Greater Toronto's Top Employers (2026) Magazine - Magazine - Page 66
66
( 2026)
SPONSOR CONTENT
Wellness and recognition are Halton’s twin pillars
I
n his five years at the
Regional Municipality of
Halton, Andrew Farr has
come to see the municipality’s key task as communicating effectively with its 650,000
residents.
“What I’ve really worked on
is how do we better connect
with them so that they feel
better informed and better able
to interact with us as we build the
new infrastructure we need,” says
Farr, Halton’s chief administrative
officer (CAO) since April 2025.
We aim to make our
people feel supported
and recognized in their
work, not only in a financial and professional sense, but in their
mental and physical
well-being as well.
— Andrew Farr
Chief Administrative Officer
Communication with the
municipality’s workforce matters
just as much, he adds, since it’s a
crucial part of Halton’s inclusive
workplace culture. “One of the
biggest changes I’ve seen here
is taking communications with
employees from transactional to
more relational and meaningful,”
Farr says.
“There’s been a huge emphasis
on employee recognition and on
wellness, knowing how everyone
here works really hard. We aim to
make our people feel supported
and recognized in their work, not
Employees at Regional Municipality of Halton participate in a charity walk for the United Way.
only in a financial and professional sense, but in their mental and
physical well-being as well,” Farr
says.
“We’ve taken the very robust
mental health support that’s
offered to EMS personnel and
other front-line staff, which is
common among the GTA’s regional municipalities, and rolled it out
to every eligible employee here.
All of them have the same access
to the same programs and support
— $5,000 yearly — in addition to
our standard employee assistance
plan. I don’t know anybody else
doing that,” says the CAO.
Those enhancements are
very welcome, says Shannon
Desjardins. “I’m a huge advocate
for wellness and my own mental
health because I want to give back
to the community and I have to
take care of myself to be able to do
that,” she says. “The increase in
our mental health benefits really
shows that Halton understands
the work that we do.”
At the same time, Desjardins,
an employment specialist who
currently helps high-needs
residents find their way through
different community programs,
says benefits improvements are no
surprise at Halton. “It was already
a welcoming and inclusive culture
full of opportunities when I came
here 20 years ago,” she says.
“Some things haven’t changed,
like diversity being valued — we
don't just do the land acknowledgement and call it a day — or
managers looking at your skill set
and interests and opening doors.
I don't think I’ve ever been turned
down for training or something
else that has been part of the
goals that I’ve set for myself,” says
Desjardins. “Yet there are always
steady improvements every year.”
Farr, with his emphasis on
meaningful two-way communication between management and
employees, has also embraced the
other pillar in Halton’s workplace
culture: large-scale and formal
employee recognition.
