Moments of impact from Renee Thompson's career
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AKG Canada (formerly Maximus Canada Employment Services) · Director, Human Resources & People OperationsWhen Maximus Canada Employment Services was acquired by AKG, an internationally based company, I discovered their existing HRIS did not support Canadian payroll functions. With only 12 weeks before staff would be at risk of not getting paid, I was responsible for sourcing, signing, and fully implementing a functioning HRIS from scratch — a high-stakes challenge with no room for delay. I began by building a shortlist of a dozen vendors capable of supporting Canadian payroll, then narrowed the field based on who could realistically implement within our tight timeline. From there, I evaluated finalists on a features-versus-cost basis. Given the company's unprofitability at the time, cost quickly became a critical secondary factor. When Finance was unable to align on a vendor choice for a broader integrated solution, I made the call to move forward independently given how time-critical the decision was, ultimately selecting the only vendor able to meet our implementation deadline while also offering a low-cost solution. Execution involved building out the module to match our company structure, migrating all payroll data, and running parallel pay cycles for two pay periods as a live test before cutover. We went live on schedule, and every employee was paid correctly and on time — with only minor adjustments needed and no missed payments. In the process, we uncovered that the previous system had actually been overtaxing certain employees, so those staff were especially pleased with the switch. Comparing the new vendor's annual contract cost to what we'd paid under the previous, larger-scale provider, the new system delivered a 56.5% cost savings — a notably strong outcome given that smaller companies typically have less leverage to negotiate favorable pricing than a large enterprise like Maximus Canada. Leadership was equally pleased that the transition caused zero disruption to staff pay during a period of significant organizational change.
AKG Canada (formerly Maximus Canada Employment Services) · Director, Human Resources & People OperationsAt AKG Canada, a major contract won in 2019 rapidly became unprofitable due to unforeseen market shifts caused by COVID. With no ability to reduce headcount outside admin staff, a budget structure of only 8% opex to 92% payroll, and a multi-year fixed-rate agreement that ruled out rate increases or new business, the only lever available to restore margin was a targeted rightsizing effort paired with a full service delivery redesign. I led the effort to map every role against revenue-generating impact and partnered with operations leaders to redesign service delivery models across the organization. At the outset, performance was only tracked at the per-location level, and per previous leadership's philosophy, poor individual performance was never communicated to the teams responsible for it — case managers had no idea they were underperforming. I set clear, individual-level performance standards and targets for case managers based on the interventions and revenue activities that actually moved the needle, communicated them transparently, and built incentives around them. Working alongside the Directors of Business Admin and Operations, we identified which interventions generated the most profit for the least effort in each department and built more specific processes to increase average revenue per client interaction — including a billable service that was significantly underused relative to client need despite case managers already being qualified to deliver it. Within two quarters of rolling out individual KPIs, the contract moved from underperforming in every region provincially to 2nd place among all contractors in the province. By end of fiscal year, the contract turned from a projected loss into a 35% margin — a shift directly attributable to intervention volume and mix per case manager, since no rate increases or new business were possible during that window. Turnover spiked 22% in the first quarter as the new standards took hold, then dropped and stabilized in line with historic levels; regrettable exits rose only 2% before stabilizing as well, showing the redesign drove performance without sacrificing the workforce.
Tandem People Partners · Managing Partner & Co-FounderTraditional people metrics — attrition, turnover, time to hire — are typically reported in isolation, disconnected from the operational deliverables they actually threaten. As Managing Partner & Co-Founder of Tandem People Partners, I saw an opportunity to close that gap: instead of just tracking whether turnover was trending up or down, I wanted to build a tool that showed how a specific vacancy, leave of absence, or flight risk in a key role could directly jeopardize a critical business deliverable. This kind of connected, operationally-relevant insight is far more actionable for leadership than aggregate HR dashboards, and building a sellable product around it was central to my mandate as a firm owner. To bring this to life, I first mapped out a standard people dashboard and built a representative dataset for a sample organization, then did the same for an operations dashboard focused on deliverables. I identified the key roles tied to those deliverables and built out a range of realistic scenarios — absences, leaves of absence, and varying flight-risk levels — factoring in variables like incumbent knowledge level, time to hire, and market conditions. Using AI, I developed a React-based tool that unified these datasets into a single interactive heat map, visualizing in real time how staffing risk in specific roles translated into delivery risk across the organization. Since completing the tool, I've demoed it to three prospective clients. One signed on for a pilot engagement, which successfully identified two key roles at flight risk tied to a major deliverable for their business. That pilot has since converted into a $40K consulting engagement to build out their full, customized risk map — validating both the tool's practical value and its potential as a repeatable, sellable offering for the firm.
GoodFood Market (TSX: FOOD) · People & Culture Business PartnerIn a rapid-expansion warehouse environment, high early turnover and inconsistent quality among new hires were undermining productivity—90-day turnover sat at 45%, and supervisors were fielding recurring quality errors from employees who couldn't reliably follow instructions under real working conditions. Traditional interviews weren't surfacing whether candidates could actually perform the job accurately, so I identified an opportunity to redesign the hiring process around a practical, skills-based assessment. I pitched the concept of a work-demo interview to the warehouse operations manager and my own leadership, then designed the assessment myself using a Lego-based simulation that mirrored the precision and instruction-following required on the floor. I set the specific time and accuracy thresholds candidates needed to meet, and trained my recruiter to score candidates consistently against those benchmarks—ensuring the process was objective, repeatable, and scalable beyond just my own judgment. The results were immediate and measurable: within three months of rollout, 90-day turnover dropped from 45% to 18%, and supervisors reported fewer quality errors since new hires had already demonstrated they could follow instructions accurately in a cold, unfamiliar test scenario. The improved screening also increased hiring speed, which was critical given the company's rapid growth phase. The success of the pilot led to the work-demo interview being extended to the Vancouver site as well. While I moved on from the role after eight months and can't speak to longer-term outcomes at that location, the initial impact validated the model as a repeatable, scalable hiring solution.
Boys and Girls Clubs of Calgary · Manager, People ServicesShortly after joining the organization, I was reconciling the benefits invoice and noticed the costs seemed high for a fairly basic plan. Digging deeper, I discovered our broker hadn't taken the plan to market in over a decade — previous HR leaders had simply accepted renewal increases year after year without question. Recognizing this as poor service to the organization, and knowing that employees had long complained about weak coverage (a factor contributing to retention issues), I reached out to a broker I'd worked with extensively in prior roles to explore what a competitive remarket could uncover. The remarket revealed significant savings were possible, so I got leadership approval to reinvest those savings into a redesigned benefits program rather than simply pocketing the cost reduction. Over six weeks, I worked closely with the broker to model three tiered plan options based on employee demographics and historical usage data, giving staff lifestyle-based choice, and added a health spending account (HSA) for added flexibility. I presented the redesigned plan to the leadership team for sign-off, then rolled it out to all 350 employees through multiple info sessions and supporting FAQs to ensure smooth adoption and understanding. The results were substantial: the broker's remarket brought annual premiums down 18%, freeing up $125K that was reinvested into enhanced coverage rather than absorbed as pure savings. Within six months of rollout, voluntary turnover dropped from approximately 22% to 10%, a shift the organization attributed largely to the improved benefits offering based on exit survey feedback and turnover data. This project demonstrated how questioning long-standing vendor relationships and taking a proactive, data-driven approach to benefits design could simultaneously cut costs and meaningfully improve employee retention.