Daria Rudnik (00:01.482)
Welcome to Built by People Leaders Podcast. I'm your host, Daria Rudnik, and this show is for HR and LD leaders, those building real impact from within and building AI ready organizations. If you go to dariarudnik.com, you can download the State of HR in AI Transformation 2026 report. And we're here to help you build and we're here to help you build leaders and teams that perform when everything keeps changing.

And today I have a very special guest. I'm very excited about our conversation today, Dom Dib who's a who's the head of human resources at the technology firm 'Maplewave', bringing 20 years of experience to empower tech professionals and cultivate highly accountable performance-driven teams. With a strategic mission to modernize traditional HR landscapes, Dom leverages AI,

Data analytics and automation to streamline critical operations and elevate the employee experience. By championing a progressive people and culture strategy, he drove initiatives that culminated in 'Maplewave' winning the Digital Nova Scotia Talent Champion Award and earning a recognition as one of the best places to work in Atlantic Canada. Wow, what an achievement. Welcome, Dom. Thanks for being here today with us.

Dom Dib (01:24.677)
Thank you, Daria. Thanks for having me.

Daria Rudnik (01:27.468)
Well, I have so many questions to ask you, but I wanna start with one question that's that I'm really curious about, and that is your corporate value continuous curiosity. Tell us about like why is it important to have to be curious at work?

Dom Dib (01:44.251)
I think I think that question is is a very good one today when you think about just how much has rapidly evolved with artificial intelligence making its way into the industry. but continuous curiosity there it you know it's it's it's the foundation of where creativity and innovation come from. and we use that there to our leverage you know, to

think about ways in how we can do things better you know, not just with processes and and procedures, but also thinking about how we can do better with our products for our customers as well. so it's an important value to have because you know thinking of there from from a business point of view, you want to be competitive, you want to stay ahead of the competition competition in the market. And you want to be distinct.

And you know, I think that continuous curiosity really lays that foundation for you. so under that continuous curiosity mindset or value itself, it stands for not standing still and and not accepting mediocrity, that we are always learning in a in a in a moving and a rapid industry, and that we are curious and that we do want to improve.

So developing those mindsets really makes that core value so valuable there for our organization.

Daria Rudnik (03:20.682)
I love it. I mean, for me personally, curiosity is is one of the core values. And when things change so fast at work, and I don't know if you have that same thing, like AI is entering, people, wow, wow, what what would I do? I will lose my job. But when you turn on this curiosity and try to understand and be curious about this new technology, how can I use it? How can it help me? What can I do with it? It kind of reduces and removes this fear and anxiety and turns it into a learning opportunity.

Dom Dib (03:49.957)
Yeah, it's so true. When you could look at AI there and and see for what it truly is. You know, it is that assistive assistive tool that can make things faster and process quicker. albeit you do want to s still, you know, do spot checks to make sure the data's accurate. But but it you know, using it to your advantage there to improve your quality of work and shifting your work so that you're doing stuff that is less less administrative, more automated, and where you can focus on

the strategy side of the business. That's that's one of the things I've I've learned with a the use of AI there is to embrace it for that purpose.

Daria Rudnik (04:29.646)
Well Dom, tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey in HR.

Dom Dib (04:35.296)
Okay. I I didn't really start off an HR at first. I was I was young and ambitious and full of energy to get out there into the retail world. in a very short period of time I've made myself I made my way up into a sales manager role with a former retailer here in Canada, electronics business. but I I learned that I

didn't really care much for numbers. I wasn't really in to the numbers business. I learned I had a strength in developing people. you know, develop them with their sales behaviors or their sales techniques and and having a genuine passion to see them succeed. And and that's when I realized that I felt HR was more in line with my personal values than working in sales. So

Sure enough, I I decided to focus down that path and made my way up to where I am today, twenty plus years later.

Daria Rudnik (05:43.33)
I'm curious whether this sales experience is actually helping you in your current job.

Dom Dib (05:50.108)
Well, i i i to some degree it has helped me because you know i w one of the beneficial things I think working in the retail industry is knowing that you develop skills to be assertive. you know, you you develop skills, some tremendous soft skills around customer service. empathy being an essential skill I think that is that every HR professional should have.

but also, you know, there is some sides or there's some skills that you develop there that like being in yeah internally competitive, I guess you can say, you know, to want to drive results and to and to prove to yourself and to prove to others that the work can be done if if the thoughts and the efforts put into it.

Daria Rudnik (06:43.694)
I guess like there's one more thing is that you can speak actually you can speak numbers. I mean you can turn this A like HR initiatives into some benefits for business. Would that be?

Dom Dib (06:56.229)
Yeah, absolutely. you know, speaking about analytics, you know, like every business, HR there does rely on numbers for those purposes. defining metrics and using those metrics to really understand the the organizational health as it relates to anything, HR wise people, processes and such. So AI has been great for that because you know you can you can feed it data.

And prompt it there with you know, certain inquiries or analytics that you want to draw from it and it'll produce it for you. It's been great for that as well.

Daria Rudnik (07:36.46)
I'm curious like what are the metrics you you monitor the most or you think the most important ones?

Dom Dib (07:42.866)
it varies. you know, I would say that you know, when it comes to employee the impulse of the employees, you know, gathering data, you know, around their satisfaction at work or you know, work conditions or the tools and systems we use, you know, getting some of the sediments there that AI can

pull that information and and analyze it for you. You know, using the data or using AI, sorry, there for the purpose of of you know analyzing capabilities of of individuals that are looking to come into the organization. So if you're if you're using it there for talent acquisition, it's great that if you can engineer your AI to be able to quantify data

that is you know analyzed from an individual from a candidate's portfolio. it helps you to you know see things quantifiably to make an informed decision about whether the person is the right fit for your organization. You use it for other analytics too, whether you're looking at turnover results or your average days to fills and that stuff. So there's no no limitations on on what type of metrics you can use for it.

Daria Rudnik (08:56.972)
Yeah.

Daria Rudnik (09:11.662)
I mean and I like this what you said about the AI analyzing like people's like portfolio and capabilities and especially within smaller teams, like kind of not huge organizations when you can hire like in the in the enterprise you can hire someone and say, Okay, maybe we'll then feed them somewhere else. But when you are a lean organization, you need to be very absolutely sure that this person fits this team and having AI to help you understand better like the capabilities and where these people can feed is

I mean it's it's a it's a great way to use AI.

Dom Dib (09:44.326)
Yeah, you're absolutely right, Daria. you know, we we are a team of two individuals for our organization here. And we use AI to you know to our full advantage to be able to develop processes to automate certain things that help speed that process without losing efficiency and without losing sight of the details. you know, to ensure that you know we are making informed decisions along the way with

onboarding or you know, bringing new employees on on staff, but also through the entire entire employee journey as well.

Daria Rudnik (10:24.022)
And speaking about like this corporate values, the curiosity and other values that you have, like how do you make sure that people who join your company actually have it? Like how do you test it? And more importantly, how do you make sure that managers or hiring managers they pay attention to it?

Dom Dib (10:43.755)
we so one of the things I believe in is hiring for fit. and I think that's one of the things that brought me to Maplewave is knowing that is fit's important to the culture here as well. Maplewave had a wonderful culture long before I came on and you know, and it continues to thrive. it continues to have a thriving culture. But fit is a very important thing. So as we're bringing new employees on, we always look

we always incorporate behavioral interviewing questions into the onboarding or in the pre-screening. and they're all specifically related there to the core values that we that we are living and breathing here. so it's important for us there to be able to evaluate candidates and their the scenarios and the experiences they share with us as it relates to those core values to know and to put a good measure on whether or not they'd be an ideal fit.

So continuous curiosity, we would have questions that we would ask employees, whether it be about how they stay up to date in in modern technology or whether they're incorporating AI into their, you know, their personal life or professional life as it is today.

Daria Rudnik (12:00.115)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. And like behavioral interviews, behavioral structured interviews is is a great way to understand how people feel. I mean it's not not just asking, like, are you curious? Yes I am kind of tell me the story, give me an example of how you do this or that. Do you like is it is it the responsibility of HR to check on those competencies or like how do you involve managers in this process?

