The Customer Success (EDI) team at LBMX.Supplied
“My son was around five weeks old, and one afternoon when I was playing with him, he giggled for the first time,” recalls Steven Baird, operations manager at LBMX Inc. in London, Ont. Baird, father of a girl and boy, took parental leave in 2023 and in 2025 soon after being promoted to manager. “To be able to bond with both my children, these little bundles — and in two months so much changes as you start to see their personalities come through. It felt important to have that opportunity.”
He can thank Candice Neil, director of human resources at the company, which provides technology for independent businesses in the building, HVAC and plumbing industries to procure supplies and rebates. LBMX had only 32 employees when Neil began working there in 2017.
“It was up to me to build the HR department from the ground up and run with it,” she says. The company already had a strong culture, but her mission was to make it even better by implementing policies and programs that would attract and retain top talent.
“We focused on the things that are important to people, like maternity and parental leave with top-up benefits up to 100 per cent of current salary for 12 months, RRSP matching, and mentorship programs,” she says.
The idea for the parental leave benefit came directly from Neil’s personal experience. “My previous employer did a top-up and I hugely benefited from it. I proposed it to my CEO at LBMX, and he said, ‘What a fabulous idea.’ This benefit also helps with our recruiting efforts of getting more women into technology careers.”
While it’s common for firms to conduct exit interviews when employees leave, it’s less common for companies to implement stay interviews. “We strive to understand what keeps our employees here — and what would drive them out the door,” says Neil. Based on the interviews done so far, employees credit the strong company culture and the sense of pride they feel in helping small independent businesses prosper as the key reasons for their commitment to LBMX.
Mentorship is an important part of supporting employees in building long-term careers. “I had zero management experience when I started,” says Baird. “I have an engineering background, but I was a bit light on the people side. I got two kinds of mentorship. The first informal one was shadowing my direct manager, watching how he did things and how he focused on what his staff cared about and how he handled difficult conversations. I also participated in a more formal training with one of our executives.”
With a diverse international workforce, LBMX maintains its strong culture through regular communication and by celebrating big and small wins. Each Friday, the CEO sends out a personal newsletter updating everyone on happenings such as successful launches and sales, as well as staff service awards.
In keeping with its entrepreneurial culture, LBMX recently launched its own internal Entrepreneur Award for budding business owners among its employees. Like the TV show “Dragons’ Den,” employees can volunteer to pitch their business plan at the company’s annual meeting, and the winner receives $5,000 to invest. “Last year one of our finalists had their business acquired,” says Neil.
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Advertising feature produced by Canada’s Top 100 Employers, a division of Mediacorp Canada Inc. The Globe and Mail’s editorial department was not involved.