Our team.

Michelle Philpott, CPHR

Michelle supports our clients throughout all aspects of the employee life cycle, from attraction and recruitment, to pro-d and performance management, to exiting an organization. She develops and adapts policies to meet organizations’ particular needs, and helps to create safe workplaces for all employees.

Michelle excels at walking clients step-by-step through challenging situations to achieve outcomes that work for both the employee and employer. As a skilled coach herself, Michelle guides leaders to lead highly effective teams by developing their competencies as listeners, advisors and coaches. She has built a reputation of working side-by-side with managers to navigate performance challenges, and to make and facilitate tough decisions. Her calm demeanour in tricky situations and her commitment to asking good questions creates an atmosphere where people feel heard. Her ability to capture the broader perspective of a situation positions her to then offer sound advice and support, or shape an objective action plan.

Approachable and honest, Michelle listens intentionally, in turn creating a sense of safety and connectedness. With an abiding focus on the primacy of relationship, she connects authentically with her clients, helping them see that they’re not the only ones facing their challenges. Her open, collaborative demeanour fosters trust and helps people feel comfortable sharing what’s really going on. Once everything’s on the table, that’s the magic point at which she’s really able to drop in, helping leaders find solutions and move forward even when things are hard.

I love when we’ve done the hard work of establishing policies and procedures that are administered fairly and equitably; we’ve implemented systems and templates; we’ve hired amazing people; and we’ve provided effective onboarding and training. All of that foundational work gets us to a place where we can work on new and exciting projects that lift the organization even higher.

Michelle joined Engaged in 2019, after holding human resources positions in small- to medium-sized not-for-profit and Indigenous organizations. She obtained her associates degree in business management and her management certificate in HR from BCIT, and earned her CPHR designation in 2019. She currently sits on the board of directors for the Peninsula Minor Hockey Association.

When she’s not working, Michelle celebrates her relationship with her family. She loves creating memories with her two school-aged children: camping and exploring all the beautiful spots on Vancouver Island, hanging out with the families they meet through their sports and activities, and developing new friendships.