Growing up on a farm between Drayton and Moorefield, Michelle Debeyer didn’t give a lot of thought to the idea of one day working in a high-tech field.
“I didn’t even know this world existed,” said Debeyer, who today strives to hire and retain Canada’s top tech talent as a human resources specialist at Google Canada’s Kitchener-Waterloo office.
“I grew up fairly isolated in a small town and sometimes your world feels very small and I didn’t realize there were all these great opportunities,” Debeyer told the Advertiser in a recent interview.
“And that’s something I hope guidance counsellors at high schools are a little bit better at … showing people these opportunities are out there.”
While living on the farm with her parents Jerry and Liz Debeyer and five siblings, if she thought about a future career, it was in the field of teaching.
“I just felt like that was a job I should do,” she recalls adding, “Once I got into university my world opened up.”
Originally planning to study English, Debeyer took a psychology class at the University of Waterloo and enjoyed it enough to switch her major.
“Then I was lucky enough to get a co-op term at a company in tech, in HR and really liked it,” she said.
About that time she began taking courses in industrial organizational psychology and decided to minor in human resources studies and gear her work terms to HR.
After graduating in 1995, she went to work in human resources for a series of technology companies, including a five-year stint at Research In Motion (now Blackberry).
“From there, I had my family (she kept her maiden name and still goes by Debeyer) and I decided to do independent consulting,” she notes.
“And then this Google opportunity came up and I thought, this is fantastic and a great thing for my career,” said Debeyer, who joined the search engine giant just under three years ago.
Debeyer says her focus at work is in career development, rather than recruiting.
“I look after the tech population in Canada,” she said. “Once a person comes on board, I make sure they’re doing well at Google in terms of career development – making sure they are happy, their careers are growing … basically retain and make sure our employees are the happiest employees on the planet.”
While Google offers a wide range of programs aimed at delivering employee satisfaction, Debeyer said the company’s career development focus is one of the most unique.
“We really want people to move with their career. We spend a lot of time with employees making sure we set goals for them and they meet their goals and we reward them for that,” she explained.
“We do that by getting a lot of feedback. And that feedback helps drive people’s careers.”
Promotions at the company are arranged through committees. “I support all the engineers through that process,” said Debeyer.
While Google is a global company, Debeyer said her own work, while involving some international travel, is focused domestically.
“Obviously we are focused on Canada and hiring the top talent in Canada. Once in a while I have to meet with my colleagues around the world, but mostly my focus is our Canadian engineers.”
The work environment at Google is another selling point for the company’s recruiters, Debeyer notes.
“We really pride ourselves on our work environment. We try to create a very collaborative base. We do work in teams. We put teams together,” she said. “We also provide places where people can be quiet and they can think. We also provide comfortable spaces. If you walked around our office you would find couches and a lounge area. You feel like you’re working in your living room.”
The company’s efforts are clearly effective, notes consultant Erika Casupanan. Google recently topped the Great Place to Work Institute’s list of Best Places to work in Canada for the fourth year in a row, “largely thanks to its HR department and programs,” Casupanan notes.
While she works in an urban environment, Debeyer feels her small-town background provides her with several advantages.
“I think it’s one of the things it makes me approachable. A lot of my friends, as well, tell me I can talk to anyone and I think you learn that in a small town – that you say hi to everyone and you talk to everyone and I think that’s something that comes from my roots,” she points out.
“I grew up in a town where you say hi to absolutely everybody who walks by and I think you carry that, as well as a strong work ethic. I grew up on a farm and I’ve worked really hard. I worked really hard in university and I really work hard in my life and I think that small town work ethic really helps me in my career.”
That experience also forms the basis of Debeyer’s advice for small-town youth looking to succeed in today’s fast-changing work environment.
“I think you just work really hard at school and use that work ethic. And understand that education is just so important,” she states, adding math and science expertise are becoming increasingly important in a competitive job market.
“I see so many opportunities in engineering in Canada and we’re always looking for great talent, so work hard in your math, work hard in your science. I have three young daughters and they can tell you that mommy gets really excited when they do well in math. You can do whatever you want, but by doing well in those subjects, a lot of doors are opened.”
Team work, she points out, is also stressed.
“I think collaboration is really important. That’s something that maybe has changed in the workplace. Being able to work as a team – work together, share ideas, be able to come up with the best ideas in a productive way is really important.”
Debeyer says the people she works with are her favourite part of the job and what she finds most inspirational.
“I’ve never worked with so many people with great intentions and wanting to do the right thing and work well together and change the world and our community. I feel like it’s very inspiring to be part of something where we can bring great opportunities to people in our community.”
