Earlier this fall, HRD Canada hosted our 8th annual Canadian HR Awards — a night dedicated to rewarding the very best individuals, teams, and organizations our nation has to offer. In a pre-pandemic age, we would have hosted the ceremony face-to-face — but we didn’t let a global virus get in the way of our fun. Having seamlessly switched to a virtual event, we retained all the flair and festive spirit of our original galas — and gained the added advantage of launching panel debates in our online platform. Hosted by award-winning CBC news anchor Suhana Meharchand, the event featured 24 awards categories — ranging from individual to group to company-wide accolades.
Looking to 2022 and beyond
If we can take one golden nugget away from the chaos of 2021, it’s that the key to organizational success lies in your people. While HR has always touted that people are their purpose, it’s really been tested over the past few months. What’s clear is that companies that already invested authentically in their people pre-pandemic were able to better navigate the issues around COVID. A uniting thread throughout this year’s Canadian HR Awards was our winners’ dedication to their teams. Each and every 2021 winner went the extra mile throughout the pandemic to not only ensure that their people were safe, but that they had everything they needed to thrive through the disruption.
NOMINATIONS
The call for nominations was open to all HR professionals, teams, companies, and organizations — including HR service providers — from across Canada. Nominations were open from April 5, 2021 to June 4, 2021, 11:59 pm EST.
RESEARCH
The Canadian HR Awards team conducted research and drew knowledge and information gained through HRD Canada and Canadian HR Reporter to verify and support nominations received. Finalists will be determined from both pools of information.
FINALISTS
After all nominations were considered, and research was completed, finalists were selected in each category (except the Lifetime Achievement category) and notified via e-mail or phone. Finalists were announced in July 2021 on the Canadian HR Awards website and promoted by HRD Canada and Canadian HR Reporter.
JUDGING
All finalist submissions were forwarded to the independent judging panel comprising esteemed experts, thought leaders and veterans in and around the HR profession. The panel assessed and voted for their
winners in each category according to the relevant category criteria. Voting was held in August 2021 and their judgment was impartial, balanced, incisive and fair. Any judge with conflict of interest in a category would have recused themselves from judging that category.
WINNERS
Using a simple points system to aggregate the judges’ votes, the finalist with the top score in a category was named winner. Winners were announced at the awards show on September 15, 2021 and on the Canadian HR Awards website. They were also promoted in HRD Canada and Canadian HR Reporter.
Here are the winners of Canadian HR Awards 2021:
Melissa Li - Canfor
Ashira Gobrin - Wave
Bruce Anderson - Dejero
Margaret McBeath - Nuclear Promise X
Dr. Raeleen Manjak - Director of Human Resources at City of Vernon
Centurion Asset Management Inc
Export Development Canada (EDC)
Assent Compliance Inc.
Green Shield Canada
Rexall Pharmacy Group Ltd.
Health Standards Organization
Department of National Defence
FYidoctors
Ingram Micro Inc
Sollio Agriculture
O.C. Tanner
Fullscript
Rio Tinto
TELUS
CAA Club Group (CCG)
