With AI feeling as though it arrived in the workplace overnight, opinions are still mixed— from visions of HAL to your next best pal—with fears ranging from obsolescence to legal and privacy concerns and its genuine effectiveness. According to recent studies, nowhere are those concerns more prevalent in the organizational picture than in the HR function—and for admittedly good reasons. We sit down with Roald Harvey, MBA, CHRL, Senior Director of People with Athennian, to learn more about the potential and perils of AI, as well as its ability to empower not just HR, but the people power in any business.

From its administrative origins to its strategic present, the HR profession has evolved alongside the burgeoning demands of employers and employees alike—and so too has the technology to support the vastly expanded and specialized aspects of HR. However, the HR budget has always been held to a higher degree of scrutiny, burdened by its historical representation as every business’ primary cost centre. We sit down with Jafar Owainati, co-founder and CEO of Barley, to talk about what HR really needs to consider when building out an HR tech stack and, perhaps even more importantly, how to communicate its value in building the business case.

Aside from looming legislation and regulations, the push for Environmental Social Governance (ESG) has been accompanied by a growing realization among progressive companies that those three words can be distilled even further—smart business. As a prior corporate-commercial litigator who spent the past decade helping grow Benevity into a global, CSR success story before recently founding her own consultancy, few know how to put ESG to work like Jen Singhal. We sit down to talk about how to unlock ESG’s potential today, and why you likely already have, at least in part.

For those focused on the hard tangibles in a total compensation package, too often private equity compensation pitches miss the plate entirely with talent and dismissed as pie in the sky. We sit down with Amanda Mallow, EVP and Chief Human Resources Officer of Sophos, a cybersecurity company with a large Vancouver presence, to talk about why, particularly in tough economic times, when it comes to private equity compensation, communications are as key as the offerings themselves.

DEI done right makes a world of difference—for those who need it most. We sit down with author, activist, educator and catalyst Jarvis Sam to discuss what ‘done right’ looks like and why the majority of DEI efforts, while well intentioned, fall short of expectations for employers and underrepresented talent groups alike. As founder and CEO of The Rainbow Disruption, his insights and experience continue to carry the true potential and profit of DEI forward.

While often touted as progressive, Canada’s tech industry has, until now, lacked the data to back up its claims - particularly in regards to the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. With non-profit QueerTech’s release of Queering the Tech Ecosystem: Barriers and Opportunities—the first research report targeting the queer experience in Canadian tech—that progressive picture is largely questioned by the data compiled. We sat down with QueerTech’s Co-Founder Naoufel Testaouni to talk about not-so-ancient history, the impact of quantifying the queer experience in tech and finding the good news in hard numbers and first steps.