We see ourselves not as a technology company, but as a people company.
The eighth of our Employee Spotlight series focuses on our own Monika Bains, Human Resources Advisor.
What is your role at Multiview?
I’m an Advisor and the HR department leader at Multiview. My primary responsibility is to develop and direct a scalable HR agenda to align people strategy to the business strategy that ensures the sustained success and growth of Multiview.
Being the only HR employee, I have to continuously collaborate with Executives, People Managers and Employees to drive projects to completion and multitask. Some of these projects includes Performance Management, Employee Engagement, Workforce Planning, Total Rewards, Compliance, Training & Development and practices to promote Diversity, Inclusive & Belonging at Multiview.
As an HR professional, one of the most exciting parts about my role is the opportunity to constantly challenge, enhance and innovate the way we do things better and doing things that scale within the talent function. That to me, is very exciting!
How did you get involved with Multiview?
Seven months ago, I was introduced to Multiview through the Invest Ottawa Team to interview for this role. I had interactions with the CEO, CFO and People Managers of the company and I was hired to join the team in August 2020.
It was about six months ago during my first week at Multiview, I knew in my heart that I’d made the right decision in joining this company. I learnt that this company genuinely cares about its people and their wellbeing. Multiview takes the time to listen to employee feedback to drive its strategy forward.
They do this by conducting a semi-annual anonymous survey, shared across the company to gather feedback on how are we doing today, and what can we do better? Which is then used to make effective adjustments where necessary with respect to policies, procedures and best practices.
What skills and tools do you leverage in your role?
To work as a successful HR leader, one of the most important skills I leverage all the time would be Change Management. Working with adversity comes with its own challenges so it’s imperative for me that I lead the change with empathy.
A very good example of that would be the COVID-19 policies, practices and procedures that we implemented for staff to work from home/office or hybrid during the pandemic. We wanted to work proactively to set our employees for success. So before we implemented any changes, we ran a survey across the board to get feedback directly from our employees to ask them what they needed and we used that feedback to plan our strategy forward.
One of the other important skills to possess in my role is have strong effective communication skills. As a facilitator of many internal and external communication, often times I have to fine tune the art of communication to ensure my message is accurate, clear, concise and is fully understood by my audience.
Favorite Quote?
“Leadership is neither a rank nor a title. It is a choice. The choice to provide care and protection for those for whom we are responsible.” – Simon Sinek
What do you love most about your role?
I love working with people and to help them grow within the business. I feel well supported in my role to pursue my passion for creating a safe workplace where employees can come and do their best work. It gets me super excited to wake up in the morning to help align our business and people with the right opportunities. I enjoy working on the scalable business strategies, processes and policies to help sustainable growth within the changing environment.
What sorts of morale-boosting activities does Multiview have?
To plan our social events, we have a designated Social committee that organizes group activities as well as clubs for the company. Prior to pandemic, we had our annual golf tournament in the fall, leadership breakfasts where the executive team would cook for everyone and more.
Since last year, we have paused all in-person events until further notice and only kept the online events. So far we have done a few virtual lunches, Halloweenfest, Pumpkin carving competition, Virtual Holiday party and a few more.
One change you still wish to make at Multiview?
I started at Multiview during the COVID-19 lockdown, which has been adventurous with working from home and the office, and it’s become our new reality pretty quickly. One thing I wish to change is to go back to working in the office once the pandemic is over.
As we move slowly towards a post-pandemic world, my wish for Multiview is to develop a plan for what “Multiview’s New Normal” would look like for our people. I wish at some point in the future we could all go back to the office and work under the same roof.
What do you do with your time off?
Among many other things, I enjoy fishing with my family. Summer days, you’ll find me by the water with my fishing rod or at the cottage just enjoying nature.
I also enjoy reading and am currently reading “Leaders Eat Last” by Simon Sinek, it’s a wonderful book and I would highly recommend it for all the leaders-in-making.