Innovating More Than Just Technology at the Canadian HR Awards
September 19, 2016 | By Ashley Joslin
Now before we get started, I know what you might be thinking, ‘I thought Left didn’t do the HR thing?”
You’re right… well sort of! As with most things we do, we challenged the status quo and went with Employee Experience instead of HR. This speaks to who we are as a company, a community member, family and friends. It may only be one role in the company — our Employee Experience Manager — but the whole team truly takes part in making our culture what it is today. So with that being said, not only do we do the “HR thing sort of“, but we were finalists at the Canadian HR Awards that were just held last week in Toronto on September 15th. Lucky me, I was whisked across the country to get all spiffed up and show off Lefty Pride. You see, we were actually up for two awards this year:
The Venngo Award for Excellence for Financial, Physical and Mental Wellness and The Ultimate Software Award for Best Workplace Culture. Both of these awards emphasize how our best-practices are making a difference in the lives of our employees both at work and in their personal lives.
For the most part, we are stereotypical modest Canadians that don’t like to brag; however, when you take the time to reflect it becomes clear that we don’t give ourselves enough credit. Our traditions and initiatives are not only unique and innovative, but they also go above and beyond standard HR practice. It is a rewarding task to reflect on the aspects of our day-to-day culture that make us who we are and share those with people on the outside.
Between The Dream Program, our award winning Community Engagement Program, or our use of real-time measurement of Employee Engagement (which currently sits at 9.1/10), we are constantly adapting our practices to keep our Lefties having fun at work. I recall a student asking two of our Lefties, “What is it about Left that you love” and the responses were similar in that they both talked about it being like a playground. Left is a place where people can work on things they are passionate about with the freedom to explore new things. To me, this was a priceless response.
When I entered the field of HR, everyone scrunched their nose up and said, “nobody likes those people”. From then on, my dream has been to work for a company where I can be part of changing that fundamental belief. That’s exactly what we are doing at Left by ensuring the employee experience is the best it can be. Our people are the core of everything we do, and we work hard to make them feel valued. Win or lose, these awards were an opportunity for us to mingle with other change makers who are setting the standard of putting people first in their business.
In the end, we didn’t triumph this time around. And while we do want to send out big congratulations to the winners, we also wanted to give a shout out to all Canadian companies who were nominated for these prestigious awards. Every nominee, win or lose, is shaping the future of how employment experiences ought to be.
Melissa Quinn
Employee Experience Manager at LEFT
PS… A few weeks ago, the awards committee sent out a film crew to get some interviews with our founders. And while we may not have won the awards that night, I think we may have won the best video of the night award [if that was a real category]. In typical Leftie fashion, we had a little bit of fun with it. And for your enjoyment, here it is:
