Maral Lotfian is the Director of Employee Experience and Development at FortisBC and has been instrumental in working with others across the organization in developing the organization’s Culture of Belonging. Taking an unconventional approach, Maral adopted a long-term perspective on what needed to be done to create lasting, meaningful advances by aligning efforts with business results. The focus is on inclusion rather than diversity, and responsibilities for bringing change are shared across the organization. Maral also strengthened organization-wide communication efforts for more than 2,700 employees, adopting a storytelling approach. The intranet platform showcases people and gives them the opportunity to share who they are, what they are proud of, and their day-to-day journeys.
Another focus is driving employee engagement by holding everyone responsible for their part of the journey. Beyond supporting employee engagement surveys, Maral collaborates with the leadership team to help them better understand and incorporate the key elements that enhance employee engagement. She is building a department around employee experience and development, and her teams are focused on leadership development, employee development and engagement programs, enterprise-wide communications, and technical, functional, and soft skills training.