Dom Dib (12:27.341)
If we collaborate. you know, everything we do in HR is not done without the the the leaders of the organization being involved in it, whether it be at the executive level or at the frontline level. you know, one of the things that I I I lead with is is is enabling and empowering leaders to do their jobs, providing them with the tools and resources and the capabilities to do it effectively and truly seeing HR as a partner

in the organization. we're not here to rule or to govern from a a different lithosphere on the company. We're here to support their success. We define our success based on the success of our leaders and our employees in the organization. We know that we're doing a good job if if they're succeeding and if because we're the ones that are responsible to bring in those resources into the company. So but it's all done you know

in cohesively or it's done there in partnership with the leaders. you know, to ensure that we're both in tune, we're both aligned to the same decision making and and all there with the intended purpose of succeeding in the end.

Daria Rudnik (13:44.111)
It's great that you have this connection with with managers and leadership. And like I remember from my personal experience is that like when you have this strong team and leadership support, you can talk to people, you can build amazing programs. But sometimes there are things that they accept and sometimes that like you kind of and you you can't push it through.

Like for me personally, I wasn't like it was very hard for me to push through ideas about like developing the executive team. Like we we're good developing all the people in the organization, but when it comes to executive team, no, we're fine, we're good. No no need to do anything about I'm curious, like how do you like do you have any challenges? Is there anything like an era that like area that it's it's hard to to influence or on what do you do to actually make your case?

Dom Dib (14:34.063)
Well, I I've been very fortunate along the way there to to work with great leaders of Maplewave that recognize and value human resources as an integral component of its of its business. I've had you know, before even joining the organization, I've I've had many conversations about what their vision for human resources were, and how that fits. so I I'm grateful that I was

I was brought into an organization by the CEO who shares you know the same same vision as I do for what HR is all about. But you know, I I think what's important is that, you know, that your your strategy or your vision for HR is not always going to mirror to what you know the seniors want, the senior executives want in the company. sometimes it's because

just did a complete miss in what they're asking or what you think might work or sometimes it's it's a matter of you not doing an effective job to articulate the value and I think that's the important thing is is really just to anticipate you know what truly understand what your business partner is asking of you and then just helping to get them to see it from a from an ROI perspective what is the return on the investment.

how does it benefit Maplewave? How does it benefit the people? and the leaders and and creating that value. And I think over the years got better at it. Not perfect, but getting better.

Daria Rudnik (16:11.022)
Mm.

And again, I think it's curious, it's like being really curious about what bothers them and how can you help them. And and and that's the first step. And the second step, what is the language they speak and understand? And kind of speaking the same language, and that helps both to first understand what is it that you want, and then to make sure that you can explain it so that they understand and accept.

Dom Dib (16:34.427)
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You know, at the end of the day, you know, HR can tell a wonderful story about all the great things leading up to it, but sometimes it's just a matter of giving the end result first so they they know how it's gonna benefit the organization and the rest of it will come out.

Daria Rudnik (16:52.366)
Like thanks for saying that because in one of the previous episodes, like some of the guests mentioned that do not wait for permission. Like do something first, show the result and that'll be easier for you to explain like what is it that you're doing and the benefits it's bringing. So stop waiting for permission.

Dom Dib (17:05.967)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, sometimes you do have to take that.

Daria Rudnik (17:12.222)
Yeah. Well, tell me, like you're a small team and and and distributed organizations globally in Canada, South Africa, Middle East, other countries, how do you make sure that like the culture is everywhere? I mean the same. It's the same corporate culture, same values, same processes.

Dom Dib (17:32.892)
Yeah. Yeah. So so it it's all around standardization and and rollout. you know, just ensuring that everybody you know, knows what our what our culture is all about, you know, whether it be with the core values or it's a processes and the tools we develop and such. But I would be remiss if I didn't share that, you know, that there is an individual in this organization that has played a a significant role.

