People & Culture Leader — Creative Agency

Leo Toronto; Toronto; On-site; CAD 80,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive health & dental benefits

Vacation and personal/sick days

Your Birthday, Your Day Off.

Work Your World program (Canada/overse

Extended long weekends

Wellness & Tech benefits

Learning & Development opportunities

A genuinely human, creative culture

Job summary

Leo Toronto is seeking an HR Manager to anchor the employee experience across our fast-moving creative agency. You’ll ensure compliant, scalable people programs and partner with leaders on employee relations, development, and engagement.

You will leverage HR technology, data, and AI to drive smarter decisions, support talent processes, and strengthen culture across the organization in Canada. The role reports to the HR Director and collaborates with cross-functional teams.

Qualifications

• 5–8 years of progressive Human Resources experience in an HR Manager, HR Business Partner, or equivalent role.
• 2–3 years of experience leading employee relations and performance management activities, providing strategic guidance to managers on complex workplace issues, policy interpretation, and organizational effectiveness.
• Demonstrated expertise in workplace investigations, manager coaching, talent development, and leadership development.
• Experience supporting leaders on a variety of people-related matters within a dynamic, fast-paced environment.
• Proven ability to build credibility, influence leaders, and establish effective working relationships across all levels of an organization.
• Strong knowledge of Ontario employment legislation and HR best practices.
• Experience supporting organizational change, workforce planning, and employee engagement initiatives.
• Experience utilizing people metrics, workforce data, and analytics to drive decision-making and recommendations.
• Demonstrated experience working with HR systems and leveraging technology to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
• Experience within agency, media, professional services, or other fast-paced environments is considered an asset.
• CHRP designation (or progress toward designation) is considered an asset.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a trusted advisor to managers and employees on employee relations matters, workplace concerns, performance management, attendance issues, accommodations, leaves, and HR best practices.
• Lead and support workplace investigations, including fact-finding, documentation, recommendations, and follow-up actions.
• Coach managers through difficult conversations, performance concerns, conflict resolution, organizational change, and employee development.
• Exercise sound judgement while managing complex employee situations and balancing employee, business, and legal considerations.
• Proactively identify and address workplace concerns to support a healthy, inclusive, and high-performing culture.
• Build strong relationships across the agency and act as a strategic HR partner to assigned business leaders.
• Partner with managers to drive team effectiveness, employee engagement, retention, and organizational health.
• Support the full employee lifecycle including onboarding, development, engagement, performance management, succession planning, and offboarding.
• Facilitate talent review, performance management, and career development processes.
• Support workforce planning initiatives and organizational change while ensuring a positive employee experience throughout transitions.
• Analyze engagement survey results, turnover data, retention metrics, and workforce trends to identify opportunities and recommend actions that strengthen employee engagement and business performance.

Skills

Employee relations

Leadership support

Workforce planning

HR analytics

Compliance knowledge

HRIS utilization

Education

CHRP designation (or progress toward)

Tools

HRIS systems

Data analytics tools

AI tools for HR

Job description

Leo Toronto is seeking an HR Manager to anchor the employee experience across our fast-moving creative agency. You’ll ensure compliant, scalable people programs and partner with leaders on employee relations, development, and engagement.

You will leverage HR technology, data, and AI to drive smarter decisions, support talent processes, and strengthen culture across the organization in Canada. The role reports to the HR Director and collaborates with cross-functional teams.