Conseil scolaire catholique Franco-Nord
Pour vrai
For real
The Conseil scolaire catholique Franco-Nord, located in Northern Ontario and committed to attracting and retaining qualified staff while strengthening team engagement, launched an initiative to clarify and elevate its employer brand. With several positions remaining vacant for some time, the organization wanted to highlight its internal strengths, better define its positioning as an employer, and provide its managers with the tools to become ambassadors of this culture.
We were therefore mandated to support the organization through a complete, structured, and engaging process.
It began with an in-depth diagnosis of the employee experience, which allowed us to identify differentiating elements, attraction levers, and improvement opportunities. Based on this, a tailored Employee Value Proposition (EVP) was developed to translate the essence of the Franco-Nord employee experience into meaningful messages and concrete commitments.
This was followed by a series of engagement workshops with employees to validate the positioning axes, gather ideas, and foster buy-in for the project. Targeted coaching was also offered to managers so they could become true ambassadors of the internal culture and embody the employer promise in their day-to-day leadership. The next step consisted of developing a distinctive employer visual identity that reflected the organization’s human values, community roots, and aspirations.
The entire initiative was rolled out through an internal and external campaign featuring testimonial videos from employee ambassadors, the creation of key visuals, and the storytelling of the organizational culture in an authentic, inclusive, and inspiring way. This campaign helped strengthen staff pride and sense of belonging while generating strong excitement around the project—across HR teams as well as senior leadership and communications.
The results were concrete and measurable. Not only were they able to fill several positions that had remained vacant for months, but they also observed a significant improvement in the quality of applications. This was accompanied by a high level of satisfaction expressed by all stakeholders, making this collaboration a multi-level success — a relationship that remains active to this day.
Finally, several structuring actions were implemented following this initiative: the creation of an employee recognition plan, the launch of an internal newsletter to support information flow, and the implementation of an efficient applicant tracking system. The latter allowed the organization to centralize and automate its recruitment process, freeing up valuable time for the HR team so they could focus on high-value strategic tasks.
*Credits:
Survey platform & expertise / Focus groups: EPSI
Engagement workshops & manager training: EPSI