Steven Lessard

From Tech Recruitment to a 360 View of Talent

Lessard began his career in recruitment inside the technology sector roughly a decade ago, learning the craft in an environment where speed, scarcity and technical fluency were non-negotiable. In 2016 he joined Cossette and Plus Company, again starting in recruitment. What happened next is the move that defines his profile today: rather than deepening into pure talent acquisition, he broadened into what he calls a 360 HR position, overseeing both talent management and talent acquisition, and working alongside a team dedicated to each.

That dual vantage point is unusual and consequential. Most talent leaders see either the front door or the interior of the house. Lessard sees both, which means he can connect a hiring decision to a retention outcome, and an internal development gap to an external search. It also means that when leadership contemplates reshaping the organization, he is in the room with the full picture rather than half of it.

Seven Hundred People, Three Cities, Every Discipline

Cossette is one of the largest agencies in the Canadian market, and it sits within Plus Company, a broader network that Lessard describes as a collective of agencies working together to deliver end-to-end services: traditional advertising alongside media, digital and PR. The strength of that model is range. So is the challenge of staffing it.

Lessard supports approximately 700 employees across Montreal, Quebec City and Halifax, with a primary focus on Cossette and the digital capacity within Plus Company. On any given day he is hiring and managing across creative and strategy talent as well as a substantial volume of digital and technology roles. Few talent leaders are asked to cover that spread of expertise credibly. His background in technology recruitment is precisely why he can.

Much of his day-to-day is coaching and advising senior leadership through business decisions that reshape the organization, and those decisions cascade directly into talent priorities. "We are able to work with the leadership to identify what will be the next phase of our organization," he says, framing his role as the person who brings market intelligence into the room so the company can be proactive rather than reactive. His stated preference is unambiguous: define the overarching goal first, then hire, instead of simply working through a list of open positions.

AI First, But Mindset First of All

For the past two or three years, Plus Company has carried an AI pillar in its strategic plan. The first phase was education: here are the tools, become familiar with them, use them. Heading into 2026, Lessard says the ambition has changed. The organization is now working to reshape its existing expertise and hire genuinely new roles, which is exactly where the scarcity of AI artists and AI developers bites.

On tooling, he is refreshingly direct. His teams still run on platforms that have served them well for years, but he believes the moment has come to integrate something built AI first rather than layering AI capability onto systems whose ceilings are already visible. He is equally clear that technology alone will not carry the function. "First, before the tools, we need to have this mindset of openness to technology, to innovation," he says. AI, in his framing, exists to amplify capacity and increase the impact of the process, not to replace the judgment of the people running it.

The Case for Human Connection in 2026

Lessard's advice to other talent leaders comes in two halves, and he insists on both. The first is automation: HR and talent acquisition need tools that amplify their capacity, and leaders should expect significant technology and innovation ahead. He acknowledges the tension honestly, noting that this can be difficult to align with a discipline built on human relationship and connection when the conversation turns to tools that may absorb tasks people currently perform.

The second half is the counterweight. Post-pandemic, he argues, talent teams must become the ambassadors of the in-person candidate and employee experience. Plus Company is an organization where people connection runs strong, and after years of hybrid and remote arrangements, Lessard is focused on bringing people back together. He wants talent teams positioned at the intersection of both forces: fluent in AI and using it inside their own expertise, while owning the human experience that no platform can generate.

That philosophy shapes his pipeline strategy too. General pipelines can be built with tools, but for senior roles he insists on a personalized, customized approach cultivated in real time and in the real world. It also explains his enthusiasm for boomerang talent. Plus Company sees people leave and return one, two, even ten years later, and Lessard treats that as healthy rather than as loss. People who go elsewhere, gain experience and come back bring diverse points of view that elevate the posture of everyone around them. The job, as he sees it, is to keep the connection alive across the years so the door remains genuinely open.