Join Danielle Smeltzer, Founder and Chief Capacity Officer of Awarely, for our first professional development session of the year. The presentation will dive into identifying strategic partners, aligning HR with organizational strategies and KPIs, and fostering a mission-driven HR team.

Space is limited at our in-person venue - The Dock! Register HERE

EVENT CANCELLED

We're thrilled to invite you to an exclusive Lunch and Learn event hosted by Simply Computing in partnership with PeopleOps and Reimagine Work, where we'll unveil a suite of services designed to elevate your business. As the largest Apple Reseller in BC, we're committed to offering not just products, but complete solutions tailored to your business needs.
During this session, you'll discover:

• Business Leasing Options: Flexible solutions to keep your technology up-to-date without the upfront costs.

• Comprehensive IT Services: Expertise to streamline your operations, ensuring your business runs smoothly.

• Service and Repair: Quick and reliable support to minimize downtime.

• Trade-In Opportunities: Turn your old units into valuable resources for your next upgrade.

• Diverse Hardware Procurement: Access to the latest and best in technology, beyond just Apple products.

This is more than just a presentation; it's an opportunity to directly address your business challenges and explore how our services can be the solution. Let's discuss how Simply Computing can support your growth and efficiency.

Please join us for an engaging session filled with insights, networking, and, of course, a delightful lunch. Book your spot today and take the first step towards empowering your business with cutting-edge technology solutions.

We’ve made it to the end of 2023! Let’s celebrate (and squeeze some pro-d in, too!) 

People Ops is thrilled to introduce Darin & his company Cosmogence. A 20-year tech industry vet he’s built engineering, sales and recruiting teams across a variety of organizations, large and small. Along the way, he's learned that people and relationships form the basis for success in life and business. 

Starting at 3:30 pm - Darin will be leading a roundtable focused on remote performance management, asking what does performance management look like in a hybrid or remote work landscape? How can we level the playing field amongst an ever more diverse, global and inclusive workforce? Come ready to share your own experiences, and ask questions about best practices & tools.

At 4 pm we’ll switch to party-mode! Thanks to our generous sponsors VIATEC & Cosmogence we’ll be kicking the winter holiday season off right with merriment & good cheer. We’ll have refreshments and a chance to connect with your People Ops people as you approach the final stretch of year-end & holiday party planning (plus maybe a surprise or two!).

Register on Eventbrite to join us!

For the final installment of our pay transparency series, we’re thrilled to welcome long-time PeopleOps supporter, Gavin Marshall! 

Gavin joins us to offer a legal perspective on pay transparency legislation, focusing on employer obligations & considerations, as well as an up-to-date roundup of current legislation. Bring your questions, your concerns, and your curiosity as we all approach this new chapter! 

Gavin is a partner at Roper Greyell. Gavin believes lawyers should always tailor their approach to the needs of the particular client, as the first step to giving useful advice and finding solutions. He has appeared in every level of court and every kind of workplace tribunal in British Columbia. Gavin loves to teach and share his knowledge and was a regular speaker with the PeopleOps group pre-pandemic. We’re so excited to have him back!

Register early for this event, as we’re likely to reach capacity. A big thank you to Reimagine Work for generously securing us a space at the beautiful Kwench for this session. 

Register on Eventbrite to join us!

We’re so excited to be continuing our salary transparency programming! We’ve saved this date as it’s about six weeks out until the deadline for including salary ranges on BC job postings and we want to check-in. How are you feeling? Ready? Nervous? Totally confused?

Jump on with your People Ops community to chat it out. Our online roundtable will give you a chance to see what other organizations are doing: how they’ll be showcasing bands on their postings, how they’re handling internal communications, and how they’re feeling as we approach this important milestone.

Come ready to share & to learn. We’ll be taking notes (and redacting any personal info, of course!) to share with Gavin Marshall for his legal perspective in our October irl session.

Register on Eventbrite to join us!

Join PeopleOps organizing committee member Noah Warder as he walks through a case study of how his org, Guusto, developed its compensation philosophy, educated managers and executives on the importance of transparency, and set the stage for bringing transparent compensation practices to their organization. He'll get you thinking of the best practices (and pratfalls!) of bringing increased pay transparency to your org. You'll also get to ask questions and chat with other PeopleOps members as we all prep for BC's changing legislation.

Register on Eventbrite to join us!

Spring has sprung, and PeopleOps is emerging from hibernation! Our first in-person event of 2023 is scheduled for Monday, May 29th, to kick off ScaleYYJ.

With the generous support of Reimagine Work, we invite you to join HR, Talent, Ops, Admin & Finance pros from across BC's tech sector to meet, mingle, and discuss what we've been working on (and what we're looking forward to). This event is open to all members, and we encourage you to share our details with folks new to their roles or new to tech - we've got some exciting ideas for the rest of the year (both online and in-person), and we want to invite new members, as well as old.

