The City of Burnaby’s Chief Human Resources Officer stood firm on progressive, innovative people leadership – and turned the city into a competitive employer
When Anita Bhandari, Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) at the City of Burnaby, BC, walked into her first meeting with the city's senior leadership team, she made a promise that few candidates would dare to put on the table.
"In order to be innovative, you have to be prepared for me to make mistakes," Bhandari says she told them. "And if you're prepared for me to make mistakes, I can help drive some of those people matters forward."
That candour – and leadership's willingness to embrace it – set the foundation for a public sector human resources (HR) transformation that has since earned Burnaby recognition as one of British Columbia's top employers. Bhandari leads people and culture for a workforce of approximately 5,000 city employees and is the first woman of colour to hold that role in Burnaby's history. Under her stewardship, the city has moved from a conservative institutional model to one recognized for progressive, people-centred practices, according to Bhandari.
Rethinking total compensation in a competitive landscape
Public sector organizations routinely face a structural disadvantage when competing for talent – compensation packages rarely match what private industry can offer, says Bhandari. She says she addressed this directly by commissioning a third-party total compensation review across the city's workforce, identifying where pay bands had fallen behind market rates and making corrections.
With employers across Canada being urged to reset total rewards strategies to remain competitive amid evolving workforce expectations, Burnaby's approach goes further than pay alone. On the labour relations side, Bhandari describes a collaborative model of collective bargaining that replaces adversarial positioning with long-term thinking. Mental health benefits are one area where the city has looked past the immediate cost to assess the lasting value of sustained employee wellbeing, she says.
But Bhandari emphasizes that wages are only part of the equation and the more powerful draw is culture itself.
"I think the challenge that a lot of organizations have when they're attracting is creating a culture where people truly want to come," she says. "And that's where for me, the trigger is creating a sense of belonging in spaces where people truly see themselves – it's that ripple effect on why people want to come to communities."
Standing firm on equity, diversity and inclusion
Bhandari spearheaded the appointment of Burnaby's first senior manager for equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) – a structural commitment made while many organizations, particularly those watching events south of the border, were scaling back such investments or quietly rebranding programs to avoid controversy.
She’s direct about why that external pressure never changed her course. "It's about making sure every employee has the opportunity to contribute, be successful, and feel like they truly belong," she says. "I personally know what it feels like to be different."
Born to Indo-Canadian immigrant parents and raised in a small community she says not many families looked like hers, Bhandari describes navigating two worlds as a young girl and rarely speaking openly about her background. Personal losses in 2021 – including the death of her father, who opened his home to newly arrived immigrants throughout her childhood; her cousin, a hockey player killed in a car accident while filming a documentary on racism in sports; and her grandfather, a community philanthropist and temple volunteer – pushed her toward a more authentic version of leadership, she says.
"When I lost those people, I think it really gave me a push to be my authentic self," says Bhandari. "Being yourself and being proud of who you are, and creating those spaces where others can really help drive you to where you need to get to – as well as others around you."
Bhandari says she carried that mindset into her role with the city. “I noticed for me and in my leadership is when you're authentic and you're yourself, people around you are more receptive to it, they tend to support you and lean in with you, and it works really well,” she says. "Belonging and EDI isn’t a trend, it's fundamentally important for us to build a healthy organization – if you have an environment where people feel like they belong, they feel safe, and they're happy, you're going to succeed and you're going to do really, really well."
Measuring culture through data analytics
The transformation of the HR function's standing within Burnaby's broader organization is something Bhandari cites as a big success. When she arrived, the People and Culture department was viewed as administrative – a burden rather than a partner. That perception has shifted, she says.
"We created a foundation for all of us to trust each other, to start leaning in and really working cohesively," she says. "And what that's done is it's expanded across the entire city and we're truly now a partner – people come to us to get advice, to work with them, and to come up with some strategic ideas."
The evidence is measurable. People analytics is reshaping how Canadian HR leaders make decisions and Bhandari leads by example, publishing a people analytics report every three years that tracks engagement, cost savings, and workforce trends against the city's strategic plan.
AI and the human thread
Looking ahead, Bhandari identifies two forces she believes the HR profession is underestimating: culture and artificial intelligence (AI).
“I think we're going to have to continue to drive [culture], especially in a competitive world where you're seeing more turnover in workplaces where people are hopping different jobs,” she says. “In order for us to create some sustainability and attract people, we're going to have to really focus in on creating a culture where people can see themselves and they feel really happy and want to grow with the organization.”
As for AI, her stance is pragmatic rather than anxious. AI is already quietly reshaping Canada's leadership pipeline, and Bhandari says HR can’t afford to stand apart from that shift.
"Stop fighting it, because you can't," she says. "You have to embrace it and try to leverage it and work with it – and knowing that everybody else is using it, you have no choice, but it’s exciting, even for myself, I'm finding I can get down to the core of what's really important for me."
But she’s also candid about the friction AI is introducing at the operational level. Grievance submissions, increasingly drafted with AI assistance, are growing in length and complexity in her unionized workplace – placing a larger administrative burden on HR teams to interpret and respond, she says. Her answer isn’t to out-automate the problem but rather to return to what HR does best.
"I think what we're going to have to start doing as an HR community is really getting good at what we do and tapping into our empathy, human connection. and being able to really guide people through it," she says.
HR’s strategic relevance
Bhandari believes HR's strategic relevance will only deepen in the years ahead, as technology, regulation, and workforce complexity converge. Her call to HR leaders is to stay at the table – and to lead from a place of genuine identity.
"Our role is going to be more critical now than ever, especially in this technology age," she says. "It’s going to be getting back down to that foundation of truly be proud of who you are, because your stories matter.
“Share your stories so people feel like they belong – that's how we're going to build stronger workplaces and stronger communities."
