attention on discrimination and harassment allegations. If you receive an application, it is important to respond to the allegations, or you run the risk that the HRTO will deem you to have accepted the allegations and will deal with the application without keeping you informed. This list is designed to be a tool for responding to an HRTO application.

Make note of the deadline to respond. After you receive a Notice of Application letter from the HRTO, you have 35 days to respond. The deadline for responding should be clearly marked on the letter. If you cannot meet that deadline, you can ask for an extension but the request for an extension must be made before the deadline.

TALK TO ANY POTENTIAL WITNESSES You should talk to anyone who is named in the complaint, whether as an individual respondent or as a witness. In addition, talk to anyone you can think of who may have knowledge of the allegations. You will have to provide names of possible witnesses along with your response, as well as a brief READ THE APPLICATION IN DETAIL explanation as to why they are important. It is crucial that you review the entire You may find it useful to provide all of application and pay close attention to detail. these potential witnesses with a summary of Often, applicants at the HRTO are selfthe allegations and ask them to respond in represented so they may not fully understand GATHER ALL RELEVANT DOCUMENTS writing. You can then use these statements the form, or what information needs to go You will be required to identify any relevant while you prepare your Schedule A to make where. If you only read their description of documents in your response, but (with the sure you cover all your bases. events, you may miss critical information, exception of a few specific documents identified such as the remedies they are asking for and in Form 2) you do not have to disclose them OUTLINE YOUR RESPONSES the grounds they are basing their claim on. at this point. Before preparing your response, Ensure that you respond to all of the Read through the application once to get an find any documents that may be helpful while allegations contained in the application, idea of its contents, then go through it again you draft your version of events. These may without responding line by line. It is not to identify what you need to respond to. include the employee’s contract, any relevant necessary to answer the questions from 10 HR UPDATE SPRING 2018

REVIEW THE RESPONDENT’S GUIDE If this is your first HRTO response, the Social Justice Tribunals of Ontario website has a respondent’s guide, which is an excellent resource. The guide will walk you through the response process and outlines who to contact if you have any questions. If you feel like you need more guidance once you’ve reviewed the respondent’s guide, or you’re not comfortable responding on your own, now would be a good time to seek legal advice.

policies (including a collective agreement if the employee is unionized), any internal complaints and their responses, the employee’s personnel file, and any documents that relate to discipline, including the letter of termination, if applicable. Make sure you have these, as well as any other documents referenced in the application, on hand as you draft your response.

SEND EVERYTHING TO THE REGISTRAR Once you have completed Form 2 and your Schedule A, along with any of the documents required by the HRTO, send everything to the Registrar as, indicated on the application. The Registrar will redact what it deems necessary before sending your response to the applicant or their lawyer. Any communications beyond the response have to be addressed to the Registrar, with the applicant copied, and accompanied by a completed Form 23: Statement of Delivery. WAIT FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTION If the HRTO considers your response incomplete, they will return it to you. At that point, you will have 20 days to resubmit the completed response. Otherwise, the HRTO will send the applicant and any other named person(s) a copy of your response. The applicant may have an opportunity to reply if your response raised any new matters. If both parties agree to attempt mediation, the HRTO will schedule a time with a HRTO mediator for the parties to try and reach settlement. If there’s no mediation, or if mediation proves unsuccessful, the HRTO will schedule a hearing. The HRTO will provide you, or your representative, with information and timelines for next steps. Erica Bennett is an associate at Emond Harnden. Lauren Jamieson is a student-at-law at the firm.

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Contributors wanted! For individuals interested in contributing, articles must be submitted via email to updatemagazine@ hrpaottawa.ca by no later than Sept. 17, 2018.

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Headshots

Article Format 3 Articles must be sent in either .doc or. docx format

MANAGING DEPARTURES: HOW TO HANDLE EMPLOYMENT TERMINATIONS

Word Count

3 Please ensure your article is no greater in length than 800 words

reconsideration. All other discussions are best managed at a later date. Planning is the most important investment you can make. Consider all of your logistics and plan for the worst to happen and prepare for the best. This conversation is completely about supporting the individual and creating an exit strategy as they absorb the news. ‘SURVIVORS’ Next should be consideration for the team members who are not exiting, often referred to as the “survivors.” Good preparation and communication is just as important with this group. These individuals will be conflicted with feelings of relief that they still have a role in the organization, and confusion or grief for members of their team exiting. It is essential to have a well-crafted communication plan that is timely, provides inspiration going forward as well as discretion and dignity to those departing individuals. This group will require ongoing communication as part of your change management strategy in order to “re-recruit” them to your future team.

anaging departures as a result of a business transformation requires vision beyond the departure decision. Good planning for a compassionate and dignified experience for everyone involved is critical to the success of the transformation. HR leaders are often faced with the task of coordinating and planning these departures discreetly and independently. THE AFFECTED EMPLOYEE First consideration must go to the departing employee. Preserving the dignity of the employee is critical. It is important to prepare your message well and to not deviate from your script. Avoid providing any explanation at this stage. It is unlikely one can soften this message in the moment, and it can’t appear to be a topic that is still open for

