Vice President, Return To Work

TieTalent; London; On-site; CAD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading insurance organization in London, Ontario is seeking a Vice-President, Return-to-Work to provide strategic oversight for the return-to-work function. This newly created executive role involves leading a team of 265 front-line staff and ensuring alignment with organizational goals. The successful candidate will drive operational efficiency, build trust within the team, and promote a culture of innovation and accountability. Strong experience in insurance and operational excellence is essential.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Comprehensive benefits package

Qualifications

• Experience leading large teams through strategic transformation and cultural change initiatives.
• Proven ability to modernize operations and integrate technology to improve service delivery.
• Strong ability to build trust and collaborate across complex, matrixed organizations.

Responsibilities

• Lead the realignment of the return-to-work function under a new matrix structure.
• Provide executive leadership to a team of 4 directors, 30 managers, and 265 front-line staff.
• Drive modernization of operations, integrating technology to enhance service delivery.

Skills

Strategic Transformation Leadership

Operational Excellence

Relationship Building

Vocational Rehabilitation Expertise

Unionized Environment Experience

Private Sector Experience

Job description

About

THE COMPANY

The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board is one of the largest insurance organizations in North America, covering over five million people in more than 300,000 workplaces across Ontario. Recognized as one of Greater Toronto’s top employers, the WSIB plays a vital role in Ontario’s workforce ecosystem by supporting individuals in their recovery and return to work after workplace injuries or illnesses, and by helping businesses maintain safe and productive work environments.

Guided by the core values of accountability, collaboration, empathy, and integrity, our workforce of over 4500 people contributes to a culture that prioritizes diversity, inclusion and belonging that helps the injured workers of Ontario return to work better, easier and faster.

The WSIB operates under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997 (WSIA). Its core mandate is to:

• Administer Ontario’s no-fault workplace insurance for employers and workers.
• Promote workplace health and safety.
• Facilitate return-to-work programs for injured workers.
• Provide compensation and support services to workers who are injured or become ill because of their work.
  
  

Some of the current key priorities of the WSIB include:

• Improving customer service for both injured workers and employers.
• Modernizing operations, including digital transformation and streamlining claims processing.
• Enhancing recognition of occupational diseases.
• Real estate optimization, including reducing the agency’s downtown Toronto footprint.
• Financial sustainability and ensuring the long-term viability of the insurance fund.
  
  

THE OPPORTUNITY

The WSIB is undergoing a significant transformation to modernize its operations, improve service delivery, and foster a culture of innovation and accountability. The organization is committed to delivering private-sector outcomes within a public-sector framework, with a strong focus on operational excellence, employee engagement, and client-centric service.

The Vice-President, Return-to-Work (VP RTW) is a newly created executive leadership role that will provide strategic oversight and operational leadership to the return-to-work function at WSIB. Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, the VP RTW will join the Operations senior leadership team and assume full accountability for a function that includes approximately 265 front-line bargaining unit staff, 30 managers, and 4 directors.

This role is being introduced as part of a broader optimization of the Operations operating model aimed at streamlining formal reporting relationships, improving decision-making speed and clarity, and enhancing the function’s ability to innovate and adapt. The VP RTW will lead the transition to a new matrix structure and centralize oversight of the return-to-work function.

The successful candidate will be a transformational leader with the ability to build trust, foster collaboration, and drive cultural and operational change, while improving processes and removing barriers within the function. Bringing a fresh perspective and innovative mindsent to customer-centric service delivery, they will be responsible for aligning the function with WSIB’s broader strategic goals, improving business outcomes in both return-to-work and claims management, and strengthening employee engagement across a highly tenured bargaining unit workforce.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Transformation

• Lead the realignment of the return-to-work function under a new matrix structure.
• Assess the current state and develop a clear, actionable plan to improve operational efficiency, service delivery, and employee engagement.
• Embed flexibility to accommodate the diverse needs of different claim types while driving consistency and alignment across the function, in close partnership and consultation with the Operations Senior Leadership team.
  
  

Operational Oversight

• Provide executive leadership to a team of 4 directors, 30 managers, and 265 front-line bargaining unit staff.
• Oversee the transition from a decentralized model to a centralized structure with clear accountability and streamlined decision-making.
• Ensure alignment with operational leaders overseeing case management functions.
  
  

Culture & Engagement

• Rebuild trust and strengthen relationships within a function impacted by the organization’s first-ever labour disruption.
• Address employee pain points and foster a more collaborative, engaged, and future-focused culture.
• Support leadership development and succession planning within a team that has traditionally advanced from front-line roles.
  
  

Innovation & Modernization

• Drive modernization of operations, integrating technology to enhance service delivery while maintaining a human-centered approach.
• Promote strategic agility, adaptive thinking, and innovation within a function historically shaped by technical expertise and tenure.
  
  

Stakeholder Collaboration

• Collaborate effectively across functions and levels within WSIB and with external stakeholders.
• Influence change through empathy, integrity, and political acuity.
• Lead through influence rather than authority to promote shared ownership of outcomes.
  
  

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES

• Strategic Transformation Leadership: Experience leading large teams through strategic transformation and cultural change initiatives.
• Operational Excellence: Proven ability to modernize operations and integrate technology to improve service delivery.
• Relationship Building: Strong ability to build trust and collaborate across complex, matrixed organizations.
• Vocational Rehabilitation Expertise: Certified Disability Management Professional. Strong technical knowledge of vocational rehabilitation, case/claims management, adjudication, or health-related fields is an asset.
• Unionized Environment Experience: Experience working in or with unionized environments is considered an asset.
• Private Sector Experience: Executive-level leadership experience within an insurance agency (e.g., Manulife, Desjardins, Sunlife) is essential.
  
  

LEADERSHIP ATTRIBUTES

• High emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and humility.
• Ability to lead with empathy and integrity while holding teams accountable.
• Skilled at navigating and shaping organizational culture.
• Resilient and collaborative leadership style.
• Ability to influence diverse leadership teams and foster alignment.
  
  

About LHH Knightsbridge –

At LHH, we exist to help people, teams and organizations find and prepare for what’s next. Our end-to-end HR solutions future-proof organizations and careers all over the world. Through Advisory, Career Transition & Mobility, Insights, Learning & Development and Recruitment Solutions, we enable transformation, and our job is never done because there’s always another tomorrow to prepare for.

LHH Knightsbridge is LHH's Executive Search brand. LHH Knightsbridge is comprised of a dedicated team of Partners and Consultants complemented by project management staff. We are deeply experienced in delivering exceptional talent to clients in the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors locally, nationally, and internationally. Our greatest passion is helping purpose-driven organizations achieve their goals through the infusion of outstanding Executive and Board leadership.

At LHH, we make a difference to everyone we work with, and we do it with local expertise, backed by global infrastructure and industry-leading technology. LHH’s over 8,000 colleagues and coaches span 66 countries worldwide, working with more than 15,000 organizations, a majority of Fortune Global 500, and nearly 500,000 candidates each year. Together we address needs across the entire talent journey, helping organizations build their capabilities and individuals build brighter futures.

LHH is a part of the Adecco Group, the world’s leading talent advisory and solutions company, headquartered in Zurich Switzerland.

Nice-to-have skills

• Case Management
• London, Ontario, Canada
  
  

Work experience

• General Project Management
• IT Consultant
  
  

Languages

• English