Supporting culture and wellness through crisis at Algonquin College

When Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology rebranded its most senior human resources role last year, the title change said something bigger than an org chart update. Kin Choi, who now has the title of Vice President, People and Technology at the Ottawa-based college, now oversees both people strategy and information technology — a deliberate signal from the institution that artificial intelligence must be driven by humans, not the other way around, according to Choi. 

“We made a very conscious decision to combine because we wanted to signal strongly that technology, and in particular AI, needs to be driven by humans,” says Choi. “It needs to be human-centric and not the other way around – it connects back in terms of where we are in the post-secondary area and in terms of the college.” 

It’s a message with some urgency, as Algonquin is navigating a turbulent period that the college’s president and CEO called “extraordinary and unprecedented,” according to CBC News. The federal government's 2024 reduction of international student visas caused a previously reliable revenue stream for many post-secondary institutions to dwindle sharply. In early 2025, the college announced it was suspending 37 active academic programs, projecting significant revenue losses without corrective action. A further 30 programs were flagged for suspension in early 2026. 

For Choi and his HR team, the financial pressure has translated into a complex and painful workforce management challenge — handled, he says, with empathy at the forefront. 

Navigating staff cuts with empathy 

The mechanics of staff reductions in the college sector are considerably more involved than in many private organizations, says Choi. He describes a system governed by collective agreements, legislated notice periods, and what is known in the sector as a “bumping process” — where a displaced employee may move into another role, triggering a chain of further displacements. 

“One position could have four or five different bumping processes before we arrive at where the reduction will take place,” Choi says. “It's a challenging role, but we've been very transparent and we've offered a voluntary incentive program that has had good take-up.” 

While such circumstances are difficult for employees targeted for layoffs, sustaining the culture through that process has been as important as the operational execution, says Choi. “While nobody wants to be in that position, I think how we do it — and the information we provide to people — makes a difference. The empathetic approach has been very much respected,” he says. “It’s one of our strong foundations — our values of caring, learning, integrity, and respect carries us throughout the day, the value system is something that we very much hold dear and is something that’s throughout the entire college.” 

He’s also candid about the toll that workforce reductions take on the HR professionals doing the work. “I pay close attention to the toll it takes. I'm very proud of the staff and the way we've gone about it,” he says. 

Algonquin has continued running employee engagement surveys throughout the disruption — something Choi acknowledges takes institutional courage. "A lot of organizations would probably shy away from doing that, but we didn't want to shy away because it also reinforces our culture,” he says. 

Robust wellness infrastructure for a unique culture 

The college's wellness infrastructure, including a robust employee and family assistance program and what Choi describes as one of the strongest mental health benefits packages in the Ontario college sector, has been central to its response. He draws a deliberately simple analogy: “We take care of our teeth through our dental program, so let's get people using our mental health program in the same way,” he says. “Our challenge, like everybody else, is making sure that people actually use it, so we're spending a lot of energy focusing on getting people to make it as part of their wellness and their regular hygiene.” 

Choi also believes that the culture in a post-secondary environment is different than in other sectors, with more of an emphasis on collaboration over a more vertical model of governance — and a mandate of supporting students “pursue their lifelong dreams.” 

 “You have a lot of different stakeholders from our perspective — you have academics, but then there are different layers of that with various deans, chairs, the faculty, and then who they serve in terms of students,” says Choi. “It's very important to make sure that those stakeholders are consulted on simple changes, so things that you would assume would work in any big organization doesn't necessarily fit because of collective agreements that are different, the service model that’s different when students are in classes, and the semester processes — all those layers are very different than a lot of big organizations.” 

Choi says his team has had notable success around diversity and accessibility initiatives, which is evidence throughout campus. “What you see on the walls in terms of murals, to the naming of the streets that are Indigenized, to the work that we're doing in supporting all of the diversity groups, along with the fact that we've begun looking at policy work on our diversity program so that we make sure that unintentional barriers that have been around for a long time are removed,” he says. “And we've been recognized by associations like the Rick Hansen Foundaton for our accessibility implementation — everything from the right corridors to elevators to bathrooms that are accessible for all — it's a tremendous amount of work that's been going on at the college.” 

Technology with a human lens 

The merger of the people and technology portfolios wasn’t symbolic, according to Choi. He came to Algonquin after senior roles at federal government departments including the Department of National Defence, Health Canada, Employment and Social Development Canada, and the Canada Border Services Agency — positions that he says gave him both an HR foundation and meaningful exposure to large-scale technology environments. 

That background shapes how he thinks about AI governance and human-centred workforce strategy at the college. His team's vision, as he describes it, is to use digital tools and data-driven analytics to “hyper-personalize” the employee experience — anticipating the needs of staff at every career stage, from onboarding through to retirement planning. 

“By using greater technology we're able to provide people with the information they need to make decisions,” says Choi. He points to advances in total compensation communications and labour relations analytics as areas where his team has made significant gains — though he is careful to frame technology as the enabler, not the centrepiece. 

“How we teach AI and how we're going to use IT in terms of development, everything from curriculum to assessment, and then how we service our students, we want to be able to be driving IT in terms of that human centricity as well as our corporate type of goals,” says Choi. “And when we looked at it, we thought it was real opportunity to combine [HR and technology].” 

This connects to a broader view Choi holds about how HR leaders need to evolve in the age of AI. “The embracing of digital and AI — you better be strong on that, because you want to have the routine work automated so that it frees you up to support people,” he says. 

Building the next generation of HR professionals 

As a polytechnic, Algonquin sits at the intersection of workforce education and workforce management — a position that gives Choi a particular vantage point on where the HR profession is heading with the next generation. 

“A lot of the core competencies remain — one, you’d better like people,” he says. “"You should be very empathetic and understand how to provide people with that support.” 

But alongside those foundations, Choi says business acumen and technological fluency are essential skills additions. “More and more, HR folks need to be part of the business and understand the processes and systems — and why we exist,” he says. 

That question — why we exist — is one he returns to repeatedly. At Algonquin, the answer is students. Every HR initiative, every technology investment, every policy review needs to connect back to that mission. “We should be able to clearly state why we're doing something.”