Canadian HR Reporter

www.hrreporter.com 19 the issues of workplace safety and produc- tivity during the pandemic, along with off-boarding staff in response to various emergency levels. "Due to the pace of everything moving forward, it was difficult to keep managers up to date on what that process was looking like," he says, so the playbook had sections on issues such as accommoda- tions, remote work deployment or performance management at home as a "go-to resource." Wagstaff also assumed a co-lead role for certain labour relations activities in chal- lenging circumstances. "There were directives coming out from the [government] that would give permis- sion to specific organizations such as hospitals to override the terms and condi- tions of the collective agreement, as part of an effort of emergency response to address the health care system. And so, of course, the unions aren't going to be too favourable of supporting that language," he says. "What I really feel helped us there was honest and transparent language right from the start... It's [about] providing that reassurance that 'We're making our deci- sions for the right reasons, and although we don't have all the information yet, we're committed to sharing with you what we do know. And we're committed to, when we make these decisions, keeping our employees' best interests in mind as well.' I think they really appreciated that." Bringing specialized talent onboard Lisa Reich, director of immigration and mobility at Aecon Group, is described as "extraordinarily talented, determined, diligent and an absolute pleasure to work with." Over the past five years, and specifically in the past 12 months, she has worked hard to implement the necessary frame- work, policies and processes to ensure Aecon can compete for international talent, as well as deploying talent outside of Canada when required. "Our immigration and mobility program was something that we've been progressing and expanding on over the past couple years. It wasn't something that was super prevalent when I joined Aecon about five years ago, and it's something that I've been growing," says Reich. "With the type of projects Aecon works on within Canada, they're very specialized projects, and for a lot of the projects you cannot find local talent that has the exper- tise. [And] if there is a talent that's in Canada with this expertise, it's been brought in by another organization, one of your competitors, so often you're having to search externally for this talent." That's why it's important to look inter- nationally to find these candidates, she says. "That's been kind of exciting, from my standpoint, getting to grow the program and work with these individuals who are extremely talented [and] very specialized. Bringing them and their families over to Canada to work on these projects and really help them establish a foundation here, a life here [and] get their family settled so that they're successful on the project — but also at creating a life in Canada as well." Not surprisingly, the conditions of the pandemic made Reich's responsibilities that much more challenging. "Me and my team were having to navi- gate constantly, every day, changing rules and regulations regarding COVID-19, and whether people were able to come into the country... and families. We had to completely pivot the way that we normally went about bringing people into the country because those rules had changed and the processes had changed," she says. "There were significant delays in some cases, in terms of processing. And then we still had to manage the projects [and] expectations with getting people here in time for the projects." Connecting people, culture and technology Described as having "an infectious person- ality" and "unique skillset," Toronto-based HRIS specialist Sony Samaraj has been Canadian HR Reporter sought nominations for the inaugural 2021 Young Influencers list to showcase up-and-coming talent in Canada's HR industry. Interested participants were asked to fill out a brief entry form detailing the person's recent accomplishments and what sets them apart from the crowd. Nominees aged 35 or younger as of May 1, 2001, were considered for nomination. Criteria to consider included: demonstrated career progression and development in HR, and experience executing progressive HR initiatives. The entry form asked for the nominee's current role and responsibilities, along with an outline of the reason for the nomination, with a specific focus on performance and achievements from the past 12 months. Nominees were also asked to provide details of relevant career goals and the steps being taken to achieve these goals. They were also asked to provide a 100- to 200-word recommendation from a direct superior or equivalent. Canadian HR Reporter objectively assessed each entry for detailed information, true "rising stars" and proven success — along with benchmarking against the other entries — to determine the winners. We reserved the right to disqualify any nominations that did not follow the rules or demonstrate exceptional accomplishments. Entries were open from May 6 to May 28, 2021. A total of 38 nominees were selected as HR Influencers for 2021. METHODOLOGY 23 Youngest influencer 30 Average age 65 Winners from Ontario "The initial idea was to just clean up the data to make sure that the data accuracy is there." Sony Samaraj, Sunwing Travel Group

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