The Ben Mulroney Show - How Wealth Simple is getting creative to spur growth in the job market

Episode Date: April 17, 2026

GUEST:  Diana McLachlan / Chief People Officer / Wealth Simple If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Executive Producer:  Mike Drolet Reach out to Mike with story ideas or tips at [e-mail] Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast is brought to you by the National Payroll Institute, the leader for the payroll profession in Canada, setting the standard of professional excellence, delivering critical expertise, and providing resources that over 45,000 payroll professionals rely on. Joy, I appreciate you using changes by Tupac because we're talking about big changes here, and we are changing tone because if you've been listening to the show

since the beginning, I've given you demonstrable proof that metaphorically the sky is falling. But here is a company trying to do right by their customers, their clients, Canadians. Wealth Simple has been a success story, the likes of which we wish we heard more of in this country. But they want Canadians to do as well, possibly, financially. And they're walking the walk and talking to talk. And to talk about two really great programs that they're launching. I'm joined by Diana McLaughlin, the chief people officer for Wealth Simple.

Diana, thanks for being here. Thank you so much for having me. Okay, first up, for those of my listeners and viewers who have been with the same bank forever, what's wealth simple? Well, Simple is a financial innovator. We have about 3 million clients across Canada. We're focused on innovation. I mean, our goal is to help Canadians achieve financial freedom.

We have products like spending, saving, crypto, trading, finance, and we're really trying to just build that close relationship. of Canadians. Okay. And what is a chief people officer? A great question. I'm responsible for all things talent at the company. So I help attract amazing talent. I help grow amazing talent. As you can imagine, I truly believe that that's our secret sauce at Well Simple. We're only as strong as the people that build the products. And look, sometimes we have conversations on this show where, I mean, I hear politicians

and I'll hear people, they'll say things that sound really good, but if you drill down, the numbers don't justify the puffing of the chest, right? But what is it about Canadians and investing in Canadians? When there are a lot of indicators that say, you know, Canadians are leaving for better, like the best of the best are leaving. And if you got money, you're going to leave. Like, we hear these stories all the time. What are you seeing out there?

I mean, I'm really excited to say we're seeing kind of like the opposite. We have a lot of really interesting programs right now, one of them, launch pad, which is actually targeted our next generation of Canadians. Something that I'm really, really proud of. You know, the idea is that you can attack, like, brain drain is what you're talking about from a couple different angles. We want to get young people to stay in Canada. And I think if you give an opportunity to a young person, they're going to grab it.

So when I heard that you had this thing called launch pad, and I read what it was, I was like, this solves the problem that we hear all the time, where you've got this hungry, talented person, young kid who wants that first job. And then you always hear, well, I can't give you the other. Everything looks great here, but you just don't have the experience we're looking for. I said, well, I can't get the experience unless you give me the job. And then that feeds into a cycle. And then they get jaded and they get frustrated.

And so what are you doing differently than the scenario I just described? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, LaunchPot is an example of where we've actually thrown out credentials. We're really betting on potential. We launched a lotch pad a year ago, and it was for high school graduates, a 12-month internship, but you are a full-time employee. You get things like a GRSP to start saving for retirement. We have four 17-18-year-olds at the company.

You're embedded across the company working in products, working in engineering, actually building things and getting that real-life experience. You're not taking coffee or grabbing lunch for folks. So I have to believe that, you know, you guys are a technology company. Yeah. You wouldn't have done this by accident. You must have data that told you this was a good idea. Look, we had a bet.

We had a bet that, you know, you're seeing companies all over Canada want to become AI-native, talking about AI. And our bet was that, you know, the qualities that matter most in this AI-native world are actually curiosity, learning, speed, adaptability. And who has those qualities? Young people. So our bet was that you bring them in early enough before perhaps they go south of the border. they have other opportunities

and you bring them in, you give them real job, real opportunity, they can change. Well, you can also, if you give them a strong culture that they want to attach themselves to, they want to identify with, they'll die for you. They will go,

they'll fall you into the flames. Yeah, I mean, we have examples. Some of our launch patterns, I remember like the second day of work was messaging me, our CEO might catch in with ideas for new products for young people, building and shipping, code into production, so actually code into our product within a couple weeks.