And creating that glue, creating that connectivity in our organization. and she might not be appreciative of me calling her out by name, but her name is Sandra Pitts. And I I give her a lot of credit. She's actually the executive assistant here at Maplewave. even long before I came, I've heard stories about the connectivity she would create from all corners of the world. and it became even more

you know, more of an a of a relevant practice when COVID hit and we had to work remotely. you know, we we looked at ways to try to connect with try to keep the spirit of our culture alive and keep employees employees engaged and and Sandra played an integral role in that. you know, when I think of when I think of our core values and somebody living and breathing that continuous curiosity value itself.

think of her because of of what she's been able to do to create that ki connectivity, whether it's remote or it's or it's in the office. Kudos to her for doing that.

Daria Rudnik (19:10.05)
Yeah, well yeah, thanks for sharing this because again, like when we were all in the office for for many companies out there, like when we were in the office, we kind of naturally connected but when we all went remote. And again, when you build a distributed organization, global organization, you don't have this bumping into each other, but so it's intentional connecti connections, building being intentional but connecting people and and making sure we're all on the same page and living the same culture. Yes.

Dom Dib (19:39.993)
Absolutely. Absolutely. I think I think COVID we learned a lot there just how much we value being connected with people. you know, and and how much was at stake there when when we had to to shift gears a little.

Daria Rudnik (19:48.447)
Yeah. Yeah.

Daria Rudnik (19:55.599)
And it's i I mean it was a great lesson to how how to run remote global organizations 'cause the when everyone is not at the office and kind of have now more freedom to hiring people all over the world, whether they are contractors, permanent employees, new offices and other kinds.

Dom Dib (20:12.315)
Yeah, that's very true. You're absolutely right about that, Daria. Is you know, it really has shape shifted the way we do business today. and that we are more connected now globally than we ever have been before because of it. And to this very day there's lots of companies that are still hiring remote in hybrid for that very purpose.

Daria Rudnik (20:31.862)
People people love it. I mean it's you you will not be able to get all everyone in one office anymore. No way. Forty hours work in the office. No way.

Dom Dib (20:36.652)
Okay.

Dom Dib (20:41.425)
Yeah, some people are dead e dead set against it, going back into the office again.

Daria Rudnik (20:46.456)
Yeah no.

Well tell us Dom, you mentioned like automation as part of like helping you like bring everyone on board and and do your job with such a small team. Like what what is it that how how does it work for you?

Dom Dib (21:03.869)
it's it's still a work in progress, but but you know we've we've come a long way where where we were just a year ago. So, you know, one of the things that my my colleague and I have worked on was finding ways in how we can take some of the more administrative burdened tasks and build them into automation. and

and simplify the administration there even for the end user. So I'll I'll give you one example of that is just when we do onboarding. we would have we would do a 30, a ninety and a one eighty day check in with the individual, with our new hire, just to see where they are with their experience, their employee experience, their onboarding, becoming acclimatized to the new culture and how their training is going. So

There we have a process built there where on those key milestone dates they would receive an employee link or a link to a survey that they can complete and it'll ask them prompt questions. Simultaneously, the the leaders are also getting a link to complete their 30, 90, and 180-day probationary reviews. And that data or when it's completed comes back to HR where we were able to analyze that and we're looking for

various things. We're looking for their engagement in the workplace, their their psychological safety, if they feel that they're being that they there's a sense of belongingness. Are there any gaps with the onboarding process? Are there any gaps with their training that we can share with their with their leader? And the leader also is doing the same thing with the probationary review where they're more or less evaluating their capabilities and and their contributions to date. So

It's it's great because we're getting data on both sides and then we're supporting both sides with how we can build further on that relationship going forward. so so AI has been helpful because you know, we use the the AI and the and the various tools that we have that we're licensed with or we we built, automate those schedules, collect that data and we can use AI to build some, you know, to

Dom Dib (23:27.099)
to gain sediments behind the employees feedback and also the leader to know where there might be some gaps with that relationship to build it further.

