Our Place Society

Gauging Employee Engagement

Our Place Society, in pursuit of its goal to be an employer of choice for team members aligned with its Vision of “Nourishment, hope, and belonging for all in Greater Victoria”, partnered with Berlineaton to design, administer, and analyze an engagement survey of its 193 staff in six locations.

Key Team Members
Shelly Berlin
Ashka Wirk
Tobias Mehra

A Profound Experience

Celebrating its 50th year, Our Place had grown from one location to six across the South of Vancouver Island, increased the breadth of its programs and services, and serves populations with increasingly complex needs. Today, Our Place is an inner-city community centre serving Greater Victoria’s most vulnerable: working poor, impoverished elderly, mentally and physically challenged, addicted and the homeless, funded by financial support from the local Victoria community. Our Place serves over 1,600 meals per day, and provides hot showers, free clothing, counseling and outreach services, plus 45 transitional housing units. Most importantly, they provide a sense of hope and belonging to those in need.

Recognizing that delivering on its Mission, “to offer our most vulnerable citizens a place to call their own, where we live, share and grow together” – happens in large part due to the commitment, contributions, and courage of the Our Place team, the CEO of Our Place was interested in engaging staff through an online engagement survey as a starting point for a dialogue about how Our Place can continue to attract, develop, and retain the best – he asked Berlineaton to help.

Practical Solutions

Our Data and Insights Team administered our 5-Driver Employee Engagement Survey, asking about the the nature of and connection to their work, their relationships with each other and their leaders, their health and wellbeing, and their opportunities for growth and development.  Their responses shed light on what being a member of the Our Place team is like, from the viewpoint of those who work there, and served as a launching point for more fulsome dialogue and action to create an even stronger and more engaged Our Place team.

Bolder Futures

Our report of findings and recommendations laid out an action-focused Staff Engagement Roadmap designed to:

  • Leverage the many strengths of Our Place – including pride in their work, belief in the Mission, and strong working relationships
  • Shore up its key weaknesses – including a desire for more feedback, communication, and opportunities to explore new roles in the organization
  • Focus leadership energy on key areas for highest impact, and
  • Develop and execute a staff-led engagement action plan.
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    Shelly Berlin

    BA, MBA, FCMC, ACC
    Strategist, Confidante, Entrepreneur.

    Shelly is a co-founding partner of Berlineaton and has over 25 years’ experience in management consulting in strategy, process improvement and leader development.  

    She’s worked extensively with public and private sector organizations, and she is a professional facilitator, expert in the design, development, and execution of strategy. She is a certified executive coach and a Fellow of the Canadian Association of Management Consultants. 

    Shelly’s passion is to help leaders and their organizations achieve extraordinary success through bold thinking, courageous risk taking and disciplined action planning. Dark chocolate helps too.

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    Ashka Wirk

    BSc, MBA, CMC, ACC
    Architect, Builder, Crystal Gazer.

    Ashka is a certified management consultant and executive coach, specializing in board-governed organizations in the education, health care and technology sectors.  

    She is an expert in using qualitative and quantitative data to guide the development of strategy, and then developing tactics and measurement systems that help ensure an effective execution.  

    Ashka’s passion is to lead disciplined, engaging and evidence-based projects that improve organizational effectiveness. To do this, she draws on her extensive and varied background in the fields of science and business. When Ashka’s not with her two school-aged children, you can find her in her gym or garden!

    Ashka is an Associate of Berlineaton’s.

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    Tobias Mehra

    BA, MSc, MIB, CMC
    Problem Solver, Ear-Lender, Globetrotter.

    Tobias is an Engagement Lead. He joined the firm in early 2019. He draws on his various academic and professional experiences in business strategy, market research and corporate sustainability to provide simple and elegant data-driven solutions. 

    Tobias discovered his passion for working with people from a diverse set of backgrounds and enjoys helping organizations confront complex challenges with simple data-powered solutions. 

    Originally hailing from Austria, he moved to Victoria in 2018. Tobias loves exploring the outdoors and loves Vancouver Island as much as he loves Austria. His newest love, though, is his daughter, born at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.