Craig Meunier Is Redefining Processes And Roles To Pave The Way For Advancement
August, 2021
In the age of rapid-fire technological advances and the digitizing of so much of our lives, the allure of the latest automation designed to make life easier is ever-present. This holds true for how we live our personal lives and how we work. But there is a balancing act to staying at the forefront of efficiency and maintaining the human element. This balance is crucial to how we service our clients and how we take care of our teams. As Craig Meunier, Otak Compensation and Benefits Manager, sees it, employees and clients are similar, and the best way to take care of both is to start by asking “how can we help our employees do their best?”
A self-described generalist, Craig has worked in all areas of human resources (HR). He recognizes that while Otak is focused on our communities and servicing external clients, HR is simply another service department, but with internal clients. He says that “By serving our employees—taking away the little things that come up in life that distract them from doing their work—we allow them to focus on what they need to focus on—delivering excellent work to our clients.” In this way, Craig and his team are helping everyone at Otak serve our external clients in the best way possible.
For Craig, creating a place where people want to be is fundamental to his role at Otak. “Whatever I can do to contribute to employee satisfaction, create interesting benefits, or make sure that we are paying employees competitively and giving them opportunities to grow, I am going to make a priority,” he says, adding that “when we lose an employee, it creates a vacuum that we have to refill. There has to be retraining and there has to be that knowledge transfer. When we retain employees, we maintain a continuity of service that is important to the work we do and how we can best serve our clients.”
Craig is currently working on a job descriptions project that he sees as foundational for career path development, performance management, and recruiting. He describes the project as “defining positions rather than re-defining as it will bring clarity and more structure to existing roles.” He further explains how the new definitions will also provide clear paths for advancement, stating “This will better enable employees to identify the two or three things they may need to develop or work on in order to advance.”
One of the priorities is to also create multiple career paths for employees. Craig recognizes that “not everybody wants to go into a management position. For example, if you are a technical expert and you want to be a senior technical expert, we can create a career path for you so you can get to those higher salary bands without having to go through the project management path.” With clearly defined positions and requirements for advancement, Craig says “employees are better encouraged to seek continuing education and more training, which creates more engaged employees. And all of this, of course, benefits our clients.”