Daria Rudnik (23:38.742)
I'm curious, like I did AI help you? Is there any example of how AI helped you find something that wouldn't be probably possible without AI? If you have anything like that.

Dom Dib (23:48.902)
I think well AI AI is good is as good as the information we feed it, which is which is always helpful. but I would say that you know, the the prompts and instructions we build into it there help us to keep the data and the responses there in a you know in a controlled environment that allows us there to work within you know, what suggestions it's it's providing. So it's it's giving us the output.

Daria Rudnik (24:12.077)
Mm-hmm.

Dom Dib (24:21.707)
that aligns with the input we give it. If that makes sense.

Daria Rudnik (24:26.626)
Yeah, yeah. And yeah, it's good that you you kinda control this hallucination process as well, like by giving some strict boundaries. Yes, you don't wanna see that. Okay, what's that? And what I like about what you're saying, there's some boring process. It's it's not just like HR is responsible for that, monitoring how employees are feeling, but it's also it's a it's a it's a partnership of employee who's feeling in the survey, HR who's observing, leaders who are also feeling in then some information and that you have this

Dom Dib (24:33.402)
Exactly.

Daria Rudnik (24:57.112)
holistic a picture of how things are going. But I know you're like using some of your own products as well for your automation. Tell us about it.

Dom Dib (25:00.677)
Yeah.

Dom Dib (25:06.641)
We are. Yeah, absolutely. So one of the one of the many awesome products that MapleWave makes is a is a pro is a technology or platform called Paperless. And and Paperless there is a it's a platform you can use there to you know for for various documentation purchases, which is all virtual. There's nothing involving paper, hence the name Paperless.

so you know, just as much as we build these tools or this product there for our customers, we are set we ourselves in HR use it. And we use it there to to navigate us, help navigate through all kinds of administrative tasks we have. whether you know it's to do with new hire documents or getting various agreements signed off, or we use it there with our performance review process as well to ensure that employees get an opportunity.

To share their comments before signing off on their quarterly reviews and annual reviews. So it's made its way in becoming an integral technology for our HR department. Being a two-person team, we've come to realize just how invaluable this technology has been.

Daria Rudnik (26:30.69)
And I can imagine like this feeling of using the products created like by your own company that's that's selling elsewhere, but you use it and and I I can relate to that feeling. And you can give feedback like, Hey guys, this one is not working.

Dom Dib (26:44.739)
it's it's it's and it's great, you know what, because the thing about our software team is that we do have a channel set up in our Slack communication portal sp exclusively for paperless. So if we have like an opportunity or if we're having an issue, they respond to it. And you know, there was there was one I gave insights on not long ago and within days they updated their version to include that and I was just like, wow, it's incredible. But that's the kind of team we have.

Daria Rudnik (27:12.781)
Yeah.

Dom Dib (27:14.869)
you know, and and it goes back, it circles back to the whole continuous curiosity there. You know, when we're saying that we are curious and we want to improve, our our teams live and breathe that. and I and I see it so much there with the paperless paperless team because they're always looking for ways to make the product more efficient than what it is capable of today, because they know that's gonna translate to a customer product someday where the customer is gonna value.

That's just going to broaden from there as more customers purchasing.

Daria Rudnik (27:48.269)
And that is really a like it's a sign of great culture when you use your product, you know that you can go to the div like to the team that develops and works on it and then we accept your feedback and they'll be happy for you to give them feedback and update the product. And that's that that's co-creation when it's not just engineers who do it or salespeople who sell it, but it's the whole team is involved in developing this product. That's that's really kind of a again, sign of great culture. I love it.

Dom Dib (28:15.693)
Absolutely. We we recently had just completed our employee opinion survey and one of the things that came from it there is just how much the organization our employees value the teamwork you know that they see and they they experience every day here.

Daria Rudnik (28:34.368)
And I know you have a story to share with us about AI talent development program that you did.

