Canadian HR Expert Series: Tom Nickalls

We launched this series to celebrate Canadian HR leaders, the people doing some of the hardest work in business. HR is often misunderstood. It’s the force shaping company culture, leadership, and performance.

Meet Tom Nickalls

Founder and CEO of Castle HR.

Castle HR works with Canadian startups and scale-ups to help them build the right HR systems at exactly the point when things start to get complicated. Through support, they help companies move from instinct to infrastructure. They emphasize HR that drives business outcomes, not just back-office compliance.

Tom didn’t come up through traditional HR. His background is in sales, entrepreneurship, and company-building. He grew up surrounded by small businesses. His parents both ran their own businesses. Early in his own career, he learned how organizations grow, and also how they fall apart. A poorly handled termination in one of his past roles became the turning point. He realized just how common that experience was, especially in smaller businesses.

“Most companies just white-knuckle HR until they’re forced to deal with it, that was the gap I saw. That’s where Castle HR started.”

Knowing when to bring HR into the picture

Castle HR usually steps in when a company hits a specific inflection point, right around 25 to 30 people. At this stage, the product is working, customers are coming in, and revenue is growing. But the systems and structure needed to support the next phase often aren’t there yet. The early hires are still carrying multiple roles. Expectations are inconsistent or nonexistent. Founders are stretched too thin. And people-problems start to stack up.

“You’ve built a solid business,” Tom said. “But growth has outpaced your people strategy. That’s when things stall.”

Castle HR helps companies turn that corner. They build simple, clear HR systems that are actually used. Performance management that fits the team. Job descriptions that reflect reality. Leadership development that’s relevant to where the company is headed next.

The impact of a great hire

One of the most rewarding parts of the work, according to Tom, is seeing what happens when someone is matched with the right role inside the right organization. When that alignment clicks, it creates forward momentum that’s hard to miss.

Castle HR’s approach draws on proven frameworks like EOS and Good to Great, where the idea of "right person, right seat" isn’t just a slogan, it’s an operating principle. Skills matter, but values alignment matters just as much. “If your team sees the world the same way your company does, that’s when results follow.”

Facing underperformance with clarity

Not every hire works out. And one of the hardest parts of HR, especially in small teams, is managing underperformance. In a company of twenty-nine people, one disengaged employee can drag down a lot.

Sometimes, Tom says, the problem isn’t about effort or intent. It’s about fit. A role might evolve beyond someone’s capabilities. An early hire might not be ready to lead. A team might lack the support or structure needed to succeed. Before jumping to performance plans or exits, Castle HR always starts with a simple question: why?

“Did we give them what they needed? Is the role still the right one? Is something going on at home that’s bleeding into work?” Tom believes most performance issues have a root cause worth exploring. Often, the fix is more accessible than it first appears.

Retaining top performers starts with knowing what they want

Over time, one of the biggest lessons Tom has learned is that retaining top talent isn’t about perks or policies. It’s about understanding what motivates each person on the team, and accepting that it isn’t the same for everyone.

Some employees want to grow into leadership. Others are happy where they are and just want clarity, autonomy, and balance. Both are valuable. But you can’t manage everyone the same way.

Employee motivations and employer expectations can also shift over time. That’s why Castle HR emphasizes quarterly performance reviews. Not to micromanage, but to check in on what’s changed and whether expectations are still aligned.

Why quarterly reviews beat annual ones

Annual reviews, in Tom’s view, don’t give teams what they need. They create too much distance between feedback and action, and too much room for surprises.

He’s coined a phrase for what happens when accountability is treated as an annual event: the Santa phenomenon. People shape their behaviour around the timing of reviews instead of the actual expectations of the role. December becomes a performance sprint. January becomes a reset.

Quarterly reviews, on the other hand, create space for course correction and clarity. They give teams the chance to evaluate changing roles, shifting priorities, and real-time feedback, without waiting for a once-a-year reset. Feedback is a gift. It can be uncomfortable at first and is a muscle worth growing for all parties involved. It should not only happen on a quarterly basis but a more structured quarterly feedback session is a helpful tool.

Feedback, when done right

Feedback is only useful when it’s clear and actionable. But it also needs to be delivered in a way that respects how people want to receive it. Castle HR borrows from the principles of radical candor, which focuses on combining honesty with care.

“It’s not just about what you say. It’s about how you say it, and how the other person hears it. Some people appreciate directness. Others need context. You have to know your team.”

HR as a growth engine

Tom’s biggest frustration with how companies view HR is that it’s often seen as reactive. Something to bring in when there’s a problem, rather than something that can help accelerate growth.

“Founders are used to building things themselves. At a certain point, that stops working,” he said.

“What gets you to 20 people won’t get you to 50. Systems need to evolve. HR needs to evolve and founders don’t know how to get there."

He points to a concept from Harvard Business Review that outlines five stages of startup growth. Castle HR steps in during stage three, when companies are generating revenue and looking to scale. That’s when founders need to delegate, and people systems need to become intentional.

Castle HR and Collage

Castle HR has implemented Collage across many of its client engagements. It’s a tool that helps them put their processes into action, especially around performance management.

“We’re big on automation and customization. Collage lets us do both.” Tom said. “We design review processes that actually reflect the roles and teams we’re working with. Collage makes it easy to put those into motion without a bunch of manual steps.”

The fact that Collage is Canadian-built only adds to its appeal. But beyond the local roots, what stands out for Castle HR is the platform’s flexibility and the quality of support. “It’s easy to use and intuitive. It integrates with what we’re already using. And when we need help, the support team always responds with great guidance.”

Helping companies scale the right way

Tom’s not trying to reinvent HR. He’s trying to make it make sense for founder-led, high-growth companies that are ready to get serious about their people.

Castle HR works quietly behind the scenes to elevate the business, helping clients write better job descriptions, run more effective feedback cycles, and keep their best people engaged for the long haul.

“Most companies don’t stall because of the product. They stall because of people. If we can help them fix that, we’re doing our job.”

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