Alberta's Top Employers (2025) Magazine - Flipbook - Page 28
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ALBERTA’S TOP EMPLOYERS (2025)
Bird Construction has built a deep culture of caring
O
ver her 13 years at
Bird Construction,
Claire Smith has
seen many positive
examples of how
well managers support employees,
but the Edmonton-based project
director says one incident in 2018
really epitomizes the company’s
“deep culture of caring.”
Smith was on site at a difficult
project in Manitoba when she got
a text saying a company leader
would be making an unexpected
visit in a couple hours. Smith
was bracing for the worst, but
instead when the leader arrived,
her main focus was checking on
the well-being of the team,
which had been working very
hard and into the weekend.
Smith was impressed when the
leader inquired about her and the
team before delving into project
issues. “I’m tearing up thinking
about it,” she says. "That’s the type
of leaders we have in our company, and it’s the type of leader I
hope I can be to the people that
join my team.”
Bird, which has operations
across Canada providing a comprehensive range of construction
services, focuses on providing
employees with opportunities to
try new things and grow their careers. To facilitate that, managers
conduct regular “career progress
check-ins” so they can listen
carefully to employees and look
for ways to address their needs.
“There’s definitely an open
conversation process that happens
multiple times per year with
my supervisor on my short and
long-term goals,” says Smith, a
University of Alberta engineering
graduate who has been promoted
several times at Bird. “I had a fantastic experience early on doing
different types of projects.”
More recently, Smith has set her
sights on improving her leadership skills. To push that forward,
she has been enrolled in what the
company calls the Bird Leadership
Academy, which allows employees
to take a tailored leadership program through the Ivey Business
School at Western University.
Bird Construction is committed to building highly engaged teams focused on collaboration and exemplary
performance.
Bird also has a strong mentorship program. In Smith’s case, she
was matched with the vice president of investor relations, allowing
her to gain a better understanding
of the corporate side of Bird’s operations. The experience has also
given her a sense of what it’s like
“being a female in a leadership
position within our organization.”
We want to send a message
to employees that Bird
cares about your growth
and development.
— Brian Henry
Chief People Officer
Brian Henry, chief people
officer, says the mentorship program is an important part of the
company’s One Bird philosophy.
Other key goals are nurturing
a caring culture and promoting
collaboration. Leaders, he says,
are always thinking about how
they can support employees and
drive programs around diversity,
equity and inclusion. “We want to
send a message to employees that
Bird cares about your growth and
development.”
Supervisors foster the One Bird
strategy by listening to employees’
ideas and needs, Henry says. In
addition to providing regular opportunities for employees to meet
with their managers, Bird gathers
data about employees’ thinking
through multiple channels,
including engagement surveys.
“Collecting all that information
allows Bird to better understand
our employee base and respond
