At Work With Water: Christy Bitcon

At Work With Water is a new series focusing on the incredible people who are making a difference for water. In each edition of XPV Water Partners’ newsletter, we’ll speak with a person from one of our portfolio companies who is doing things differently – ensuring that the water sector continues to evolve, thrive, and meet global challenges with innovative solutions.

In this first edition of At Work With Water, we spoke to Christy Bitcon, Senior Director of Human Resources for New Brunswick-based LuminUltra, to learn more about managing growth during a pandemic, cultivating a company culture that is attractive to new hires, and what it takes to build an award-winning team.

After working for several years at some of the bigger companies in Canada, including Maple Leaf Foods and J.D. Irving, what attracted you to LuminUltra? What interests you about the work?

Christy Bitcon: Both companies were great places to learn and grow, but after a while, I was looking for a change. When I had the interview with Pat Whalen [LuminUltra’s CEO] and Derek Dunn [Senior Director of Special Projects], it was encouraging to see their enthusiasm and passion. I knew right away that, if offered the job, I would join the team.

In my first few months on the job, the LuminUltra team took care to educate me about the work they were doing, and it became clear to me that our technology offered so much possibility. We could make a real and positive impact for people, whether it’s improving health and safety for drinking water or saving a company time and money by preventing corrosion in their equipment. Seven years later, I’m still excited about what we can do. I think our team rallies around that idea. We know that we’re making a difference.

As a leader in human resources, can you speak about how you and your colleagues approach building LuminUltra’s team? How is your work in HR contributing to the company’s growth and success?

Bitcon: Our philosophy is that values and attitude are often the most important considerations in making a new hire – you can teach new skills, but you can’t teach passion. We want to add team members who can help us move the business forward. Just filling the role or doing the task isn’t enough; they must want to be here and contribute to a common vision.

We also believe in building capacity for any team member to learn new skills and participate in a variety of projects. If you work for LuminUltra, you’re not stuck in a box. If you want to do something and you think you can add value, there is opportunity for growth. That really helps attract candidates.

Over the past seven years, we’ve also made a lot of changes to enhance the employee experience and improve our hiring practices. At the start of my time with LuminUltra, we brought in tools like an HRIS, Predictive Index, performance management processes, etc. It’s made a big difference and given us a great foundation for growth. Now that we’ve built capacity to meet new demand, we’re focused on efficiency, developing the team we have, and helping them achieve their career aspirations while ensuring we have the right talent to meet future needs.

How have you navigated through the last few years of pandemic?

When we sent people home on St. Patrick’s Day, 2020, nobody knew what might happen. A few days later, the whole world shut down. Prior to the pandemic, most of our team was located at one or two sites. Suddenly, like a large percentage of the workforce, we had to learn how to operate from our own homes.

After Canada’s Prime Minister issued a call-to-action for businesses, LuminUltra responded, applying our expertise to developing rapid, portable molecular biology diagnostic testing solutions for the national testing program.

Suddenly, we were more than doubling our team, adding talent from across the globe, and retrofitting a new facility – all remotely, and all with the shared stress of COVID. We did our best to adapt to our new circumstances and maintain our company culture. We started a buddy program for new hires to help them meet people on different teams, we held virtual coffee chats, and we began a manager-mentor program. It was humbling to see our team do what we had to do.

The work we did in response to the Prime Minister’s call opened new doors for LuminUltra, including a patent filing for the world’s first complete, rapid, and on-site COVID-19 wastewater solution. By building a solid HR foundation, we were better prepared to scale up our team and meet new challenges.

This year, LuminUltra was named one of Canada’s Top Small and Medium Employers. Congratulations! What you think attracts the right talent to the company?

Thank you!

We value honesty and authenticity, especially during our recruitment processes. We’re a dynamic, busy company. It’s certainly exciting and rewarding to work at LuminUltra, but things can change quickly in this environment. Candidates need to be clear that the work comes with its challenges. This way, we can make sure we’ve got the right people for the job.

We’ve also designed our processes and programs to increase staff engagement and show our team that they are valued. As candidates meet different people throughout the recruitment process, I think that culture really shows.

Can you comment the benefits of having a diverse team?

We’re proud to have a team comprised of people from many different backgrounds, and they are based all over the world, not just here in Fredericton. Nearly half of our staff identifies as female; in the engineering and water sectors, this is significant.

At the same time, diversity is not always visible. For this reason, we regularly check in with staff to understand if they feel their perspectives are being heard and acknowledged. To move forward as a company – and to solve some of the world’s biggest water challenges – we need to embrace different perspectives and thought processes.

Is there any advice you’d give to other water sector companies about growing great teams?

Firstly, if the role doesn’t require very specific technical skills, hire for values and attitude. You can always teach people, and you can waste a lot of time recruiting if candidates aren’t the right fit for your company culture. Secondly, you can build your network and use it for referrals, but it’s important to acknowledge when you need help. In the past, we’ve wasted a lot of time because we didn’t want to use search firms. Today, we’re cost-conscious. That often means doing what we can to find the right candidate, including partnering with search firms, because making the wrong hire almost always costs more than finding the right person.

What do you enjoy the most about your work?

It’s been seven years, and the work we’re doing at LuminUltra is still exciting to me – I need to feel that way to stay engaged in my work. Pat encourages curiosity and, where possible, we try to give the team members opportunities to work on different things, even if they’re out of the scope of the job they’re doing. For example, I’ve always been interested in learning about finance. Pat gave me a chance to work with that team for a time. I doubt a larger company would provide those opportunities.

As well, our team has maintained a welcoming and close-knit culture, even through a challenging time and a period of incredible growth. We all like and respect each other. That’s important to me, too.

How do you see human resources at LuminUltra changing and adapting so that the company continues to be a great employer in the future?

Right now, the war for talent is tough. Companies need to keep up with changing demands and expectations from the workforce. We need to offer flexible schedules, as well as options to work from home, to advance your career, and, perhaps most importantly, to participate in meaningful work.

We’re planning to grow quickly over the next few years, so we want to take the time to enhance the systems we’ve put into place. We also want to shift our focus to developing our teams and keeping them engaged and learning, so that they see a path forward with LuminUltra. This ties into succession planning, too, which is a critical part of ensuring our company’s health and longevity.