Interested? Register now, and we'll see you at Viatec, our venue sponsor! As we'll be serving beer & cider, all attendees must be 19+ and registered to attend.

PeopleOps.ca is excited to welcome Kim Nusbaum of Mathews, Dinsdale and Clarke LLP, a national labour and employment law firm which provides expertise and support to employers in all areas of workplace law.

Kim will be joining us to answer all your questions regarding everything from;

• Laying the groundwork for a return to the office

• Hybrid in-office and remote work models

• “Work from Anywhere” Policies–benefits, risks, and key considerations

• Employee relocations during the pandemic–outside the city, the province and even the country – what to consider from an employment standard, human rights, and health & safety perspective

• Vaccination policies & mandatory testing

• Accommodation requests to continue remote work, including on the grounds of

  disability and family status.

Kim Nusbaum is an associate at MDC and has a broad practice covering all aspects of workplace law, including discipline and terminations, employment standards, human rights, contracts, unjust dismissals, departing employee obligations, workplace policies, injunctions, and general strategic advice. Kim originally joined the Firm’s Toronto office but has recently relocated to her hometown of Victoria, BC to start MDC’s newest Victoria office. Kim received her Juris Doctor from the University of Victoria. She is called to bar in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario.

Curious about how to structure a Performance Improvement Plan? Thinking of approaching this kind of doc in a totally new way? Hoping you never need one and don’t have any docs in place?

Join your People Ops people for a casual roundtable to talk PIP best practices and why you should consider getting this performance documentation created before you need it. Come with your ideas, concerns, and best practices to join your peers in a supportive conversation.

Monday, March 21, 1 - 2 pm PT via Zoom! Register to get the invite!

A facilitated, hands-on collaboration session for local people ops leaders to identify our shared challenges and opportunities, and how we as a community can tackle them together. Potential topics: job boards are increasingly less effective for recruitment, what other tactics can we use to bring talent into our community? What resources are needed to train up local people ops leaders for more targeted/direct recruitment? We have a shortage of local senior talent - what can we do around promotion, training up our junior talent, or getting better at hiring out of region can we do to address this?

Now that remote/hybrid seems here to stay, and potentially a shift towards flexible workweeks/4 day weeks, how can we evolve strategies to grow culture and build strong teams?

Eve Olynyk, Community Talent Development Manager at VIATEC will facilitate the discussion with the goal of informing VIATEC’s future talent initiatives to best fit the needs of the community and to help support organizations within the community to work together to tackle shared issues.

With the rise of knowledge work being able to be done anywhere there is also a rise in interest for folks to travel and work abroad. Employees are looking to become travelling nomad and slomads while retaining their current roles and responsibilities. Let's get together to talk about how this is playing out within our teams/companies, what we need to keep in mind, and what best practices we can share going forward.

It is that time of year where many of us are prepping for budgets and going over compensation planning. This year seems more complex than years past with cost of living, inflation, and a very competitive job market. Let's get together and talk about it in a roundtable type session held over zoom, Tuesday, December from 1-1:45pm

Thinking about the holidays? Wondering what folks are doing for swag this year? Looking for new ideas to connect with your remote team? Join us at our annual holiday planning roundtable to talk about your favourite office traditions, ideas for winter team engagement, and your plans for this holiday season. This is casual chat - bring your lunch, ideas, and questions!

Wednesday, September 29, noon - 1 pm via Zoom

There's been a lot of questions recently about HRIS products! Join the PeopleOps crew for a casual round table about the good, bad & ugly of the HR products we use daily. Come ready to talk about how your platform helps make your day easier, engages your team, or even gives you a headache. September 1 @ noon, via Zoom

Even though many of us have been practicing some form of remote work since March 2020, many of us still feel like we’re fumbling our way through it! Join your PeopleOps peers for a roundtable with Tatiana Correa from Revolv Culture Solutions to talk through the challenges (and successes!) you’ve found working remotely, as well as your plans for the future.

You can leave questions anonymously for Tatiana here, to be discussed during the event. As a Community & Remote Experience Expert, Tatiana is passionate about cultivating an inclusive workplace environment grounded in connection, community, and belonging. With 8+ years of experience in community development and employee culture, Tatiana wants to ensure every employee feels seen and heard.

A natural-born community connector, Tatiana is able to identify key opportunities within an organization and work collaboratively in building a strong strategy that meets the unique business needs. After spending 6 years at lululemon cultivating community initiatives and 3 years at Shopify leading the way in remote experiences. Tatiana is ready to support companies that are looking to incorporate a remote culture to ensure all employees have a sense of community, connection, and belonging.

