CSS des Portages-de-l’Outaouais
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The Centre de services scolaire des Portages-de-l’Outaouais (CSSPO) launched an ambitious initiative to define, structure, and elevate its employer brand in a context of transformation and increasing competition in the labour market. The objective: better reflect the real day-to-day experience of its teams, stand out as an employer of choice in the region, and attract talent who share its educational and human-centred values.
To achieve this, the CSSPO was supported through a comprehensive, participatory, and personalized process that combined strategy, engagement, and creativity.
The project began with an internal diagnosis of the employee experience, including a survey and consultation sessions, to better understand current perceptions, key motivators, and challenges experienced by staff. This step made it possible to identify the CSSPO’s distinctive strengths, as well as the improvement opportunities to showcase in its employer brand promise.
An engagement workshop was then held with employees from various departments and backgrounds to validate the findings, enrich the reflection, and build collective buy-in around the project. Following this, a clear and mobilizing Employee Value Proposition (EVP) was developed, inspired by both internal insights and an analysis of competing employers in the market, ensuring a positioning that is realistic, distinctive, and inspiring.
To better target its communication and recruitment efforts, the project team also worked on defining candidate personas representing the typical profiles the CSSPO aims to attract—both in terms of skills and cultural fit. These personas guided the tone, messaging, and formats chosen for the communication tools to be developed.
A wide range of content and visual assets was then created to support the rollout of the employer brand: video capsules and corporate photos featuring staff members, social media post templates, visuals for the website and Careers pages, as well as various promotional tools (screen backgrounds, banners, visuals for promotional items, etc.). All these elements were designed to be easily used by HR, communications, and management teams, ensuring consistency throughout the deployment—both internally and externally.
This process enabled the CSSPO to lay the foundation for a strong employer brand, aligned with its culture and ambitions, and to initiate a strategic shift toward more human, valued, and engaging HR communication.
*External credits
Survey platform & expertise / Focus groups: EPSI
Engagement workshop: EPSI
