Overview

As the HR Manager, you are the anchor of the human experience within our fast-moving creative agency. You ensure our people practices, programs, and operations are effective, compliant, and scalable while helping leaders navigate complex people matters with confidence.

Partnering closely with the HR Director, you act as a trusted advisor to leaders and employees, providing guidance across employee relations, talent development, workforce planning, employee engagement, and organizational effectiveness.

As our industry continues to evolve, you will also help identify opportunities to leverage HR technology, data, and emerging AI tools to improve efficiency, enhance decision-making, and create better experiences for employees and leaders.

Responsibilities

How You Create Impact

• You help leaders navigate the complexities of people management with confidence, consistency, and sound judgement.

• You foster a positive employee experience while balancing creative dynamics, business priorities, and operational needs.

• You proactively identify people risks, opportunities, and trends, helping leaders make informed decisions that strengthen teams and culture.

• You bring structure to ambiguity, ensuring policies, processes, and decisions align with both compliance requirements and agency values.

• You leverage data and technology to support smarter decision-making and more effective people programs.

• You enable teams and leaders to perform at their best through thoughtful people practices, trusted partnership, and practical support.

How You Deliver Results - Key Responsibilities

Employee Relations & Leadership Support

• Serve as a trusted advisor to managers and employees on employee relations matters, workplace concerns, performance management, attendance issues, accommodations, leaves, and HR best practices.

• Lead and support workplace investigations, including fact-finding, documentation, recommendations, and follow-up actions.

• Coach managers through difficult conversations, performance concerns, conflict resolution, organizational change, and employee development.

• Exercise sound judgement while managing complex employee situations and balancing employee, business, and legal considerations.

• Proactively identify and address workplace concerns to support a healthy, inclusive, and high-performing culture.

Business Partnership & Talent Support

• Build strong relationships across the agency and act as a strategic HR partner to assigned business leaders.

• Partner with managers to drive team effectiveness, employee engagement, retention, and organizational health.

• Support the full employee lifecycle including onboarding, development, engagement, performance management, succession planning, and offboarding.

• Facilitate talent review, performance management, and career development processes.

• Support workforce planning initiatives and organizational change while ensuring a positive employee experience throughout transitions.

• Analyze engagement survey results, turnover data, retention metrics, and workforce trends to identify opportunities and recommend actions that strengthen employee engagement and business performance.

Compliance & HR Operations

• Drive and refine key HR programs including performance management, employee engagement, compensation reviews, benefits administration, onboarding, and HRIS utilization.

• Ensure HR operations, documentation, reporting, and processes are accurate, efficient, compliant, and aligned with business needs.

• Partner with Publicis Groupe Centers of Excellence, including Talent Acquisition, Learning & Development, Operations, and D&I teams to deliver integrated people solutions.

• Ensure compliance with Ontario employment legislation, company policies, and HR best practices.

• Provide guidance on policy interpretation and application while minimizing organizational risk.

• Support the development, implementation, and continuous improvement of HR policies, programs, and processes.

• Identify, escalate, and help mitigate people-related, legal, and compliance risks.

• Identify and implement opportunities to improve HR processes, systems, and employee experiences through AI, automation, people analytics, and emerging technologies.

• Maintain the highest level of confidentiality, professionalism, and integrity in all aspects of the role.

Qualifications

• 5-8 years of progressive Human Resources experience in an HR Manager, HR Business Partner, or equivalent role.

• 2-3 years of experience leading employee relations and performance management activities, providing strategic guidance to managers on complex workplace issues, policy interpretation, and organizational effectiveness.

• Demonstrated expertise in workplace investigations, manager coaching, talent development, and leadership development.

• Experience supporting leaders on a variety of people-related matters within a dynamic, fast-paced environment.

• Proven ability to build credibility, influence leaders, and establish effective working relationships across all levels of an organization.

• Strong knowledge of Ontario employment legislation and HR best practices.

• Experience supporting organizational change, workforce planning, and employee engagement initiatives.

• Experience utilizing people metrics, workforce data, and analytics to drive decision-making and recommendations.

• Demonstrated experience working with HR systems and leveraging technology to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

• Experience within agency, media, professional services, or other fast-paced environments is considered an asset.

• CHRP designation (or progress toward designation) is considered an asset.

The Skills and Qualities That Make You Stand Out

• Strong employee relations expertise and sound judgement.

• Excellent conflict resolution, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.

• Strong business partnership and relationship-building capabilities.

• Effective change management and organizational effectiveness mindset.

• Data-informed thinking and analytical curiosity.

• A passion for leveraging technology and AI to improve employee and leader experiences.

• Highly collaborative, adaptable, and solutions oriented.

• Exceptional attention to detail, recognizing that this work impacts people's lives and careers.

• You handle sensitive information with discretion, professionalism, and integrity.

• At your core, you embody curiosity, optimism, empathy, and a people-first approach.

Additional information

What We Offer

• Comprehensive health & dental benefits from day one

• Vacation plus paid personal and sick days to rest, recharge, and take care of yourself.

• Your Birthday, Your Day Off.

• Work Your World program to experience working from anywhere in Canada or overseas for up to 6 weeks a year.

• Extended long weekends throughout the year with an additional day off each long weekend.

• Wellness & Tech benefits to support what's most important to you.

• Extensive Learning & Development opportunities, including more than 15,000 learning programs via our online learning platform

Salary

Transparency matters to us. The salary range for this position is $80K-$85K per year. Actual compensation within this range will be based on a variety of factors, including relevant experience, knowledge, skills, and applicable certifications. This range reflects what we reasonably expect to offer based on current market data.

AI Use

We use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of our hiring process, such as reviewing applications or analyzing resumes. These tools assist our recruitment team but never replace human decision-making. We believe in a human-first approach, where your experience and potential are recognized by people.