And they're how old? 17, 17 and 18. So this has been going on for a year. What do you want people to know today about the program? We are in the process of hiring our next launch pad cohort. We look forward to hiring and welcoming four new launch padders to Wealth simple, September. And how many of the first cohort are sticking around the company? So we positioned launch pad as a gap year for a whole host of reasons.

Of course, we would have been open to keeping some of our launch patterns. Three of them are going to university next year. One of them, which I think is a fantastic talent story, is actually going down to Y Combinator. So maybe going south of the border, but would hopefully come back to Canada eventually. And for those that don't know what Y Combinator is, it's one of the best incubators for young ideas and talents,

and so we're proud of him, of course. That's great. And so they all leave. So I did a summer job at a gold mine. once. And what they did is we were part of a group of college kids and we spent a few weeks in each department.

So it sounds like... Rotational program for sure. That is what this is. You know, we started with compliance and regulatory because we want to... Oh, that's fine. Yeah, yeah. Learn a little bit about the rules. Then move into product, move into marketing, move into engineering. Most of the folks before right now, they are more technical. So I think that they will continue in the technical space and they have a great connection out of the company. Yeah, and I have to, I have to assume that, you know, you start with the program and you say it was a bet, right? Yeah, it was a bet. And I'm sure

it paid off, but that doesn't mean you can't make a smart bet the next time, meaning like hone in. Well, and we've learned, right? Like, you know, and what did you learn? The thing was interesting is that our launch padders are asking for more structured learning. So, very tied to our mission to help Canadians achieve financial freedom. They wanted things about personal finance. They wanted to learn more about how to do your taxes. It's just like crazy things that you wouldn't think that a young person wanted to learn about. So we're going to build that into the program next year and just move it forward in that way. Yeah, it's really exciting.

And I think, like, you're probably seeing this too. A lot of companies are saying that they're hiring fewer entry-level jobs. I think what this told us is that, and if anything, well, simple, is expanding our investment in early talent. Young people are already AI-native. They're already curious. They're excited. They want to build. I think the composition of entry-level jobs have shifted.

And so the work that young people are doing is shift it. But if you pair them with great operators with great judgment, there's, you know, a lot can happen. So you found yourself a great team of young people. But in doing so, I'm sure you had to look into a larger group. And for many reasons, you chose that small group. But given what you, when you cast a wide net, give some advice to the, education system? Like, how would you, what would you, what advice would you give to the education system to say, you know what, we want to hire more people like the floor that we picked? Yeah.

And here's what we need from them. I mean, these kids came from some great schools, all public schools, and have obviously done very well. They also have a fantastic family who's very supportive of taking risk and trying new things. I think as a parent, the thing that I'm reflecting on is how do you build curiosity, how do you create space for someone to learn and learn how to think So I think those are some of the things that will help set people up for success in the future. And this new world. Whose idea was the launch pad? It was actually my idea, which I hate to say out loud.

Mel, who's in the back here, helped us build it and launch it within two weeks, which was really in two weeks. But I think that there's just so much opportunity with this. I hope other companies honestly follow us. And talk to me, before we go to break and then we're going to talk about the other program, which is really cool as well. Yeah. How often are you guys in the office? Because I believe that this physical interaction is important.

Yes, that is a great question. So we are remote hybrid for most of our employees, but we decided intentionally to bring young people into the office. And so launch patters are in the office four days a week. Our intern program, which is also expanding, we had 150 interns in 2025 in the end of 2025. They are also in office. And the interesting thing is that our acceptance rate increased.

when we moved into there. So we were afraid to do it at the beginning and we realized that actually young people want to be together. Well, that's great. Well, listen, I'm glad to have talked about that. I love the fact that big Canadian company is betting on young Canadians.

