A culture of empathy encourages LCBO people to stay

Just a week after getting married, Abhishek Khurana was laid off from his job at a marketing agency in the midst of the pandemic. Then, he saw a posting for a marketing planner at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO). He reached out to some LCBO employees on LinkedIn to learn more about the beverage alcohol products wholesaler and retailer.

“I noticed people had been here the longest time,” he recalls. They typically had 10- to 15-year tenures with the provincial Crown corporation. So Khurana asked them what made them stay. He learned that not only was LCBO a huge operation — with 8,000 positions and diverse career opportunities — but it still managed to have a lot of heart.

“Employee well-being is something I have experienced firsthand as one of the top priorities here at LCBO,” says Khurana, who has since moved from his contract position to a permanent role as a customer intelligence analyst.

As first-generation immigrants, Khurana and his wife had no extended family to help when they had their first child, so, between them, they took the maximum combined parental leave (which included 12 weeks for Abhishek). During his leave, LCBO’s top-up pay brought his income up to 93 per cent of his working salary.

“Even when I returned to work, my director asked me if there was anything they could do to support me,” he says. “I was able to have additional flexibility to adjust to being a working parent. That really touched me.”

He also had the full backing of his colleagues. “My team threw me a baby shower before I left. Everyone was very kind and supportive,” Khurana says.

Not only does LCBO offer the formal benefits that help employees thrive — a broad suite of training, development and mentorship programs, tuition assistance, employee family assistance — it also has volunteer-led employee resource groups (ERGs) that promote diversity, equity and inclusion.

“I’ve had my share of discrimination in a previous role. When I had the opportunity to be a voice of change, as a voice for racialized people at LCBO, I grabbed it at the first go,” says Khurana, who serves on a committee with the ERG representing racialized communities.

“I get to learn about experiences that I don’t live and that helps me serve my team better,” says Kelly Taylor, a member of the Women’s Action Alliance and senior director of customer and employee engagement. Taylor, who has worked in multiple different departments over 35 years at LCBO, has both experienced and tried to embody the company’s culture of empathy.

“You really see the commitment of the organization in times of tragedy, like when we’ve had employees on my team pass away due to health issues. I had help navigating a challenging situation from the workplace wellness team and I had mental health supports for everybody on my team,” she says. “We’re grieving the loss of someone special to us, and the organization was grieving alongside us and they rallied around to support my team and rallied around me.”

In fact, LCBO offers so many programs to help employees, it has an 800-member team of employee volunteers (called Good Culture Ambassadors) who are trained to help spread awareness and connect co-workers with these resources. Khurana is one of them.

Moreover, LCBO’s care and regard for employees lasts throughout their careers.

“Sometimes long-tenured employees can be viewed as someone on the way out,” Taylor says. “I would say wholeheartedly that the organization values my tenure and experience. I feel like I’ve always had a place to stand at the organization, and my contributions have always mattered.”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's Greater Toronto's Top Employers winners, published December 2, 2025 in The Globe and Mail. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.

The LCBO embraces diverse backgrounds and voices

When Shraddha Gotad and her husband immigrated to Toronto from Mumbai in 2019, he had to return home to deal with a family emergency just four days after they arrived — and because of the pandemic, he couldn’t return for a year. “Being alone in a new country taught me the values of patience and perseverance,” says Gotad. She applied those values during her job search, and they paid off when she joined the Toronto-based Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) in 2021.

The LCBO is a provincial government agency and a responsible wholesaler and retailer of wine, beer and spirits in Ontario. Embracing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is part of the LCBO’s people strategy, since employees hail from around the world and reflect the diversity of Ontario. Gotad’s first role as a learning and talent development consultant was an 18-month maternity-leave cover.

“I knew from the first interview that this was where I wanted to work,” says Gotad. “The panel members were so polite, and I felt like I was being valued and heard. When I joined the LCBO, I felt at ease right away.”

Now an acting senior manager of learning and talent development, Gotad volunteers as lead for human resources in the LCBO’s Good Culture Ambassadors program. She’s also a co-lead for the employee resource group that supports racialized employees and promotes racial equity, understanding of diverse cultures and appreciation of global experiences; as such, she serves as a bridge between the diversity program and employees.

The LCBO’s first diversity roadmap was created in 2020 and consisted of 10 key areas of focus, which were assessed and updated last year. “Diversity, equity and inclusion is a journey — you’re never done,” says Priscilla Fraser, vice president of talent, safety and inclusion. “That’s because the world changes, language changes and people change.”

As part of its commitment to evolve, the LCBO also revisited its corporate values. “All of our employees were surveyed, and we co-designed our refreshed values with their feedback, which was that our previous values didn’t represent enough of the new DEI work we’d been doing — they wanted to see that reflected,” says Fraser. Creating a safe place for all and celebrating authenticity are among the five new values that steer the LCBO’s inclusive culture.

The roadmap and values are promoted on the LCBO’s intranet and accessible to all employees, in the corporate offices, stores and warehouses. “We want everyone to feel safe, valued, respected and heard,” says Fraser. “It’s good to pause and take stock regularly.”

Team huddles, seminars and fireside chats cover such wide-ranging topics as Truth and Reconciliation, responsible consumption of substances, sustainability, mental health, community and charity. Gotad appreciated a discussion about gender pronouns. “It was very educational for me, and I learned how to be more inclusive and respectful,” she says.

Another important program is called We Belong, which supports the hiring of individuals with disabilities in stores and warehouses. “It’s very close to my heart, because I have a sister with an intellectual disability, and I have an invisible disability,” says Fraser. “We’re very proud to play a small part in making people’s workplace dreams happen.”

Gotad feels like she’s in her dream job – and that there’s plenty of room to grow. “Priscilla is a mentor – she put me on projects that pushed me to learn and do my best, and she fully supported me,” she says. “Senior leaders are pro-growth, so if an opportunity arises and they see you’re ready, they’ll offer it to you.”

Above all, Gotad appreciates that the LCBO values diverse backgrounds, abilities and experiences. “DEI is a mindset,” she says. “It’s how you work together, learn together and grow together.”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's Canada’s Best Diversity Employers winners, published February 25, 2025 in The Globe and Mail. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.