Dom Dib (28:40.377)
yeah, yeah. so this this was this was a new venture for me, but it was an opportunity because you know I I we were looking at ways and how we can you know strengthen the bridging of our of our employees and talents and giving them a path forward there to further broaden their talents or develop new skills or perhaps even enhance current ones.

so we've we've leveraged AI to help develop these learning paths and what it consisted of was it's a combination of you know human intelligence involving our leaders to map out and path out or path the you know the the key skills, competencies, and abilities of each role. and then using that there to as part of an evaluation to know where AI could recommend.

new you know training and and courses based on you know where there could be some you know where there were some opportunities for someone to progress in their in their career or in their journey here at Maplewave. so it was it was pretty cool to see that come to fruition. It was not an easy undertaking. It wasn't something that happened overnight. It actually took almost a year to do it. But just to see the whole process happen from where

Daria Rudnik (29:56.013)
Mm-hmm.

Dom Dib (30:10.229)
you know the human interaction of providing the data and then using that data there to feed into hum AI that help to curate these learning paths that will align that individual's you know career career for success and their journey with us as well. One thing I do want to preface is that anybody that wants to use AI

for the purposes their of you know talent assessments development or even with pre-screening candidates should always do it with caution. you know check your privacy laws to ensure that they allow you to do so we at Maplewave what we do is we don't vet personal data about individuals we just vet data that is without individual content involved

so it's just focusing exclusively on the role and the talent, not individuals involved, but but I do think it's important there that that is that is recognized in any in any governance that where AI is actually being put in that you do have the proper governance around privacy.

Daria Rudnik (31:24.876)
Yeah. Yeah. And especially for those who listen to us in Europe, I mean, you definitely need to make sure that human I mean, it's humans make decision. AI is just a support system, something that adds you a little bit more information to make this informed decision, but it's it's never AI who's making a hiring decision or firing decision or anything like that. And I like what you said about your program that you ask questions and AI helps you

navigate this learning path but it doesn't give you like direct answer do this or do that because it's we need to keep our thinking working and our brains working. Yeah

Dom Dib (32:02.129)
We we do. Absolutely. You know, that's that's that's the biggest fear is, you know, we don't want critical thought to go go like the dodo verb. but you know, I I think that we we we always pause to realize that you know it's great for processing information and providing recommendations. but at the end of the day, it does need to have the human intelligence behind the decision making.

Daria Rudnik (32:12.34)
Yeah, yeah.

Dom Dib (32:32.457)
before you know, being deployed there in an organization of whatever that task or that prompt you had asked for suggestions on. so use it there for the tool it is, but never use it to replace the person that needs to be involved in that decision.

Daria Rudnik (32:51.95)
Well, Dom, it was an incredible conversation. There's so much interesting information. Like I have like one final question for you. If you had a magic wand that could solve any professional challenge HR leaders have, what would that be?

Dom Dib (33:06.639)
Gosh. fix payroll problems. 'Cause 'cause they they're just inevitable. They they always happen. There's always an oversight or a misstep or a mistake. So you know, if I could magically just I wave my wand and make all the payroll problems go away, I think what would be a better place.

Daria Rudnik (33:25.326)
They're very painful.

Dom Dib (33:30.545)
And I I I don't think there's any automation in the world or any AI in the world that can fix all the payroll problems. They just happen. They're inevitable.

Daria Rudnik (33:31.899)
People do not forgive that easily.

Daria Rudnik (33:40.322)
I know. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well thanks for being here. Thanks for answering my questions. How people can find you, how people can reach out to you, learn about what you do, your products,

Dom Dib (33:57.806)
Absolutely. Thank you very much, Daria. they can reach out to maplewave.com or if they want to reach out to me directly, they're welcome to visit my LinkedIn profile. you can find me under Dom Dib. or you could send me an email if you'd like to at dom.dib@maplewave.com. I'd love to hear from anybody that wants to continue this conversation further or just wants to let it know a little more about our products, be more than happy to do that as well.

Daria Rudnik (34:27.604)
Amazing. And we have all the links at the notes for this episode. So make sure to reach out to Dom, connect with him on LinkedIn, ask about the paperless product. And well, if you like this show, please give us five stars on Apple Podcasts on Spotify, subscribe to our to our YouTube channel and stay tuned for the next episodes. Bye.