Making the case for HR innovation

Confronting an increasingly global and remote workforce, Info-Tech Research Group reimagines its HR functions for the next normal

Photo: Shawn Gibson and the Info-Tech Research Group HR team

IN ADDITION TO recently being named Business of the Year in the Large Company category at the 2025 London Chamber Business Achievement Awards, earlier this year IT research and advisory firm Info-Tech Research Group (infotech.com) was named one of HRD Canada’s top Innovative HR teams for 2025. It was a big shot in the arm for both the company and its chief human resources officer Shawn Gibson, who rejoined Info-Tech five years ago after more than a decade at Goodlife Fitness.

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The award validated the work put in by Info-Tech’s HR team, primarily following the pandemic, to better manage a large and growing workforce that is increasingly global and remote (Info-Tech has over 1,400 employees, 400 of which are based in London).

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According to Gibson, a trio of innovative advancements lie at the heart of the company’s strategy to modernize its HR functions to manage its workforce as effectively as possible.

The first progression was the implementation of human capital management software UKG Pro People Assist. “Over 2,200 HR tasks were automated within our system through this software; it really drove the HRD award,” says Gibson. “We also did a career site redesign, and campus hiring has also been huge for us.”

Each component of modernization brought benefits to the company. The rollout of People Assist, for instance, helped free up HR staff from time-consuming clerical tasks by automating things like time-off approvals.

“I would say we’ve seen probably a 35 per cent increase in productivity for the HR team, and maybe a seven per cent increase in productivity for managers with those routine tasks,” Gibson says. “That’s huge savings for a fast-growing organization striving for 30 to 35 per cent growth each year.”

It also delivers more subjective benefits. When Gibson envisions what a future-ready HR department looks like, he sees one that is increasingly self-serve and employee-directed.

“The days of having to go talk to an HR professional are pretty much gone,” Gibson says, while acknowledging the trade-offs. “We might lose some interaction, but it allows for our HR team to then focus on the more serious issues — ­perhaps a mental health situation or a leave of absence for cancer treatment. It frees us up to be more people-focused.”

Of the three focused evolutions, this part might be the least surprising; tech implementation and task automation both fall firmly in the innovation bucket. On the other hand, revamping a career page isn’t the kind of thing that often turns heads. But Gibson says it’s about meeting one of the most evolving needs of modern employees: a sense of actual opportunity.

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“They really want to see career paths,” he stresses, explaining that workers are disillusioned by the job-hopping, gig-work ethos of the early 2010s, and growth opportunities and career stability are increasingly prized factors when people are jobhunting. “What we’re seeing, especially with our younger, newer employees, is that they’re really looking for a career path, and then continuous growth,” Gibson says.

That fed into Info-Tech’s career site redesign. Yes, it’s a place to post job ads, he says, but it’s also an opportunity to tell a story about growth and development within Info-Tech. “We have many employees that have been with us for 25 years,” he says. Tell that story, and it becomes easier to attract the kind of talent that wants to stay somewhere for 25 years.

But it’s not just redesigns and new tech that, in Gibson’s estimation, makes their HR vision tick. A lot of it is the less sexy stuff. Remote work, for instance, is a big one for Info-Tech. “You want to go work in Costa Rica for a month, we provide that,” says Gibson. “Whether an employee wants to work fully remote, or hybrid like myself, or completely in-office, we provide that. We’re big on trust.”

They’re also taking the less conventional step of investing heavily in a new alumni program, which offers some benefits to former employees. “Whether it’s career growth tools for them or free access to our website — we’re using that as a method to look to attract employees back,” explains Gibson, who himself has worked for Info-Tech twice in his career. “It was [founder Joel McLean’s] idea. After being in business for 27 years, we do have a number of employees we’d love to see rejoin.”

The result of all of it, Gibson says, is a firm foundation for a “future-ready workforce” — a phrase Gibson likes to use when thinking about a team that can stay ahead of the curve not only internally, but when working with clients.

“We just allow employees to be innovative,” sums up Gibson. “If we can’t be early adopters and be ready for the future, then that wouldn’t really enable us to help our clients do that.” Kieran Delamont