That's a great part of the story. But there's also a whole bunch of great Canadians that we want to bring home from other places and you've got a plan for that. So I'm in conversation with Diana McLaughlin, the chief people officer at Wealth Simple. Don't go anywhere. That conversation continues after the break.

Welcome back. And we are in conversation with Diana McLaughlin, chief people officer for wealth simple. And it's, it's refreshing to have the antidote to my, you'll say it's my negativity. I'm just reporting the news. But the, you know, these statistics that come out that say that 71% of engineering grads from Waterloo, as my dad would say, Chris Lechan, they leave for, yeah, I can say that. It's not in English. And they leave. They leave for greener, greener pastures, right? And the argument is they're looking for more opportunity. They're looking for a bigger upside. And I can't fault them for wanting to leverage their hard work in school

to the benefit of themselves and their family and their future. And you have a plan to bring some of them back. To bring Canadians back. Yeah. So tell me what that value proposition is. Yeah. So we launched North Star about a year ago with the goal of bringing Canadians back to Canada to work for a great Canadian company like Well Simple with a huge ambition to change financial services of Canada forever to become the largest, the most significant financial services company in Canada. We thought the time was right to do this because of where we were and our ambition being so great and frankly more interest in Canada broadly. So we launched Launchpad in San Francisco on Canadian Thanksgiving. Oh, North Star. So, excuse me, North Star, on Canadian Thanksgiving

last year. And since then, we've had 6,000 Canadians abroad apply to come work at Well Simple. So just a couple of questions. Probably my most important question. Did you serve Turkey? We did serve turkey. Was there raisins in the stuffing? Oh, great question. A little... There was. There was. There was. Controversial. There you go. But you know what? Well Simple didn't get to where it is by playing it safe. Right. And from what I read, it was a soft sell. It was a soft sell.

It was to start building these relationships. Since then, we've had two more events. We just had one recently on Tuesday in New York. We've made seven offers, and we've hired five people. So you planted the seeds. And it took a while. You let the garden grow, and then pluck, pluck, pluck. And we're still talking over 70.

And what kind of talent are you looking for? What skill set were you looking for? great question. I mean, the reason we went abroad is because, well, Simple got to a size and a scale where it was becoming a little bit more difficult to find talent in Canada that had the pattern recognition of what it's like. Of course, you've got the Shopify's who we admire deeply. But we wanted to get, you know, talent that had seen scale at the size that we're starting to experience. And I get what you were saying. You said, you know, they leave. And one of the reasons they leave is because, you know, yeah, sure, you can start something in Canada, but you can't

scale it. So why don't you come back to Canada? to a great community company that has scaled. We've proven we can do it. But have you heard the argument? Yeah, you're great. A great company. Of course I would want to work there, except you're not in control of the taxes I pay.

The streets aren't as safe. The health care is not what it used to be, and on and on and on. Do you hear... You know what? How do you solve for that part? The thing that I've realized in so many of these conversations is if you have this significant big ambition,

the gravity of that ambition really pulls people back. It's culture. You keep going back to culture, right? I keep going back to culture. So much of it is tied to culture. You know, one of our values is naive ambition, and I think this is part of being naively ambitious, right? Like, just like come back and build and change Canada.

There's such a big opportunity there. And what we've heard in these conversations is this need and this big interest in just being connected back to Canada. Matt Mel, who's in the back here, you know, hosted an event on Tuesday, and she brought over across the border how many bags of ketchup chips. You know, so there's these little moments that. So Mel's a little bit of a, she's like the guerrilla warrior. She's someone figuring it all out.

She's like, yeah, I'm going to, listen, don't you, I'll get it done. I'll get it done. I'll put the raisins in the stuffing. I'll bring the ketchup chips across the border. Whatever it takes to get it done, I'm going to get it done. Exactly. The ketchup chicks, that's psychological. Yeah.

