What this looks like in practice
The right engagement depends on where you are in the situation.
If you need advice before you act, a conversation about your obligations and options before anything happens is what the retainer is for. If you need someone in the room, a termination handled properly, an investigation run with independence and rigour, a performance process built and executed correctly, that's activation billing: scoped to the situation, priced on time and complexity. For companies that want ongoing support so these situations never catch them flat-footed, embedded fractional HR provides the presence to catch problems before they get expensive.
What I bring to this
I've handled terminations, investigations, and complex employee relations across more than 125 organisations in BC, Alberta, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Quebec, and the Maritimes. The difference between a situation that resolves cleanly and one that gets costly is usually visible early if you know what to look for. I'll tell you which one you're heading toward before you make the call.
Canadian employment law is provincial and the exposure varies by jurisdiction. Where the legal risk warrants it, I'll refer you to employment counsel and work alongside them to make sure the HR and legal pieces are handled together. I have a referral relationship with employment lawyers who work with exactly these situations.
You have a people situation that needs handling.
Terminations. Performance issues that have been going on too long. A complaint that just landed on your desk. A leader whose limitations are becoming impossible to ignore.
These situations don't improve with time. They compound. And in Canada, how you handle them matters as much as the decision itself.
The real risk isn't the conversation. It's what happens when it goes wrong.
Most founders who've been through a bad termination will tell you the same thing: they knew something was off, they waited too long, and by the time they acted they were managing a legal exposure they didn't see coming. Canadian employment law doesn't reward improvisation. Notice periods, severance obligations, constructive dismissal risk, documentation requirements: these aren't technicalities. They're the difference between a clean exit and a costly one.
The same applies to performance management. A performance issue handled without documentation, without a clear process, and without understanding the legal context isn't being managed. It's accumulating.
How to engage
If something is happening right now, book a call. Most situations become clearer within the first conversation and you'll leave knowing what to do next.