Creating a network of female intrapreneurs in the Human Resources industry, and providing them with a new toolbox to solve the challenges their organizations are facing amid the new normal, is the goal of this year’s all-female Innovation Catalyst cohort, launched by WEtech Alliance in partnership with innovative HR practitioners across Windsor-Essex and Chatham Kent.

“The impact of the Coronavirus has disrupted businesses, economies and Human Resources (HR) has been at the heart of it” said Yvonne Pilon, President and CEO at WEtech Alliance. “The pandemic has become the accelerator of one of the greatest workplace transformations in our lifetime. HR matters more now than ever.” 

Innovation Catalyst, powered by the Women’s Entrepreneurship Strategy, is a six-month Design Thinking Sprint, aimed at bringing together female professionals from organizations across the region in order to solve some of the opportunities and challenges those businesses are facing. 

“Our goal is to not only provide these incredible women with new tools to solve challenges or opportunities at the organizational level, but to create a network of female intrapreneurs in the HR field across our region that can rely on each other for their entire careers,” said Adam Frye, Director of Business Innovation at WEtech Alliance. “All of the participants in the cohort will bring opportunities and challenges that they are passionate about solving, and over the course of six months we will leverage a Design Thinking framework to actually dive in and start to understand how they might be solved for.”

This year’s cohort has representation from healthcare, technology, agriculture, financial as well as municipal including Erie Shores Healthcare, YMCA, Wave Direct, Hotel Dieu Grace Hospital, Aphria Inc., Edison Financial, and the City of Windsor. 

“I am thrilled to be included in this year’s all female Innovation Catalyst cohort. It’s an amazing opportunity to work on a project for Erie Shores HealthCare with an incredible group of HR professionals in the area” said Lesley Roundtree, Director of HR Eerie Shores HealthCare. “I’m looking forward to learning and sharing all of our experiences together and supporting one another, not only during the program for the next six months, but also throughout our careers.”

By the end of their six-month design thinking journey, participants will have developed a strong mentoring network with whom support and best practices can be shared. It is also expected that participants will be able to drive continuous improvement within their organizations while at the same time improving efficiencies and quality.

This cohort is made possible with support from WindsorEssex Economic Development Corporation and is funded in part by the Government of Canada through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario as part of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Strategy.

To learn more about the Innovation Catalyst program, click here.