Erin Gordon of Lindt & Sprungli Canada says leadership, AI and individualized employee experience reshaping HR agenda
Leadership and technology are shaping the HR agenda in Canada, but not in predictable ways, says Erin Gordon, Vice President of Human Resources at Lindt & Sprungli Canada, who believes these are two priorities organizations cannot afford to ignore.
But leadership today exists against the backdrop of rapid technological change, she says.
“AI and trying to understand how we use it to benefit the business" is consuming attention across industries, says Gordon.
“It’s not a static situation. It’s constantly evolving. The challenge and opportunity with the speed at which AI evolves means there’s always something new,” she says. “It’s continually getting better, but then on the other side of that, it makes it difficult to try and bring your teams up to speed like you would in a traditional way.”
Global unertainty for CPOs
This is particularly relevant now given that organisations across the world are delaying hiring decisions in the wake of global uncertainty driven by multiple trends, according to a new report from the World Economic Forum (WEF).
The WEF’s Chief People Officers Outlook 2025 found that many businesses are holding back on hiring or restructuring plans this year as they assess shifting conditions. Leaders are weighing “an evolving landscape and navigating macroeconomic volatility, geopolitical tensions, and rapid technological transformation,” the report said.
Forty-two percent of the CPOs surveyed do not expect labour market conditions to change in the next six to 12 months. The remainder are divided, with 32% predicting a weaker market and 26% expecting it to strengthen.
“This points to caution,” the report noted. “While caution defines the current look, workforce transformation remains the longer-term imperative for many organisations.”
Evolving through uncertainty
For Gordon, this isn’t about sweeping reinvention but something more fluid.
“I don’t know that I see these changes as business transformation, but I do see it as a continued or sustained state of evolution and refinement,” she explains. “Continuing to make progress in whatever industry and then pivoting to address the changing market demands, legislative demands, political landscape really ties back to developing leaders.”
The concept of refinement reflects a shift away from linear thinking about change. That uncertainty adds “some complexity and pressure,” Gordon says.
“In the environment that we’re in right now, you’ve got the start point but the end point is not as stable and secure; it’s not as solid to be able to tell your teams what the future looks like, because it continues to change and evolve,” she says.
To manage that, Gordon believes purpose and experimentation need to anchor organizations.
“The extent to which you can ground yourself in the purpose of why your organization does what it does can be a very grounding force for people,” she says. “It’s about this constant experimentation to figure out what works for your business.”
Tailoring the employee experience
The employee experience is also becoming more individualized, and Gordon sees a shift away from blanket approaches.
“One size does not fit all,” she says. “Individuals have different strengths as well as different needs. And I also think we need to recognize that these needs change over time.”
She points out that life stages – whether buying a home or starting a family – shape expectations just as much as career stage.
“Employee listening is absolutely critical, so that you’re able to respond to what you hear from your employees, and not just respond, but to do so in a transparent, timely and easy to understand way, no HR jargon.”
That listening needs to be coupled with honesty about organizational limits, Gordon says.
“We’re not going to be able to do everything that all our team members want – that’s just not feasible,” she says. “So, part of having a strong employee listening strategy is being transparent about the things that you can do, and then when you come across things that you’re not able to do, being honest and transparent and explaining why.”
Generational stereotypes, Gordon argues, are increasingly unhelpful.
“You can have someone that’s more tenured in their career who desires flexibility for a different reason, while someone just entering their career also wants flexibility,” she says. “The one size fits all, or even trying to compartmentalize it, just doesn’t work anymore.”
Balancing priorities in HR
The biggest challenge Gordon sees for HR leaders may be prioritization. For her, the balance lies in connecting business objectives with people strategies.
“I don’t think that HR leaders generally underestimate things; what I think is the challenge is bandwidth,” she says. “The question becomes: where do you prioritize? Where do you start? How do we make sure we’re having the right conversations about so we’re not making decisions at the expense of one versus the other; the sweet spot is where those priorities connect in a meaningful way.”
Curiosity, Gordon adds, should be a constant.
“Ask questions. Be curious. We certainly don’t know it all, and we can’t know it all, so taking the opportunity to ask questions and to actively seek out feedback – that creates the framework for us to be able to learn and get better together."