3 JPEG format & 300 DPI, CMYK 3 Measuring no smaller than 2” x 3” 3 No cropping of the head area

OPERATIONAL STAFF The third group that is often missing from even the most comprehensive plan is the operational staff. These are IT personnel who are tasked with disabling access and collecting equipment, the office services team members who may have to handle clearing out desks, lockers or mailboxes, the reception staff who are responsible to field calls and any other members of your logistics team. These individuals are in the unfortunate position of knowing that these departure conversations are imminent and must continue functioning business as usual while protecting this sensitive information. Maintaining the confidentiality of this information is a difficult burden to carry that can cause fatigue and disengagement. Genuine compassion and support combined with discreet gratitude for this group should be an important part of your plan. Departures as a result of business changes are challenging and often necessary components of transformations. Critical success factors include compassion, discretion, good planning and clear messaging. While we tend to focus on the departing employee, it is equally important to include other team members in your strategy: those who are staying on and need to engage in the future, as well as those who are enabling and supporting the change. – By Jessica Ferguson

Talent & Leadership Development • Career Solutions • Executive Search & Recruitment Lee Hecht Harrison Knightsbridge helps companies simplify the complexity associated with transforming their leadership and workforce so they can accelerate results, with less risk.

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SPRING 2018 HR UPDATE 11

HIRING GREATNESS Ottawa recruiter David Perry shares insights from his latest book on how to tap into the value of modern knowledge workers

icking a person is the most important business decision you will make. What is an employee worth? Not compensation! But value? As an extreme example, entertainer David Bowie floated a personal bond issue a few years ago. He offered investors a portion of his future royalties from previously recorded material and receipts from future concerts. The “Bowie Bonds” were gone within an hour of the offer, for more than $50 million. In an even more striking case, when Dreamworks SKG went public, investors immediately drove the value of its bonds to $2 billion. Dreamworks was a film studio without a studio, a film or even a star. All it had was the intangible value of its founders: Coreyn Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Getten. The intangible value of being – that’s what the new knowledge economy is all about. Veteran information age guru Stan Davis confirms some insights into the increasing value of people in today’s economy. A person’s “value” is just a measure of how much someone is willing to pay to obtain something from them. 12 HR UPDATE SPRING 2018

EMPLOYEES AS FREE AGENTS In their business strategy book Blur, Davis and co-author Christopher Meyer argue that the boundaries between your work life and your home life are disappearing. In fact, today the rate of change and the depth of connectivity is so fast that every person, product, service and company are blurring together. Instead of resources or land, “capital” today means human capital. It doesn’t take a shoe factory to go into the shoe business these days. Nor do you need raw materials or fleets of trucks. Nike became a shoe industry leader by concentrating on the value-producing capacity of its employees for design, marketing and distribution knowhow. The real capital is intangible: the person’s knowledge level, combined with an aptitude for application and execution. Knowledge workers are the value-adders. Today, employees – especially in the high-technology world – tend to think of themselves as a “free agent.” Like a professional athlete who is always in training, knowledge workers are continuously investing in the next set of skills and

training, driving up their personal “stock price.” This puts knowledge value in the driver’s seat. VALUE = / SALARY In this world, “value” is NOT salary – not for the employer, not for the employee. Your search for a star candidate should be value-focused, not salary-driven. Employers will try ever harder to retain smart, boldly entrepreneurial overachievers. Google used stock options to attract exactly this kind of person, and has created thousands of employee millionaires. Apple employees who contributed the maximum to Apple’s employee stock purchase plan have seen their shares grow in value to approximately $1,112,189 over the seven years – that’s 636 per cent. By and large the whole industry is playing by the same rules and, occasionally, someone does something interesting. It seems the following incentives are the price of admission for companies looking for new hires: signing bonuses, multiple annual raises, options, a great work environment and a courtship process that would woo the coyest lover.

While that may be the regular price everyone has to offer to get new employees, it’s not enough to attract the best executive talent. Every company that promotes itself effectively must make both a logical and emotional connection with the consumer. The needs of the recruit must be reflected at both an emotional and logical level, and must not present the image of a company that is boring, staid or traditional, but present an emotionally based image of dynamism, youth and forward movement. The emotional appeal of a company that offers individual meaning, status and project glory can upset the conventional offers of conventional players. Our audience is smart, educated, motivated and in possession of an inordinate amount of business savvy that their predecessors lacked. They represent the elite of the workforce. Every company in every country wants them. So recruiting executive talent today requires the ability to micro-target the competition’s employees where they live – not where they work – and the occasion to treat each potential “candidate” as an individual, providing a customized response tailored to their needs. That’s how you hire greatness and increase your value. David Perry is an executive recruiter and managing partner at Perry-Martel International Inc. He’s the co-author with Mark Haluska of Hiring Greatness: How to Recruit Your Dream Team and Crush the Competition.

