Strengthening the city of Châteauguay’s employer brand: a strategic and collaborative journey

Client case

In 2023, the city of Châteauguay carried out a strategic planning exercise to clarify its vision for the future. Among the various measures the city identified as necessary to achieve its ambitions was the need to continue building on its ability to attract, engage, and retain talent.

Like all public and private organizations across Quebec, the city of Châteauguay is dealing with a labour shortage. To ensure that the services it offers its citizens are sustainable, it must become more competitive in terms of attraction and retention. In February 2023, faced with a changing landscape and new challenges, the city embarked on a major project in collaboration with Humance to strengthen its employer brand.

An inclusive and collaborative approach

The city started by carrying out an extensive information-gathering exercise involving focus groups and employee surveys. These initiatives highlighted the most valued aspects of the Châteauguay employee experience, providing a solid foundation on which to build its employer brand. Employees expressed great appreciation for the collaborative work environment, the pride they take in their role and the impact of their work on citizens, the opportunities for professional development, and their commitment to helping shape their city.

Positioning the employer brand

Building on this, a positioning exercise was carried out to define the employer value proposition, focused primarily on a commitment to the city’s vision, employee development, and quality of life at work. This process, combined with discussions between our creative team and the city’s communications and HR teams, led to the creation of a unifying slogan: Participe à demain (Be part of tomorrow). This message invites all current and future employees to help shape the city’s future.

The internal launch of the employer brand in March 2024 was a true turning point. The creative concept for the brand was presented at the event, along with a series of videos featuring city employees talking about how positive their experience has been in Châteauguay. It’s important to remember that these individuals are the best ambassadors of an employer brand. The videos will be central to the social media campaign for the coming year. The city’s communications and HR teams were instrumental in bringing the slogan and new visual tools to life in many different ways. A comprehensive plan has also been developed to enhance the city’s attractiveness, with several initiatives slated for the coming weeks and months.

A concrete, ambitious, yet realistic, retention strategy

To embody and reinforce the employee experience underpinning this employer brand, we also worked with the city’s management teams to identify the next steps in its implementation. Various workshops were held to help managers design a retention plan aligned with HR priorities and management practices in the short, medium, and long term. These actions were designed to foster the commitment and satisfaction of employees, which in turn will help to increase retention and enhance the city’s attraction capacity.

Conclusion

This employer brand project laid a solid foundation on which to build the city of Châteauguay’s future. By putting employees at the heart of its strategy, Châteauguay is positioning itself as an employer of choice that can take on the challenges of tomorrow and play an active role in shaping the future.

I would like to express our deep gratitude to Emilie Pelletier and Didier Dubois from Humance for their remarkable work in developing our employer brand. Their sophisticated and insightful understanding of our core values was key. They demonstrated openness and creativity throughout the process, which helped us create an employer identity befitting our image. Their expertise has injected fresh vitality into our organizational culture.

Caroline Dumouchel, Director of Human Resources
City of Châteauguay

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