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“The Future of Work is a question that will never go away in our lifetimes. Other organizations in this space will often spin their wheels because the questions are so big, and the world of work is always evolving. What you can do—what Challenge Factory has been doing for a decade—is help people, organizations, and communities with specific programs that harness that evolution for the good of all Canadians.”
Our research-to-practice model
We believe that research is most valuable when it’s directly tied to outcomes that have defined and measurable impact.
Our research-to-practice model ensures that every research project we undertake has real impact—rather than simply being shelved after completion—for our clients and the people, organizations, and communities we serve.
Research-to-practice means advancing projects that solve practical problems. We always test and validate our learnings and approaches with leaders, organizations, and end users.
Research-to-practice means building rich and rapid insights through collaborative, versatile, and iterative design. We know that research can sometimes feel too theoretical or open-ended. Our approach is purpose-driven to get you the insights you need within the timelines you need.
Research-to-practice means the work isn’t done when analysis is completed. We always use the outcomes of our research to recommend and/or inform future decision-making, business needs and strategy, follow-on research areas, and program development.
We don’t only help our clients do better research. We also make sure that research answers the “why this matters” and “what this means” questions for you.
Learn more
Explore the full research-to-practice timeline of Challenge Factory’s work to close the gap between employers and the hidden talent pool of Canada’s military Veterans.
Evaluation services
As a Certified B Corporation, we know the importance of measuring impact. When it comes to topics related to the Future of Work, it can often feel like measures and metrics are difficult to come by and traditional approaches to understanding the field or market don’t apply.
Our evaluation services are designed to ensure your project, program, study, or community initiative can be measured in ways that inform better practice.
We undertake environmental scans and market analysis that examine not only what’s been learned or done in the past, but also what you need to know to guarantee your research outputs, learning, and thought leadership stand up over time.
We integrate program evaluation into every research project we do, as well as build customized strategies and tools for clients who need someone else to do program evaluation for them.
Case studies
- Hidden talent pools: How Challenge Factory works to address labour and skills shortages in Canada
- Community engagement and program management: How Challenge Factory creates space for community engagement and innovation across sectors
The beauty of overlaps and filling gaps
Challenge Factory applies a reusable, resilient, and flexible blueprint to all our work that draws on three lenses: lifelong career development, Future of Work, and revolutionary change.
We look at how research can be advanced that better uses, advances, and integrates the knowledge of each lens, as well as how the overlaps between the lenses can be leveraged to produce richer insights, deeper knowledge, and longer lasting impact.
Each of the three lenses are evolving rapidly, with new research and tools being developed and their respective bodies of knowledge expanding every day. By drawing on all three and moving into their overlaps, we build the principle and practice of continuous improvement into both our project management and the research outcomes that we co-create with our clients.
“My connection with Challenge Factory gives me a front seat for a smart, forward-looking way of being. They are staying ahead of issues and learning about what’s happening before it’s in the media, before I’m reading about it in secondary news sources. Lisa is continually driven, and I know her staff are driven to be ahead of the curve.
Challenge Factory refuses to stay within the prescribed limits of how things are normally done. Research agencies normally have, for example, a division that focuses on helping individuals, and another for helping governments, and another for DEI, and so on. But Lisa and her team connect the dots between those various groups, niche problems, and broader societal issues. They know that what’s pertinent to individual labor challenges isn’t unrelated to what government strategies are. And that those aren’t unrelated to private sector frictions or community capacity.
Lisa has a unique ability to go from 0 to 60 in the shortest distance possible, which is a quality I value in people who try to solve problems. And she’s able to do all of this without missing the big picture.”
Workforce Architecture
Workforce Architecture is Challenge Factory’s digital magazine and research exchange.
Our research is enriched by the direct experiences we have within client organizations. We don’t only study the Future of Work; we shape it day-by-day in collaboration with policymakers, executives, managers, and community leaders who are navigating continuous change.
Our research insights inform the approaches we help to implement. These real-world implementation experiences then raise new questions that we set out to study. Workforce Architecture brings the worlds of research and organizational leadership together through:
- Curated content about the Future of Work, career development, hidden talent pools, intergenerational workforces, and more
- Creative opportunities for data capture and collaboration
- Experiential learning and career development activities
Explore Workforce Architecture to learn more about the research topics we focus on and the high quality we hold ourselves to.