Based in Vancouver BC, Revolv Culture Solutions knows that when you have a community, you have the foundation to fully express yourself. Revolv Culture Solutions provides tools that allow your company culture to thrive through remote work. To achieve this, we embed ourselves in your workplace to understand how the culture is experienced from the top-down. We perform regular pulse checks to ensure processes and decisions are data-driven. This helps us understand the wants and needs of your people and identify any gaps. Using this data, we uncover how you can offer remote and in-office employees a consistent experience—one that’s satisfying, engaging, and fosters feelings of belonging and being appreciated.We work with companies of any size, whether you’re looking to implement remote work as an option or do a company-wide transition, we work virtually with you, your leadership team, and the heart of the company — its people. We believe input from all tiers of employees is essential because when people feel valued, included, and celebrated, they’re not only happier but they do their best work and remain loyal employees for years to come.

Wondering about US hiring and contracting? Curious about how your PeopleOps peers are handling it?

Join us on Monday, June 14 at noon for a roundtable talk about the ins-and-outs of this tricky topic.

This event has been created in response to member interest, and the discussions happening in Slack. It'll be a casual event - a time to share your experiences and ask questions. Feel free to bring your lunch to your laptop and learn from your community.

Monday, June 14, noon - 1 pm. Register for the Zoom link.

As an HR professional, you may have considered making your hiring processes more inclusive to people with disabilities but don't know where to start. Common misconceptions include concerns around liability, cost, and performance. Learn about common low-cost accommodations, the business case for hiring persons with disabilities, and how you can become a more attractive employer to a broader range of candidates. In this webinar we'll also share information on employer supports, including the Neil Squire Society, to help you on your way to becoming a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

Kim Donaldson is a Career Facilitator with the Neil Squire Society, CPHR Candidate, and Accessibility Consultant. She sits on the Board of Directors at the Victoria Disability Resource Centre and AthleteCan's Diversity and Equity Advisory Committee.

This webinar will explore what performance coaching is and how it drives employee engagement. During this interactive session, the elements of good performance management are reviewed as well as how to give effective feedback to staff. We will also explore best practices and strategies for managing remote teams.

About Reimagine Work: Passion is the difference between a workplace where people trade time for money and one where people thrive. Passion is the difference between having a job and enjoying a fulfilling and meaningful career where our work and life are integrated and aligned.

As professional People and Culture Consultants, Reimagine Work is passionate about supporting organizations to create connected, inspired, purpose-driven workplaces. We offer tailored human resources solutions, bespoke training and workshops, and specialized talent recruitment services, directly contributing to the bottom line of our clients.

As HR leaders, you know that your teams are facing unprecedented mental health challenges during this pandemic. Working from home, alienation, loneliness, and depression have all been exacerbated in this challenging time. 40% of Canadians say their mental health worsened since March last year. Relief is at hand with a superpower skill that anyone can learn: Meditation. This skill has been shrouded in mystery but has endured and proven to be an enormous help to establish and maintain good mental health over thousands of years. Meditatehere, a business founded in Victoria, has emerged as a leader in the exploding scene around meditation for business, leadership, and performance. This 20-minute session with a world-class instructor will provide an overview of how meditation can support positive mental health for HR leaders and the employees at their organizations.

Hailey O'Hara, the lead meditation instructor at meditatehere, will take the People Ops team through an overview on meditation and take the group through a short, guided meditation via Zoom. Think meditating with a group on Zoom sounds weird? It kind of is, but everyone who tries it loves it.

In the session, the meditatehere team will also share details on its live, Zoom meditation community and how it can support HR leaders and the employees at their organizations. This is the cutting edge of where proactive mental health programs are going.

As a bonus, all attendees will also receive access to meditatehere's – Learn to Meditate program, designed by Hailey O'Hara, at no cost ($88 retail value). This bonus will be extended to the employees of Charter companies who sign up with meditatehere during this phase of its expansion.

Curious to learn more about facilitating executive meetings and strategic planning for your organizations? Join the PeopleOps group for our next event - “How to Facilitate & Enable Strategic Planning”.

Christina will start our session with a primer on her approach to facilitation (remote & onsite), and we'll move into a roundtable discussion on exercises, best practices, and how to best support our executive teams in strategy planning. Bring your experiences, questions, and even your failures as we provide an opportunity to share and learn from your peers.

Wednesday, February 3, 11:30 - 12:30 on Zoom. Register today for the meeting invite!

Wondering how to create meaningful performance conversations without meeting face-to-face? Concerned about handling a remote termination or making sure you've covered everything in a remote exit? We're tapping three members of our People Ops community; Chloe Oddleifson, Director of Operations at Dribbble, Amanda McKay, Director of People Ops at Checkfront, and Connie Richards, Human Resources Business Partner at Shopify, to share their experiences, best practices, and learnings! With experiences ranging from startups to Shopify and backgrounds in remote work both pre- and post-Covid, this panel discussion will cover something for anyone.

