IHR Advisory Services

09/26/2025

Happy HR Professionals Day!

Today, we celebrate the deeply meaningful work of HR professionals. Whether it’s fostering a thriving workplace culture, helping people through challenging seasons in their careers, or enabling organizations and individuals to achieve their goals, your work matters.

We recognize and thank all HR practitioners, and especially the fantastic members of our iHR team, for their dedication, expertise, and the countless ways they make work better for everyone. Your impact doesn’t go unnoticed!

09/23/2025

The upcoming Best Places to Work Employer Summit, presented by the Ottawa Business Journal and the Ottawa Board of Trade, will feature insights, conversations, and great networking opportunities for business owners, managers, and HR professionals.


During the half-day conference, our Founder & CEO Karen Brownrigg will share some overall findings from the 2025 Best Places to Work research and survey, before engaging leading Ottawa executives in a discussion around their real-world recommendations for how to build a better workplace culture that maximizes employee engagement and productivity.


We want to see you there! Use the discount code “ihr” at checkout when purchasing your tickets to save 15%. You don’t want to miss it.

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/the-employer-summit-get-ready-for-the-next-era-of-work-tickets-1405767501439?

Join us at the Best Places to Work Employer Summit to learn real world strategies for workforce disruption.

09/04/2025

Congratulations to all 20 organizations named Best Places to Work in 2025 by the Ottawa Business Journal and the Ottawa Board of Trade!

We look forward to celebrating the recipients at the Best Places to Work Employer Summit on October 7th! During the half-day conference, Our Founder & CEO Karen Brownrigg will share overall findings from the 2025 Best Places to Work research and survey, before engaging recipients in a discussion around their real-world recommendations into how to build a better workplace culture that maximizes employee engagement and productivity. We hope to see you there!

Best Places to Work is an annual program organized by the Ottawa Business Journal and the Ottawa Board of Trade.

08/27/2025

40% of Ontario HR professionals say employee retention is a serious challenge.

There’s no silver bullet, but there are strategies and tactics organizations can implement to keep their best people.

In our latest blog, we look at:
• Strengthening your total rewards strategy
• Offering flexible work options
• Investing in learning and development
• Building a strong, healthy culture

Retention isn’t just about keeping people. It’s about keeping the right people engaged, motivated, and aligned with your goals.

Read the full post here:

40% of Ontario HR professionals said that employee retention was either extremely challenging or very challenging for their organization.

08/22/2025

Bill 149 is coming into effect on January 1st, and it features several key changes to the Employment Standards Act. Among them: pay transparency is coming to Ontario.

This can be a win-win for employers and employees...if it’s handled well.

Organizations can get ahead of this new legislation by initiating a compensation review process now. This will ensure that you have enough runway to fix pay equity anomalies ahead of January.

Over the long-run, greater pay transparency means that employees will know more about where their compensation sits relative to the market, and relative to their internal colleagues as well.

Having an up-to-date HR strategy that’s tied to an organization’s operational plan will be critical to maintaining morale while retaining and attracting top talent going forward.

Our Founder & CEO, Karen Brownrigg spoke with the Ottawa Business Journal about what leaders need to know.

Read the full article here:

A new pay transparency law in Ontario will allow job-seekers a clearer understanding of compensation, but may also create conflict, HR experts say.

08/19/2025

Only 29% of Canadian workers used all their vacation time in 2022.
Of those who took their vacation, more than half continued to work while technically "off."

It’s no surprise, then, that 70% of people have experienced mental health issues due to overworking.

Here’s the tricky part: in the short-term, vacation slows productivity.

But over the long-term, vacation has been shown to improve creativity, happiness, and productivity. These are things that impact the long-term performance of your organization.

So the question for leaders is: how do you minimize the short-term cost and maximize the long-term gain?

Read our thoughts in our latest blog:

According to Canadian HR Reporter, only 29% of Canadian workers used all their allotted vacation time in 2022. Add to that the fact that 54% of workers continue to work while on vacation, and it’s clear that our culture is not naturally inclined to unplug and take time away. The downside to this i...

06/11/2025

Yesterday was a great day for the iHR team as we continued our annual operational planning exercise! 🎯

We kicked things off with fresh headshots and team photos—huge thanks to the amazing Robin from UNPOSED 📸. Then we soaked up the sunshine over lunch on the patio at Boulton House☀️🥗. We wrapped up the day with some much-needed caffeine at Foundry Collective & Coffee Bar ☕, where we had a thoughtful roundtable chat reflecting on the past year and shaping our plans for the year ahead.

Feeling energized, inspired and excited for what’s to come!

06/09/2025

Our fractional Chief Technology Officer, Dorothy W. from Intega IT joined us today as our keynote speaker to kick off our annual operational planning exercise. We discussed the pros and cons of AI, and how we can leverage Microsoft Copilot to enhance our productivity while maintaining confidentiality and integrity in everything we do.

For a fun exercise, ask Microsoft Copilot why iHR uses the turtle in its logo 🐢🧠💡

06/02/2025

While we see quite a range of challenges in our HR Coaching clients, many of them are ultimately related to one core skill: communication.

Communication skills touch every facet of daily leadership. Whether you’re trying to cast vision for your team, provide important coaching to a developing employee, or build trust within a group, you need to be a strong communicator to succeed as a leader.

The most common first steps we recommend our HR coaching clients take when they’re trying to improve their communication skills include:

- Get to know your audience
- Practice tough conversations before you have them
- Be mindful of your assumptions going into conversations
- Get feedback on how you show up

Remember: You don’t need to be a perfect communicator; you just need to be intentional and willing to improve.

More details here:

While we see quite a range of challenges in our HR coaching clients, many of them are ultimately related to one core skill: communication.

05/07/2025

Yesterday, iHR Founder & CEO Karen Brownrigg moderated a panel for the Ontario Association of College and University Security Administrators (OACUSA) conference, on the topic of “Exceptional Leadership: A conversation on leadership, change and inspiration”. We discussed insights on leading through change, advice they’d give themselves as younger leaders, and more.

We’re proud of the leadership development work we’ve done with Brian Billings and the Campus Safety Team Carleton University over the years and are grateful for the work they and their colleagues across Canada do to keep our college and university campuses safe.

Happy Wednesday!

04/07/2025

An absolute pleasure to be a part of the Ottawa Executives' Association!

Craft Talk Recap: Karen Brownrigg of iHR Advisory Services

At our February 20th meeting, we had the opportunity to hear from Karen Brownrigg of iHR Advisory Services, an OXA member since 2023.

Karen shared valuable insights into how iHR helps businesses navigate the ever-evolving HR landscape, with expertise in HR audits, leadership assessments, workplace dispute prevention, and strategic HR planning.

She also introduced iHR’s upcoming training programs and Lunch and Learn sessions, covering key topics such as:
✅ Pay transparency & workplace dispute prevention
✅ Manager & employee communication training
✅ Customer service & workplace accommodations

Karen wrapped up her talk with actionable takeaways for business leaders and an engaging Q&A session.

Want to learn more? Contact Karen at 613-769-0877 or visit iHR Advisory Services to explore their HR solutions: https://www.ihradvisoryservices.ca/

If you’re not a member and would like to join the OXA, head to the link to apply today.
https://www.oxa.org/join-oxa/