AFSC’s mission inspires employees at all levels

Coming from a farming family – her grandparents farmed, her parents farmed, and her two brothers are farmers – Carmen Pezderic was delighted to land a job at Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC) in June 2020. But there was another, equally important reason she was happy to join the organization.

“One of the most important things for me was working for an organization that really matters,” says Pezderic, sponsorship and event marketing coordinator. “No matter how big or small your role is at AFSC, you’re essentially contributing to that mission of feeding the world.”

Headquartered in the Central Alberta community of Lacombe, AFSC has 38 branch offices throughout the province. The organization provides producers with crop and livestock insurance and lending options.

“A lot of people who join our organization start in one role,” says Melanie Ducholke, chief people officer. “But as they get to know AFSC and the different areas, there are a lot of different career paths team members can take.”

AFSC places a heavy emphasis on professional growth and development. “Every employee has access to Percipio online training from the moment they start,” Ducholke says. “They can design their own learning through that program, or our corporate learning team can curate playlists based on where their career paths are going.”

Employees are expected to have professional development plans. “Every year, I have to identify what I am doing, what books I’m reading and what courses I’m taking,” says Pezderic. “You can tag or earmark all of those resources and say I’m going to complete these this year. Right now, I’m working on a marketing course.”

The corporate learning team focuses on development at all levels of the organization. “This fall, we launched a partnership with the University of Alberta,” says Ducholke. “We’re putting all our leaders through their leadership program. We’re focusing on people management as a leadership function as opposed to just the technical aspects of being a leader.”

The organization also supports employees who are pursuing external certifications or degrees or attending conferences. “One of the great things about my role is that I have been able to go to a professional development conference for a couple of years in a row,” says Pezderic. “It’s a three-day conference about branding and marketing. Chief marketing officers from companies across Alberta, Canada and the United States attend. It really helps me elevate my work.”

Slightly over two-thirds of the employees at AFSC are women and 47 per cent of the managers are female. “There is room for women at a leadership level,” says Pezderic. “It’s something you can aspire to as a woman if you’re interested in taking on a leadership role.”

AFSC sponsors employee resource groups (ERGs) for women, parents, young professionals and seasoned professionals. The groups organize a number of different activities, including bringing in outside speakers. “Our women’s group, ELLEvate, had female major-general Jamie Speiser-Blanchet speak to the whole organization about what it is like to be a female in a male-dominated field,” says Ducholke.

The groups also serve other roles. “They create a sense of belonging for individuals who have a common purpose,” says Ducholke. “We also use our ERGs for input into our people programs and policies.”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's Alberta’s Top Employers winners, published January 28, 2025 in the Calgary Herald and Edmonton Journal. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.