That is so psych. That's smart. Yeah, it's smart, right? It's like the little thing. that bring people, connect people back to Canada. So my friends who live in New York, when I would go to New York, I would bring them not just the lays ketchup chips,

which for the longest time was just sort of the thing. But I'd get the, you know, the loblas, the fully loaded ones and the Miss Vickies. I brought them the ruffles, but the ruffles, it's fine, it's fine, but what I want to show them was how much our food scientists had done with the ketchup chip. So that they would see, we hear you, we see you,

we know you love them, And look how many companies are now doing this for you. Yeah. Yeah. So is part of having honest, like real conversations with them say, look, yeah. Yes, that stuff isn't the best. But we're building something here that is going to get you excited and the upside for you personally as an employee and somebody who's going to, our success will be your success. Taxes change, right?

But we intend to do this. We intend to experience hockey stick growth with your help. And so at some point, that value proposition, all those complaining things that you're rightly complaining about, they're going to improve. Is that what you say? So, I mean, all of our employees that are permanent to other are owners in the business. I think that's a great value prop. You don't get those opportunities often, no matter where you are. So I think that there is something tied to that for sure.

Also, to tie back to our values, like being a maker owner is. part of that. So there's something there. Have you had other big companies come to you and ask you about these projects? We have. It's funny you ask. I actually did a fireside today talking to other tech founders, people leaders about some of these programs that we're doing and sort of sharing stories and learning about how we could all do more. Is there anything that you've learned from other tech founders that you're in the people industry? I think it's just like we're all trying to test and try new things. I mean everyone is moving into this AI native workforce and it's like what will work, what won't work and what are you hiring for?

You've been the chief people officer for five years? I've been at Well, Simple for five years. I've been the chief people officer for almost two years now. Because my friend, I told you he's at a big tech company, and he's a chief people officer. He said that the pandemic time was the worst time. Yes. I mean, my background isn't changed management and communications, and I can attest that that period was tough. Are you as a company?

And the bigger the company, the more sort of conflicts you got to deal with. I mean, I have so much respect for people that have worked in HR for all their careers. It's absolutely one of the hardest jobs. I have so much respect for HR professionals. I think this is the next wave, too. The pandemic would have been really challenging, but transitioning a workforce now is the next challenge. But are you, so, yeah, but the culture, I keep coming back to that, it feels like that is almost like the salve that solves a lot of problems. Yeah, so much of it is the culture.

I think it's tied to trust, too. And I think trust is deeply tied to our culture. I mean, we're asking Canadians to trust us with their financial freedom. Exactly. I mean, that to me is, hey, we're a bank you never heard. Not technically a bank, but we're a digital bank that you've never heard of before. Give us your money. Give us your money.

And employees are the same, right? If they trust you, they're going to follow you. And so if you can get that flywheel going and you have that trust with your employees, they're going to follow you when you have these naively ambitious goals. And have you been surprised by, you know, these young people that you brought into the launch pad? Yeah. Listen, we expected great things, but we didn't expect that. Honestly, you mentioned the positivity at the start.

It's the best part of my day spending time with these young people. They have, like, they are exceptional, and what they are building and the ideas they have are wonderful. It's hard not to feel positive, to be honest. The fact that you are, like I said, a bold Canadian company trying to horn in on a space that has been dominated by some of the most powerful institutions in our country, and you're doing so a while trying to give a leg up to young Canadians and also bring people back that we need to have here. There's a lot to like about your company and the culture that sort of breeds these ideas.

So if young people want to apply for the launch pad and if someone in the States is hearing this and says, I want to come home and work for well simple. Check out our careers page. It's all on there. We'd love to hear from you. Please reach out, but our career page has everything. Diana McLaughlin from Well Simple, the chief people officer.

I say thank you. I salute you and I wish you the very best. Thank you so much. It's Charles Barkland with Wayfair. It's outdoor season and my patio set up, better be ready to play. That's where Wayfar wins. Patio seating, umbrellas and grills. All delivered, fast and easy.

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