Canadian HR Awards: winner profile

For many Canadian employers, talent acquisition has become the sharp end of HR strategy. For Charles Riegel, people and culture manager at Regency Fireplace Products in B.C., it has been the defining thread of his career.

Named a Rising Star at last year’s Canadian HR Awards, Riegel has helped transform recruitment, culture and inclusion in a fast-paced, seasonal business. His approach offers practical lessons for HR leaders navigating constant change.

For Riegel, talent acquisition is not a narrow function but a core operating system that must respond directly to business reality. His work has focused on reshaping recruitment to serve a workforce model defined by seasonality, production cycles and rapid scaling requirements.

“Talent acquisition and recruitment has been a huge focus for me throughout my whole career and my whole time with this company,” he says.

“We’ve basically transformed our program here to really suit the needs of what the company has, which is a large seasonal workforce.”

Using recruitment as DEI lever

Riegel frames talent acquisition as a practical entry point for advancing diversity, equity and inclusion goals, particularly in organizations that may be earlier in that journey.

“[It's about] using that as a gateway, a vehicle to do some cool diversity and DEI initiatives,” he says. “We look at our processes and see how we can increase the footprint for visible minorities and underrepresented groups.”

That work requires HR teams to examine not only who gets hired, but how hiring decisions are made and perceived.

“How can we transform our process to make sure everybody feels comfortable and has a fair shot at being hired for our company?” Riegel says, emphasizing the candidate experience as a critical element of fairness and access, particularly for individuals who may already feel marginalized in traditional recruitment settings.

Within organizations, Riegel notes that DEI efforts often require sustained explanation and advocacy – the value may not be immediately obvious to all stakeholders, especially when outcomes are incremental rather than immediate.

“There’s a role to show why these things are important,” he says. “Taking the time to explain and show how it can actually transform a business and turn that into results is part of my role.”

Culture building beyond the job description

Beyond recruitment and policy, Riegel places significant emphasis on culture‑building initiatives that connect employees to one another and to the communities around them. He views these efforts as essential infrastructure for engagement, not optional extras.

“We do a lot of really cool social events here, which I have a huge role in,” he says.

Those activities are deliberately broad, combining charitable initiatives with employee‑driven experiences. Riegel describes hands‑on involvement in organizing and supporting events that bring people together around shared purpose.

“We sponsor a family program during the Christmas season, where we find a local family in Delta and provide them with everything they need to get through the holiday break,” he says.

For Riegel, the value of these initiatives lies in both connection and meaning. They create shared experiences while reinforcing the organization’s values, particularly around community and inclusivity.

“It’s really good for building culture here. We all have a common ground and a goal that we’re working towards together,” he says.

“It’s helping people who need it, spreading awareness to our employees about different cultural events or the significance of different holidays or milestones.”

Championing technology and change in HR

After about a decade in the profession, Riegel describes HR as markedly faster and more complex than when he entered the field. Technology, particularly AI, has become a central area where HR leaders are expected to guide adoption rather than react to it.

“Especially now, with AI being such a prominent tool, there is a lot to keep up on,” he says, and within that environment, Riegel often finds himself in the role of translator – connecting new tools to practical outcomes that resonate with business leaders.

“I'm often the person championing these technologies for the company and showing what the benefits are,” he says.

“And kind of playing out the scenarios of how it can achieve a positive ROI or make things more efficient for us.”

That education piece extends to DEI as well, he says, where HR’s job can be to “break through and convince … because it's not often that visible for people to understand why is it important that we do these things, to explain and show how it can actually transform a business and actually turn that into results.”

Do you know any HR Rising Stars? Why not let them know? Head to the Canadian HR Awards site to nominate them and find out more about this year's event.