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“Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude.” — RALPH MARSTON

Motivating change in life and at work ABILITIES, KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ENVIRONMENT ARE ALL CRITICAL TO ACHIEVING GOALS

common narrative in change management is that if you give somebody a compelling reason to change – what’s in it for them – they will then be much more likely to adopt the change. What can be a more compelling reason to change than your life depending on it? Let’s consider the example of patients in health care who have very poor lifestyles resulting in heart diseases leading to these patients needing coronary artery bypasses. These patients need to change their lifestyle. Otherwise, they would die from their heart condition. Dr. Edward Miller, the former CEO of John Hopkins Medicine, found that 90 per cent of the people who go through a coronary artery bypass go back to their old lifestyle within two years of their surgery. So how could a reason be more compelling than your life depending on it? Because a good and compelling reason alone is not enough to create or sustain change. Change is much more complex and sometimes the motivation or the reason alone is not enough to sustain it. How we

A good and compelling reason alone is not enough to create or sustain change.

behave is a function of both who we are and the environment in which we exist. I may be motivated to have a healthy lifestyle, but do I have the knowledge,

abilities and skills to sustain such a lifestyle? Do I have the willpower to initiate a change and then sustain it through the day, week, months and years?

To create lasting change, focus on the person within the environment that he or she is acting. From the person perspective, willpower does not last. And motivation needs a daily boost, just like the brushing that has to happen every single day. Focusing on the motivational aspects alone is a weak strategy when designing and facilitating change. Consider also the abilities, knowledge and skills needed to adopt and implement that change. If that is a gap, no matter how motivated you are, you are not going to be able to create the change. And last, consider the environment in which you’re functioning. Is the environment congruent with the changes you wish to make? If the goal is to adopt a healthy lifestyle, do you have junk food in the environment? Do you live or hang out with people who don’t work out, or have friends who are constantly asking you to go out for unhealthy meals? Assess the environmental conditions that are leading to your current behaviour and make the necessary changes to your environment to align it with your change goals. As a leader who is trying to create change in an organization, when you’re devising a strategy for change, acknowledge both the person and the environment. It’s only when the two come together that you can have a hope for lasting change. Now that is a compelling strategy to make change happen. Sandeep Aujla is a principal consultant and founder of Multilevel Leadership Consulting.

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sfhgroup.com SPRING 2018 HR UPDATE 13

“A leader has the vision and conviction that a dream can be achieved. They inspire the power and energy to get it done.” — RALPH LAUREN

Gender identity and expression: Educating your complainants and respecting the employee GUIDELINES AND BEST PRACTICES FOR SUPPORTING TRANS PEOPLE IN THE WORKPLACE

ive years have passed since gender expression and gender identity were added to the Ontario Human Rights Code. Over the same time period, we have heard stories in the mainstream media of celebrities who have changed their sex, transgender athletes gaining permission to compete in the Olympics without a surgical sex change and changes to government identification. For employers, gender identity and gender expression are hot and timely topics. The learning curve is high, the timelines are short and expectations are significant. While the law in this area is highly dynamic, there are guidelines and best practices for understanding its unique aspects, supporting trans people in the workplace, and ensuring compliance with the Code. UNDERSTANDING GENDER IDENTITY AND EXPRESSION While the Code does not define “gender identity” or “gender expression,” the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario has

held that these grounds are intended for the protection of transgender and gender non-conforming persons. The Ontario Human Rights Commission has provided the following guidance in its Policy on preventing discrimination because of gender identity and gender expression: • Sex is the anatomical classification of people as male, female or intersex, usually assigned at birth. • Gender identity is each person’s internal and individual experience of gender. It is their sense of being a woman, a man, both, neither or anywhere along the gender spectrum. A person’s gender identity may be the same as or different from their birthassigned sex. Gender identity is fundamentally different from a person’s sexual orientation. • Gender expression is how a person publicly presents their gender. This can include behaviour and outward

appearance such as dress, hair, make-up, body language and voice. A person’s chosen name and pronoun are also common ways of expressing gender. Employers will want to carefully assess current operating procedures and practices to ensure compliance with their obligations under human rights legislation. Gender identity and gender expression will create different challenges for employers and service providers. Employers can take steps now to create inclusive workplaces or prepare for accommodations. At its core, the obligations require employers to make sure trans people and other gender nonconforming individuals are treated with dignity and respect, and enjoy equal rights and freedom from discrimination.

Best practices •

Review your organization’s policies to ensure they include gender identity and gender expression

•

Review human resources forms and documents

•

Use an individual’s chosen name and pronoun

•

Provide suitable accommodation

•

Review dress codes

•

Protect privacy

Siobhan O’Brien is an Ottawa labour, employment and human resource lawyer at Hicks Morley.