National Capital Region's Top Employers (2025) - Flipbook - Page 30
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NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION’S TOP EMPLOYERS (2025)
Adaptability drives success at Ottawa Community Housing
A
nyone who wants
to work at Ottawa
Community Housing
Corporation (OCH), the
capital’s largest provider of community housing, may relate to the
outlook of Michelle Parisien. She
talks about finding her way to the
company because “I wanted to do
something for the city, something
with a strong social purpose.”
Now the director of tenant
experience operations at OCH,
Parisien describes how she moved
from a very public-facing role at
the beginning of her career to a
leadership role, thanks to opportunities provided by what she
calls the organization’s “culture of
continuous improvement.”
“Part of our process is recognizing growth opportunities and
tailoring every employee’s experience to those opportunities,” she
says. “When I joined OCH, the
company provided opportunities
to me to develop process improvement and leadership skills, which
shaped my professional growth
path.”
The company helps fund career
development for employees
with a certification program that
pays $1,500 annually to anyone
pursuing career-related degrees,
diplomas or certification, and with
training budgets that managers
can use to fund their team’s
development.
OCH also provides opportunities
for mentorship and job shadowing
at every stage of an employee’s
career. Emily Wright, department
coordinator of people, communications and strategy, describes how
OCH's “Job Shadowing Program”
helps employees understand the
big picture of what’s being done
across such a diverse organization.
“It’s a way for employees to really step into the day-to-day of some
of our staff,” she says, “whether it’s
a maintenance worker or someone
who’s working on the community
safety services team and see firsthand what their day is like.”
Like Parisien, Wright says she
came to OCH because “I wanted
to work somewhere with a strong
social purpose.” She’s enthusiastic
The tenancy administration team at Ottawa Community Housing welcomes residents at the new Tenant
Service Centre.
about its employee engagement
program, which encourages
employees to “meet community
partners and work on need-based
projects.”
Part of our process is
recognizing growth
opportunities and
tailoring every employee’s
experience to those
opportunities.
— Michelle Parisien
Director, Tenant Experience
Operations
“This has seen me building
garden beds, painting common
spaces, harvesting broccoli at the
Ottawa Food Bank Farm,” says
Wright. “It’s really a development
opportunity, an outreach and
collaboration opportunity, and
you feel that you’re making a
direct impact.”
That culture of continuous
improvement provides
opportunities, such as when
Parisien’s group was provided
training to help with people’s
presentation skills. “That can be
challenging or scary,” Parisien
says. “So, we brought in an
organization that tailored a
course to help them be more
successful when presenting to a
large audience or just presenting
concepts when talking to their
teams.”
Listening to employees also inspired a change in how OCH handles its benefit plans. Increased
concern over mental and physical
