Why HR is burning out and the Toronto tech company offering relief

Globe and Mail

2 days ago

Toronto-based technology company Humi says it has developed the antidote to the high level of burnout the human resources sector is experiencing in the new hybrid work world.
The company's suite of HR technology tools helps employers manage everything from onboarding new hires and managing benefits to payroll and scheduling time off.
It's a break from the current fragmented approach to HR, says Humi
co-founder and chief executive officer Kevin Kliman.
'[We've been] managing people through disconnected systems. . . people inevitably make super costly mistakes,' says Mr. Kliman, who launched the business in 2016 with co-founder David Tong. 'Having a unified system to hire somebody and manage from end to end is such a massive benefit for businesses.'
The HR environment was irreversibly changed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Workforces dispersed, shifting to remote setups before settling into hybrid work environments.
It's left a lasting effect.
A recent survey by employment agency Robert Half of 1,500 professionals across Canada found that those in the legal and HR fields reported the highest level of burnout (59 per cent). Heavy workloads and long hours were the top factors contributing to their workplace fatigue.
'A lot of HR teams are quite lean post-COVID-19. . . the scope of the job has grown so much,' says Justin Bergeron, a senior HR consultant with Salopek and Associates in Calgary. 'It's not just about hiring and policies now. There's culture, mental health, hybrid work, engagement, deeper learning and development – HR teams are trying to support these increasingly complex employee needs with tools that weren't really designed for that world.'
Humi has built its platform to serve this new version of reality for HR professionals. Originally created for bootstrapped startups with fewer than 10 employees, Humi is now used by more than 150,000 employees across 4,000
A Canadian businesses of all sizes.
'Over time, we continue to stack on capabilities to the platforms to handle bigger companies [and] a more diverse set of companies within the platform,' Mr. Kliman says.
The company was acquired by Australia-based Employment Hero in January 2025 for a reported $100-million, but Mr. Kliman says Humi remains focused on the nuances of the Canadian market.
'There are a zillion SaaS companies that sell to the Fortune 500 and different companies across the world,' he says. 'We only sell to Canadian companies. . . all the logos that we bring in are businesses that you recognize in your neighbourhood.'
One of those clients is Golf Canada, the sport's governing body, which started using Humi in early 2024.
Given the rising popularity of its youth programs, Golf Canada has grown from 50 to 130 staff nationally. About 75 per cent of its staff are dispersed around Ontario and across the country, making its HR work more complex, says its chief people officer, Niki da Silva.
'One of our challenges is [ensuring] that we're servicing employees with the same level of professionalism and access to information, whether they're sitting next to us in the office or not,' she says. 'My team's not growing significantly, so we had to figure out a way to free up some capacity of the people and culture team.'
Ms. da Silva says Golf Canada uses Humi for various tasks such as recruiting, onboarding, vacation, performance management.
Humi also works with a network of 1,500 golf courses across Canada, which Mr. Kliman says is an example of how it's incrementally bringing on larger customers with more complex hiring needs. He envisions Humi reaching more than a million people on the platform within five to six years, up more than 500 per cent from today. Humi also recently launched a job marketplace called Employment Hero.
'For the last decade or so, people have relied on job boards to go out and find people to apply to their business,' Mr. Kliman says. 'With Employment Hero, we're actually going out and finding applicants'
A 2025 Manpower Group survey found that 77 per cent of Canadian employers struggle to find the skilled talent they need.
'When you look across businesses, it's one of the largest costs,' Mr. Kliman says. 'If we can solve that problem, it's going to help in a massive way.'
Humi taps into the ever-expanding role of HR professionals by focusing on the employee experience from hiring through to offboarding, says Mr. Bergeron of Salopek and Associates.
'These tools are not about replacing HR; it's about allowing HR to focus more on the human part of their work, be proactive, engage with their employees and offer that support that employees are looking for,' he says.
Moving forward, Humi's challenge will be ensuring it can integrate with legacy systems and not overwhelm already time-strapped HR teams with complex onboarding processes.
'The best HR tech is almost invisible,' he says. 'It lets people do their jobs without adding extra friction.'