Welcome back to Raise & Shine - Fall Edition!
Welcome to this edition of Raise & Shine! Get ready to dive into this week’s theme: Sensing and Responding.
In our ever-evolving world, the ability to adapt and thrive amidst change is more crucial than ever. Sensing and Responding is a critical tool in the Raise toolbox for dealing with change—it is a core principle that empowers us to stay agile, proactive, and resilient. At Raise, we believe that being attuned to our environment, both internally and externally, allows us to detect opportunities and challenges early on. By honing our skills in sensing and responding, we can make informed decisions, drive innovation, and continuously improve our processes.
Join us as we explore insights, stories, and practical strategies to enhance your ability to sense and respond.
CAP, RAP, WAAP Report:
Number of Successful Processes in the last quarter (July/August/September):
- RAP: 15
- CAP: 37
- WAAP: 1
To learn more about starting a RAP, CAP, or WAAP, please visit our Teal Site for additional information.
New Employees in the last quarter (July - September 2025):
- Thomas W Cloney joined SHF as the Director of Talent Acquisition
- Lester Borromeo joined COR Core Ops as a Payroll Administrator
- Anterpreet Kaur joined DEL as a Senior Recruiter
Jan Barredo joined PRS as a Recruiter
Vince Nardo joined SHF as a Recruiter Coordinator
Karthik Sundaram joined CDT as a BD & Lead Generation Manager
Nawed Aalam joined DEL as a Bilingual Recruitment Coordinator
- Nathan Barrogo joined SHF as a Contractor Service Representative
- Adam Sinclair joined COR Compliance as the Health & Safety Specialist
Karan Singh joined COR CSCB as a Customer Service Representative
- Roz Mateo joined COR CSCB as a Contractor Service Representative
- Shaina Balasabas joined COR CSCB as a Contractor Service Representative
Marissa Granada joined COR CSCB as a Contractor Service Representative
Harsh Nagar joined COR CSCB as an AP Specialist
Reina Elijade joined SHF as an Onboarding Coordinator
Angel Acosta joined SHF as a Recruiter
- Quino Guzman joined COR SCL as a CS Engagement Representative
- Ella Castro joined DEL as a Recruiter
Brenda Pearlman joined SHF as the Director of Payroll
Rishab Kalra joined COR CSCB as a Customer Service Representative
Mohd Sohail joined COR Compliance as a Compliance Coordinator
Joy Dey joined COR CSL as a Contract Success Representative
- Andrea Cordeta joined SHF as a Recruiter Coordinator
- Karla Ronquillo joined SHF as a Recruiter
People & Culture Survey summary:
A big thank-you to everyone who completed the recent People & Culture Survey! We had a healthy participation rate, with 174 employees sharing their feedback.
Your input helps the P&C team understand where to focus our efforts, shaping the programs, training, and events that strengthen our culture and support everyone at Raise.
Here are a few key insights and data from this round of responses:
- Feedback & KSS: Employees feel most confident in our Feedback and KSS practices , and also see them as the top area for continued improvement.
- Core Practices: The CAP, Shared Expectations, Contribution Review, and RAP were also highlighted as important areas to focus on strengthening.
- Connection & Recognition: Many employees expressed a desire for more connection and recognition across teams.
- Training: There’s strong interest in more training opportunities on our Common Practices.
- Accessibility: Employees would like easier access to information on policies and practices.
- A total of 77% of employees described the company culture as either ‘very good’ or ‘good’, which is a 7% increase from last years results.
- Only 1.7% of employees rated the company culture as ‘bad’, which is a 2.4% decrease from last years results.
- A total of 82.8% of employees stated that their team culture aligns with the overall company culture, which is a 3% increase from last year.
- While only 2.3% disagreed, compared to the 5.3% that disagreed last year.
- A total of 74.1% of employees reported feeling ‘very safe’ or ‘safe’ within their team.
- Meanwhile, 2.9% expressed feeling ‘slightly unsafe’, and only 1.7% felt ‘very unsafe’.
The P&C team is already digging into these themes to identify next steps. We’ll share updates soon on how your feedback is being turned into action. Thank you again for helping us make Raise an even better place to work and grow.
If you’re feeling unsafe or have ideas on how to enhance our culture, please connect with any member of the People & Culture team (Allyson, Cassandra, Grishma H, Kavya C, Sagar, Sanad) or complete the engagement survey by CLICKING HERE!
October - December holidays & events:
- October 2: Gandhi Jayanthi (VAD, BNG)
- October 8: Battle of Angamos (PERU)
- October 13: Canadian Thanksgiving (CANADA)
- October 22: Balipadyami Deepavali (BNG)
- November 11: Remembrance/Veteran/Armistice Day (BC, AB, SK, PEI)
- November 27: Thanksgiving Day (USA, VAD)
- November 30: Bonaficio Day (BNG)
- December 5: Farmers Day (GHN)
- December 8: Feast of the Immaculate Concepcion of Mary (PHL, PERU)
- December 9: Battle of Ayacucho (PERU)
- December 25: Christmas Day (ALL COMPANY)
- December 26: Boxing Day (ON, NB, GHN)
get ready for ALLSITE 2025:
Coming to you October 30th! here is a little sneak peak of what's to come:
What is Sensing and Responding?
Sensing and responding is how we make changes at Raise without managers.
In a traditional organization, management makes decisions which filter down for employees to do. That could be upgrading the systems that employees use. Or maybe changing workflows for a specific role.
While Raise does have leadership teams that make those kinds of decisions, leaders also gather advice from employees to make sure we understand their perspectives and priorities, through advice and consent processes.
And unlike other organizations, any employee at Raise has the ability to make changes to their role, their teams, and the tools we use through Sensing and Responding.
No one person at Raise has insight into every part of the business. So when there are problems and opportunities, it is usually employees themselves who are in the best position to address them. We call this an inkling: when someone notices a problem or opportunity. Sensing is how employees identify and raise problems and opportunities, and responding is how they get resolved.
There is no right outcome for Sensing and Responding. Sometimes it leads to big changes, small changes, or no changes at all. Sometimes it leads to more Sensing and Responding. The important part is that we are talking to the right stakeholders and gathering the right advice—as long as we do that, we’ll always be making good decisions.
Sensing and Responding in Action
Is it a coincidence that Sensing and Responding, Raise and Shine, and Richard and Sanad are all S&R phrases?
Yes it is. Obviously. How weird would that be?
But that doesn’t mean they aren’t connected! Like many of the best things at Raise, this very newsletter was creating by Sensing and Responding.
In 2024, Meaghan and Cassandra were exploring how we talk about self-management at Raise, and what that meant for our company culture. They were thinking about moving away from the word “Teal” to describe our self-management practices. Some people like it because of tis history, and some people that it was vague and not a great term.
As a result of that discussion, another group of people started thinking about strategies to improve people’s knowledge and engagement in self-management. During one of those meetings, we talked about how difficult it is to keep people connected to our company culture in a remote workplace. Richard and Kristy sensed that there might be an opportunity to help connect people. We talked about a few different options, like a website or feedback platform, but ultimately the best advice we found was to create a newsletter.
From there we gathered advice on how to format it, what to include or not include. With his experience on the Tiny Podcast, Sanad joined up to help.
And from there we had just about everything we needed to create the newsletter you are reading today!
We are all capable of and encouraged to engage in this kind of sensing and responding at Raise: have an inkling, gather advice, and craft a proposal. Together, there is no problem or opportunity we can’t address!
– Richard Welch
How does sensing & responding work at raise?
The Fall Raise Playlist is here!
The Fall Raise Playlist is here and ready to bring some autumn vibes to your day! You can find it on both Apple Music and Spotify. For those curious about who added the songs you love, or if you don’t have access to these platforms, we’ve included an Excel sheet with the song list and the contributors. If the links provided below are expired or not functioning, please contact Sanad for an active link.
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/ca/playlist/raise-playlist-fall-2025/pl.u-9N9L24JCj6774Y
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7gQXUPIAUoIHSx5O9rXOqJ?si=BqWk8edNTj-GLRV158bb8A
And as we enjoy the fall tunes, let’s start thinking about our Winter Playlist! Add your song suggestions through this link: Winter Playlist Suggestions.
Happy listening and keep the great music coming! 🎧
we are introducing:
Raise around the globe
We’re adding a new feature to our newsletter called Raise around the globe. In it, we’ll feature stories, recipes, and other content from all our amazing team members.
For our first installment, we’re trying to find the world’s best Dad joke. To participate, please submit your best, (probably very lame) joke. Our humour committee will select the best jokes from each region and post them in the next issue, with bragging rights for the country with the best joke!
Submit your joke to richard.welch@raiserecruiting.com or sanad.shahrour@raiserecruiting.com
Sudoku:
Answer:
The rules for sudoku are simple. A 9×9 square must be filled in with numbers from 1-9 with no repeated numbers in each line, horizontally or vertically. To challenge you more, there are 3×3 squares marked out in the grid, and each of these squares can’t have any repeat numbers either. To solve this Sudoku puzzle, use your SnapTool to take a screenshot and then work through the solution.
Editors-in-chief of Raise & Shine: Richard Welch & Sanad Shahrour. Special thanks to Tim Masson and Cassandra Sturk for contributing to this edition.