With background in employment and labour law, VP of HR embraces challenges of talent management at heavily unionized workplace

Few HR leaders can claim to have “swum deeper in the deep end” of labour and employment relations than Jennifer Bond, vice president of human resources operations at Ontario Power Generation (OPG).

Her journey from Bay Street private practice to the heart of one of Canada’s most complex, unionized organizations is as unconventional as it is impactful.

“I think more organizations should really look at this,” says Bond. “Developing a skill set of the combination of the LR background of the labour and employment law background with HR, it seems like it's a coupling that is definitely beneficial.”

Deep dive into HR

Bond worked in labour and employment law for nearly five years in Toronto, dealing with wrongful dismissals, grievance arbitrations, and human rights litigation. But it was the desire to “dive a little bit more into the labour side of things in a unionized environment” that prompted a move in-house to Toronto Community Housing.

There, Bond’s role quickly expanded: “They had an LR/HR kind of blended business model, health and safety proper, and, eventually, organically, I took on a lot of aspects of HR,” she says.

“I think some people call that performance punishment, but I ended up taking payroll benefits and recruitment and onboarding, organizational learning and development. So, my portfolio expanded into the HR realm that I wouldn't have...

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