Our History

As a technology strategy consultant in the 1990s, Lisa had been actively involved in the early stages of Internet disruption. By the mid-2000s, she started to notice that the same type of early unrest that had occurred in the mid-90s was re-emerging. Workforce and staff related systems and processes weren’t working the way that they used to, and new questions were being asked of leaders, who didn’t have good answers.

At the time, Lisa was managing a team of more than 120 staff whose average age was 48, with 17 years of service at the company. As she conducted regular career conversations with her staff, she was appalled to discover that many of them were “successful, but not satisfied.” They were good at their jobs, but bored. Yet, they weren’t interested in any of the potential new opportunities Lisa could offer. They all had something that they were waiting for – a final mortgage payment, or their last child graduating from university – before they were willing to discuss their future. For many, the amount of time they “just had to get through” before making a change was longer than Lisa’s entire career had been at that point.

Lisa became curious about the impact and costs associated with entire workforces “just passing time.” It led her to the study of demographics, labour market dynamics, and career life-stage theory. Lisa realized that the next wave of disruption was not going to be technology-led. It was going to be led by the changing nature and needs of the workforce and how people work: the norms, values, and activities that the workforce wanted in exchange for their labour, across a much longer working life.

She quit corporate life and launched Challenge Factory with a focus on shifting demographics, individual career transitioners, and new tools for workforce managers. She identified the opportunity to get ahead of the Baby Boomers reaching the traditional age of retirement without new career systems, structures, and expectations in place that ensure careers can grow through one’s late 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and beyond.

This was in 2012, well before the conversations that we are having today about ageing populations, “gig” economies, and hybrid work.

Challenge Factory’s focus on “Hidden Talent” has evolved from this thinking. Challenge Factory understands, better than anyone in Canada, those workers who are not well served by traditional hiring methods such as Legacy Career(R) seekers, older workers, or military Veterans. Recognizing that services delivered to these individuals (labour supply-side solutions) will fall flat unless employers restructure talent and training programs (labour demand-side solutions), Lisa had identified a need for a systems-approach to address changing labour dynamics.

Today, our work is in use around the world by leaders, educational institutions, and governments as new workforce programs, training paths, and policies are formed.

Challenge Factory believes:

• Wasted workforce potential is wasted impact
• The Future of Work is human. People are at the centre of work and technology is there to enable them
• Seismic shifts in human and technology-driven innovation have made change a constant in today’s workplace, and organizations now must learn how to work within this new normal
• Business can be a force for good