Western Financial aims for exceptional experiences

Cora DeVos, an Inuk from Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, has lived dark, bleak years as the daughter and granddaughter of terribly abused residential school survivors, but her four-and-a-half-year career with Western Financial Group Inc. has offered support, encouragement and inclusion.

“Western was very attractive to me even before I applied because I did my research and I could get behind their guiding principles of truthfulness and loyalty because that’s how I live my life. Everyone is so supportive and we have such a loving and caring office,” says DeVos, a personal lines insurance advisor in the Vermilion, Alta., branch.

“I’ve had customers sit at my desk and speak about Indigenous people like I wasn’t one of them, but Western helps its people and even customers to be more accepting and accommodating,” she adds.

Headquartered in High River, Alta., