'We have 20,000 people manager jobs and my team’s role is to make sure we’ve got the right people in those 20,000 jobs,’ says senior VP, head of talent
After 20 years in HR in the banking sector, Helen Davies knows the business well – the business of people.
And that’s a big reason why the senior vice president and head of talent at TD has remained in the financial sector.
“What I love about banking is that, essentially, it's a people business where our colleagues are serving customers and clients and advising them on how to manage their finances or giving them products and services that help them manage their life. So, it matters — it matters in society, it matters on a human level, it matters in helping people achieve their goals and be successful in their life.”
And that work, in motivating people, is never done, she says.
“You can set milestones, you can set goals and visions, but you're actually never done because the world keeps evolving, needs keep evolving.
“And so I enjoy that. I enjoy the challenge of just constantly seeking what's next.”
Connecting culture to performance
One of Davies’ early challenges happened during university, when she was studying biology and genetics. Luckily, a career counselor realized the student was not well-suited to being in a lab for five hours a day, she says: “I was far more energetic, engaged and happier when I was doing work with people.”
As a result, Davies switched to a major in business and a minor in biology, and ended up specializing in HR because she was fascinated how employers “can organize work and people to achieve performance.”
That fascination has led to a very successful career that has included four years at Deloitte, five years at Lloyd’s Bank and most recently, nearly 15 years at TD Bank.
It was after she joined TD in 2011 as HR director that Davies came to appreciate how material culture can be in driving business performance — and that’s not just HR’s responsibility.
The bank’s strong culture is very CEO- and leader-led, she says, going all the way back from when Ed Clark headed up TD to Bharat Masrani and, in 2025, Ray Chun.
“What is common across all three of them is the extent to which they believe culture drives business performance. And so I can, hand on heart, say this is not an HR strategy or an HR agenda,” says Davies.
One of the most powerful attributes influencing organization performance is when your CEO and businesses, leaders and boards really understand that culture is the single biggest factor that will determine whether or not you achieve your business vision, she says: "Hence, I can't take credit for the culture we have today at TD as this began well before my time at TD."
The HR team can certainly help in providing insights and diagnostics through listening to employees and other data sources, through benchmarking — and then help the organization evolve, she says.
“But we don’t own it.”
Developing people managers at TD
Beyond leadership, there are several factors that contribute to a successful culture, says Davies, such as creating a compelling job that people want to do and feel empowered to do, paying people fairly, and equipping them with the right tools, resources and training to do their job.
But also important at TD are the quality and behaviour of the people managers, says Davies, as they “make or break motivation.”
That means TD pays a lot attention to this behaviour, both in terms of assessing job candidates but also promoting people from within, she says. It’s also about training people managers about the behaviours they are expected “to repeat and to demonstrate and to make contagious in the organization,” says Davies.
“But then on the other side, we hold them to account. And we say, ‘This is what we expect.’ And we have a pretty high bar of what it takes to become a leader in the bank and to stay a leader — because not everyone makes it.”
To that end, TD is regularly assessing people managers while investing in development coaching and upskilling, she says. There are some great tools available that are highly predictive, but key elements to these assessments include the emotional intelligence to build rapport with people, to communicate effectively and build trust.
“The second is: ‘Do you want it? Do you actually enjoy managing people?’” says Davies.
On the other side of that, it’s about making “tough calls” when they have to tell someone who was promoted that they’re not the right fit for a leadership role.
“We have 20,000 people manager jobs, and my team’s role is to make sure we’ve got the right people in those 20,000 jobs,” she says.
Executive teaching executives
In line with that dedication to leadership development, TD has “overhauled and refreshed” its executive program, says Davies.
“We called it [the Executive] Signature [Program] because we ask every person in each program to put their signature to the leader that they want to be and aspire to be coming out of the program.”
The program emphasizes leadership principles such as accountability, discipline, execution with speed, courage and inclusion, she says.
Notably, the program is taught through a rotation of TD’s executive leadership, such as the CEO, senior VPs and executive VPs, she says.
“Usually it’s L&D or it’s HR or external facilitators. And we really believe leaders teaching leaders is how we protect our culture and enhance it.”
Leveraging AI in 2026
Along with the dedication and planning focused on culture and leadership development, TD will be looking to enhance its use of AI through the new year, says Davies.
One of the “coolest” initiatives that recently launched involves using genAI for colleague listening, based on regular employee surveys which look for areas that need attention, such as people unhappy with their career goals or needing better tools and resources.
One of the challenges for an HR team is the delay — sometimes weeks — in hearing back about the survey results and then developing action items. Now, in using genAI, it can take a mere five days from survey to every people manager getting their insights, she says.
Not only that, the new tech comes up with recommendations and strategies for how to proceed.
“You’re not dependent on an HR person translating and then running a session… it’s really good. So, we’re hoping we can just get much faster.”
Settling into full-time office return
Another big change at TD? A firm return to the office full time. The vast majority of the bank’s 100,000 employees have always worked on-site because they’re based in branches, commercial banking centres and private banking centres, says Davies.
Just under half, roughly 47,000, were hybrid, working three days at the office, with business leaders deciding what was best for each team, she says — but as of the fall, most employees are back at the office full time.
“We're an in-office culture. Our culture thrives on relationships, collaboration, and you just can't do that as much when you're virtual,” she says.
And when it came to TD’s strong development culture, the work-from-home or hybrid approach led to slowdowns in areas such as “time to proficiency,” says Davies, citing the benefit of people working in-person to better do their jobs and learn from each other.
“All of that deteriorates significantly when you're virtual because you can't just pull down your headset and say, ‘Hey, can you help me for a minute?’ And we tried to create other ways of doing that, like group teams chats and things, and they were OK but they didn't ever replace that rapport you can build with colleagues when you encounter and work through challenging situations together.”
