The HR leaders and teams driving culture change, AI adoption, and measurable workforce impact across Canada
The finalists for the 2026 Canadian HR Awards have been announced across more than two dozen categories, recognizing HR teams and leaders from organizations of every size and sector. As the awards gala approaches on Oct. 1 at Rebel in Toronto, HRD Canada spoke with several finalists about the work behind their nominations – and what they are hoping to take away from the evening. The full list of 2026 finalists and Excellence Awardees is available at the Canadian HR Awards website.
At Niagara Casinos in Niagara Falls, Ont., Vice-President of Human Resources Colleen Falco leads a team that earned finalist status in three categories: Excellence in HR Team Performance (500 employees or more; retail/hospitality) and Excellence in Senior HR Leadership.
The team began the year with a clear target – a two-per-cent improvement in key employee engagement scores – and far exceeded it, according to Falco. A pulse survey recorded an eight-point overall increase year over year, with notable gains in teamwork, accountability, well-being, and agility or change management. These results are notable at a time when global employee engagement has slumped to its lowest level in five years, with only 20 per cent of employees worldwide engaged at work in 2025, according to Gallup's 2026 State of the Global Workplace report.
Employee-driven initiatives
At the heart of the Niagara Casinos strategy were two employee-led committees – Heart of House, focused on employee experience, and Our House, centred on guest experience – drawing an average of 35 frontline team members from across gaming, hotel, and back-of-house operations, says Falco.
"By having these cross-functional committees who are focused on what's important to them, it really drove a lot of the initiatives that we rolled out throughout the year," she says.
Those initiatives ranged from expanding Employee Appreciation Week into a full month while navigating a significant post-COVID labour restructuring, which merged two operational functions into a single Casino Guest Services unit through attrition and cross-training rather than layoffs, according to Falco.
"That personal touch on the person-by-person level is where our team really thrives," she says. "And doing it all while maintaining our regular day-to-day and our other programs – that also is where the team really shows success."
Culture built for demanding work
With approximately 130 employees and a two-person HR team, the Calgary Humane Society (CHS) is a finalist in Excellence in Workplace Culture and Employee Experience. Director of Human Resources Melaina Slater attributes the recognition to years of deliberate, environment-specific support for staff performing emotionally demanding work.
An 81 per cent employee engagement score in CHS's 2025 annual employee engagement survey helped validate the submission. The CHS model centres on peer support, psychological first aid training, wellness resources, and recognition programs designed around the specific realities of animal welfare work, according to Slater.
"We don't pretend that this difficult work is going to be easy," says Slater. "We just want to ensure that our team members have the support, the tools, and everything they need to navigate this work."
Slater identifies adaptability as a defining team characteristic. "No two days are alike," says Slater. "We don't really apply generic solutions. We like to design our support around the environment that our team works in every day."
The nomination, she added, belongs to the broader organization: "Being named a finalist is really recognition of a collective effort of all of the incredible people that we get to be around every day."
Technology, competency, and employer brand
The past 12 months for Aman Malhi, Director of People and Culture at Refrigerative Supply Limited (RSL) in Burnaby, BC, were defined by two ambitious projects: a full upgrade of the company's HR technology stack – including its human resources information system, applicant tracking system, learning management system, recognition platform, and intranet – and the first stage of constructing a competency framework built from 102 individual role interviews, according to Malhi. RSL is a finalist in three categories at the Canadian HR Awards – Excellence in Employer Branding and Talent Attraction, Excellence in Talent Acquisition Strategy, and Excellence in Total Rewards and Recognition.
"We built a competency framework for the entire organization for all the roles that we have," says Malhi. "Now we plan on using that framework to recruit, to promote, to invest in people, to develop – and have a common language across our organization."
As RSL and its approximately 450 employees dive into this transformation, Malhi believes people and culture functions are key as organizations move further into AI and other technological advances: "I think human resources, the people and culture, is more important than ever, and anybody who thinks that AI can do what these teams do, I think that's a misunderstanding."
Leading with data-driven decisions
Miller Thomson LLP, a national law firm operating across 10 Canadian offices, is a finalist in both Excellence in HR Team Performance (500 or more employees) and Excellence in Employer Branding and Talent Attraction. Chief Administrative Officer Jessica Watkins and Senior Director of People and Culture Terry Doyle, both based in Toronto, anchored a submission built on previous recognitions for workplace success, enhanced mental health and parental leave benefits, and a large-scale human capital management system implementation.
"It's proof that data-driven decision-making can really work," says Watkins. "Our people have a lot of really important things to say, and listening to our people and being able to make those changes and having supportive leadership to do it is critical."
Miller Thomson has seen measurable success from its HR team’s hard work, according to Doyle. “We've seen over these last three years a tremendous result in the number of employees that have stayed with the firm,” she says. “We've developed the programs that we highlighted in our application that really were able to resonate with not only our firm members but the external market too – and that really helped us to articulate further into the public realm, but also reiterate internally our employer value proposition, and that really helped to drive the results.”
Also among this year's finalists is Diana Valler, Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) and HR General Manager at H.I.S. Americas. The Toronto-based Valler is recognized in the Woman of Distinction in HR Industry category following a year that included a 360-degree feedback initiative paired with one-on-one employee listening sessions, a 13-week Leadership Takeoff program for newly promoted managers, and AI-powered onboarding.
"I would say my strongest suit is having a strategic vision, truly understanding what the business is going to do, and then translating that within the HR vision that we have to lead within our organization,” says Valler. “Secondly, always think with the company and the team in mind, and remember that human resources has to have that human in the centre – that's extremely essential.”
What the Canadian HR Awards mean beyond the results
With the ceremony approaching, finalists see the event as more than a competitive benchmark. Conversations on how to build cultures that can absorb change, and how to keep people central as technology accelerates are ones they expect to have with colleagues at the event.
"I sit there and make copious amounts of notes on who's winning, what they've done, and what I can learn from them," says Malhi. "I come back [home] and invest a lot of time exploring everything that they did."
Slater also looks forward to expanding her knowledge on what others are doing: "HR is evolving so quickly, so just understanding how other organizations bring those ideas to life in their own workplaces is valuable."
Falco says she looks directly to the people behind the nominations, such as her team at Niagara Casinos. "Their level of caring – the compassion, the expertise, the thoughtfulness that they put into everything they do – they believe in what they’re doing and they really want to make the workplace better for our employees," she says. "It's not a checkbox exercise. They're really making meaningful differences in people's lives every single day."
Doyle at Miller Thomson says she’s looking forward to meeting the other finalists and award winners. “Taking part in this great community of ours, hearing their stories, and sharing ours, I think it means a lot to the team,” she says. “It really has given everyone a boost and that recognition of, ‘Hey, we're hitting the mark here.’”
The complete list of 2026 Canadian HR Awards finalists and Excellence Awardees is available here. The awards gala is Oct. 1 at Rebel in Toronto.
