'Who better to tell the story than the employees themselves?'

With culture being a main driver of retention in today’s candidate-led market, employers that invest more in their values have a better chance at lowering turnover and boosting morale.

As Diana Godfrey, the senior vice president of HR and corporate affairs at Fidelity Canada, tells HRD, when it comes to building a culture of trust, it all begins with understanding employee experience.

“Last year, we really worked hard in articulating that employee experience,” she says. “We've always had it, but we haven't articulated it in a way that in a way that reaches everybody. And so, we're currently developing an Employee Ambassadors Program which will help us do that — because who better to tell the story than the employees themselves?”

Fidelity Canada was recognised in HRD’s recent Best Places to Work report – which looked at the most innovative and sector-leading organizations across Canada. In order to win such a prestigious award, Godfrey believes it takes a holistic strategy and a focus on all aspects of the employee lifecycle – from flexibility to wellness to new ways of working.

Fidelity Canada was also awarded in 2023 Best Places to Work in Canada. See the full report here.

“The pandemic maybe fast-forwarded some of the things that we would have done and slowed down some other things,” she tells HRD. “We looked at flexibility, at wellness — how do you have fun when everybody's not together? How do you have fun remotely? How do you change your development program from one that’s focused on in-person experiences to one that recognizes hybrid experiences?

“I think when we talk about the employee experience, it's a very holistic thing — trying to find a way to share it with everybody.”

And Godfrey has no plans to stop here – in fact, 2023 will be all about teamwork and mental wellbeing as culture differentiators.

“It's about collaboration, networking and meaningful experiences that enrich their employment experience and enrich our culture,” she tells HRD. “We're having to be creative and look for new ways to do things. One of the things we learned is that, and I think we all knew this, mental health is very important. And, fortunately for us, we knew that going into the pandemic – however, we knew it became even more important.

As such, we want to continue to focus our efforts on wellness, particularly around mental health — removing the stigma and encouraging conversations.”

Watch Godfrey’s full interview with HRDTV here.