The organizations sponsoring individual awards explain what makes Canada’s HR recognition worth getting behind
The 2026 Canadian HR Awards drew more than 600 professionals to Toronto on Oct. 1, according to organizers – and for the organizations that sponsored individual awards categories at the gala, the evening represented considerably more than a celebration. It was a deliberate investment in the future of the HR profession.
The Canadian HR Awards is the country’s premier dedicated recognition program for HR leaders, teams, and organizations. The sponsors of individual award categories in 2026 each came to the event with a considered rationale for their involvement. Together, their perspectives offer a clear window into where Canada’s most progressive organizations are placing their bets on the profession.
Recognizing a career that changed the profession
For O.C. Tanner Canada – a company with 99 years in the employee recognition and workplace culture business – sponsoring the Lifetime Achievement in HR award was an act of organizational conviction, not marketing.
“For us, it isn’t really about the sponsorship opportunity, it’s about our continued motion to give back to the HR profession,” says Ed Galasso, Vice-President of Sales and Marketing at O.C. Tanner Canada in Toronto. “So many of the HR professionals in that room spend their careers creating moments that matter for others, and this award – and the Canadian HR Awards in general – that whole evening creates a moment that matters.”
Galasso has presented the Lifetime Achievement award for five consecutive years. This year’s recipient was Dr. Monica Belcourt, a professor at York University in Toronto, whose academic career includes establishing the first Bachelor of Human Resource Management degree and the first master’s degree in the field in Canada.
On what it takes to earn the distinction, Galasso says it has be a sustained contribution to organizations and the HR profession overall. “It also has to be about why is this HR profession now better because this person devoted their career to it – this year’s recipient literally wrote the book on HR management,” he says.
Galasso sees a direct line from Belcourt’s academic legacy to a profession that has fundamentally changed – from administrative function to strategic driver. On what it means to build lasting impact in a rapidly evolving profession, Galasso says the answer lies in people strategy itself. “Today’s strongest HR leaders understand that people strategy is business strategy,” he says. “They can take steps individually to influence culture, leadership, talent, and the employee experience, and I think that’s how they can have a lasting legacy in their organizations and have a lasting impact on individuals that they touch as part of that work.”
Wellbeing as a core business strategy
Medcan – a Canadian healthcare provider focused on preventive and occupational health – sponsored the Excellence in Employee Wellbeing Strategy award. This year’s winner was CAA Club Group of Companies (CCG), a major member services organization.
The award speaks to a broader shift in how Canadian employers understand workforce health, according to Kiran Palikuca, Director of Growth at Medcan in Toronto. “Workforce health is no longer a niche conversation,” says Palikuca. “I think it’s solidified its place within business conversations and business strategy.”
Palikuca believes the most persistent gap between intention and execution in wellbeing programs is the distance between reactive and proactive support. “Employees are looking for tools and resources that can really help them stay healthy and prevent burnout,” she says. “That’s where Medcan Services and other wellbeing programs and strategies are really about, being able to provide access to care and support earlier.”
The urgency behind this shift is evident in the data. Canadian employee wellbeing has fallen to its lowest reported level in recent years, with mental, physical, and financial health all deteriorating, according to a 2026 RBC Insurance and Ipsos survey. For Medcan, the award category signals that this issue has crossed the threshold from HR initiative to business imperative, according to Palikuca.
“Having that national award dedicated to employee wellbeing signals that workforce health has become a core business priority,” she says. “We hope it encourages more organizations to view wellbeing not just as a nice-to-have or a checkbox but as a meaningful investment supporting engagement, retention, and, ultimately, long-term organizational success.”
Building the talent pipeline for tomorrow
The University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ont. – home to the world’s largest co-operative education program, now approaching its seventh decade, according to the university – backed the Award for Excellence in Early Talent and Future Workforce Strategy. The 2026 winner was Geotab, a Canadian fleet management technology company based in Oakville, Ont., that has hired Waterloo co-op students for 10 consecutive years and has received two of the university’s own internal employer recognition awards.
The evolving name of the award reflects a genuine shift in how forward-thinking organizations approach student talent, says Judene Pretti, Interim Associate Provost of Co-operative and Experiential Education at the University of Waterloo. “What we’re seeing is real intentionality around what’s required to both build the skills and the profile for organizations to attract the top talent that can help them meet the demands in a changing labour market and landscape,” says Pretti.
Pretti points to the university’s use of AI to extract insights from its own datasets – drawn from between 8,000 and 10,000 students in paid work terms every four months – as an example of how the relationship between post-secondary institutions and employers is evolving. “It’s a complete data package that enables us to really pay attention to where things are changing and to help across the university to provide insights into the types of roles that students are engaged in, in a variety of sectors from a variety of disciplines,” she says.
Of award winner Geotab, Pretti says the company exemplifies what meaningful early talent investment looks like in practice. “They see student talent as a critical aspect of their human development pipeline,” she says. “They invest in mentors, so students get a window into how their organization works, but feel that support, that welcome, and being part of the team.”
Emerging leaders leading transformation
ADP Canada – the payroll and workforce management technology company – sponsored the Excellence in Emerging Human Resources Leadership award. The 2026 winner was Cylee Wagner-Gasmo, Manager of People and Culture at Strategic Group, a real estate and development company based in Calgary.
Andrea Wynter, Vice-President of Human Resources at ADP Canada in Toronto, presented the award at the gala. She sees the category as a direct response to the pace of technological transformation. “We truly believe that the emerging HR leaders of today are going to be the ones who are going to have a profound impact on shaping that work – on thinking about the work differently, building the workforce tomorrow, and building the world of tomorrow,” says Wynter.
Heather Haslam, Vice-President of Marketing at ADP Canada in Toronto, describes the qualities she believes define an emerging leader worthy of recognition. “Somebody who’s willing to be curious and challenge the status quo, and somebody who’s courageous with the questioning so that ability for fresh perspectives is allowed for,” says Haslam. “Not somebody who’s going to make changes to people, but with people.”
As HRD Canada’s recognition of Canada’s best young HR professionals in the 2026 Rising Stars report made clear, the most effective emerging practitioners are already translating workforce data into business outcomes – ahead of where their counterparts stood even a few years ago.
The most underestimated quality in the next generation remains the hardest to teach, according to Haslam. “Going back on the people side of it, it’s empathy – that’s not just HR leaders, but all of our leaders,” she says. “Those softer skills and the skill of actually having empathy and real care for those around us – that’s the larger differentiator. You can learn everything else.”
Haslam also points to what the award communicates to those still early in their careers. “People that are earlier on in their careers, we’re hoping they’re pulling those insights from technology and HR platforms so that they’re helping to influence how an organization uses their most important asset, people, as a strategic differentiator,” she says. “That’s invaluable.”
Across the award categories and sponsoring organizations, a shared conclusion emerges from the 2026 Canadian HR Awards: recognition isn’t a ceremonial act. It’s a signal about the profession’s priorities, its direction, and – in the view of the organizations that backed it – the people most likely to shape what comes next.
“This national awards program makes the impact that HR professionals have on people and organizations visible,” says O.C. Tanner’s Galasso. “Most of what HR professionals do is behind the scenes, so when we publicly recognize it and we're able to put names and companies behind the awards that others who are beginning their careers can aspire to – that's how we elevate everybody is by pointing out what best in class looks like and having aspirations to one day be at that level,” he says.