While the event will feature time for audience Q&A, we recognize that these can be sensitive subjects. If you have a question, you would like to have asked anonymously. Please fill out this Google Form.

We want to thank Shopify for their ongoing support of the People Ops community.

Join your fellow PeopleOps people for a variation on our annual holiday party planning roundtable. Come prepared to talk about your thoughts on connecting with your teams this holiday season - are you thinking of doing an in-person event, or considering a little something extra on the swag front? Join us on this friendly and open call to talk about our timelines and ideas as we venture into an unprecedented holiday season.

Zoom link will be emailed to registrants!

Are you considering reopening your office space? Want to hear what other organizations are considering, or share your own questions and concerns? Join your PeopleOps peeps for a community-lead roundtable discussion via Zoom. Whether you've got an indexed return-to-work plan already published, or if you don't even know where to start, we're excited to welcome you.

Zoom link will be emailed to registrants.

Join your PeopleOps crew as we share and learn how everyone is adjusting to the new normal. Come and share or just listen on how teams have been changing the way they onboard new employees, run recruitment or interviewing, maintain employee engagement, or keep company culture alive and thriving.

We all have something to share, and we can all learn from each other. Join us on Zoom for the first PeopleOps Virtual Only Round Table on adjusting to the new normal.

On March 4th, join Shopify as they tackle the benefits and challenges of living a remote life. Connie Richards, HR Business Partner and Tatiana Correa, Global Talent Experience will be discussing how to create a remote culture that is inclusive, thoughtful and connects your teams to your core values. They’ll touch on strategies to keep your teams engaged and managing relationships remote.

Tatiana Correa, Global Talent Experience
With years of experience in Community building, Tatiana has taken her experience remote. She works on creating meaningful experiences for our Global Remote Teams in order to bring the Shopify Remote Culture to life. Tatiana is responsible for creating, launching and executing global initiatives that build community and keep our team remote teams engaged.

Connie Richards, HR Business Partner
Connie brings years of experience to the table, currently working in a distributed team model that delivers high performance results. She champions sweeping cultural and organizational change with her special ‘Connie-approach’ that leaves people feeling engaged, supported and capable to achieve their best.

Is your startup looking to raise money through debt or equity? Are you interested in learning more about this often complicated and hazy process?

Find out what’s involved in the due diligence process and how HR/People Ops can help prepare.

Alex will be covering the following questions

• What do investors and lenders look for in a raise?

• What is a “data room,” and what are the critical elements of a data room?

• How can HR and Management help prepare in advance of a raise?

• What does your responsibility look like after proceeds are received?

Join us at Dyspatch HQ as Alex walks us through what it takes to raise funds because it is more than just selling and convincing an investor to give you some money.

Join Tessa McLoughlin, Founder and Director KWENCH and Joceline Caldwell, Founder of Reimagine Work for a talk on the importance of culture in the workplace and the ways in which it is changing, followed by a private tour of KWENCH, the new 25,000 sqf work and social club in Old Town.

The space is a newly renovated top floor of a historic heritage building, designed in collaboration with a series of talented local designers, fabricators and artists, and includes creative studios, private offices and open workspaces, fitness facilities, workshops, public and private events, lectures, art installations, meditation, food and drink - all in one place.

Join your fellow PeopleOps peeps to find your Zen and grab some lunch to bring in the new year. Here Urban Meditation Studio is offering a 30-minute PeopleOps focused meditation class for our members to try out their service. We will find our inner calm then head over to Sherwood Cafe to mingle and recharge with some bites.

Here meditation class is free to attend — limit of 15 attendees. If you register and can no longer make it, please let a member of the organization committee know so we can accommodate folks on the waitlist.

Meditation: 11:00-11:30

Lunch (Optional): 11:30-12:30

It is that time of year again! Join the PeopleOps community for a relaxing holiday mixer at Kwench. No agenda, no organization needed on your part (because you organize enough already), just friendly faces and friendlier conversation.

If you know someone who is interested in joining PeopleOps or should, bring them along for some holiday cheer.

Snacks and beverages provided by Snacks Victoria.

Space provided by Club Kwench.

Photo by Ibrahim Boran on Unsplash.

Performance management is as varied as there are companies. Come learn from three professionals who have implemented successful and comprehensive performance management process in their organization.

Christina Gerow, Sr. Program Manager at Workday will speak to Workday’s approach to Performance Enablement and share her experience helping to enable Workmate performance during her time as an HR Business Partner.

Chloe Oddleifson Head of People Ops at Dribbble will show how they have created a performance management process for a fully remote team, and how they address performance challenges, remotely.

Tim Teh is a co-founder and CEO of Kano (www.kanoapps.com), a Victoria based indie game developer. Building meaningful connections through social games, Kano has reached over 30 million players worldwide. Tim will discuss how Kano implemented OKRs, lessons learned, and how they manage them using 15Five.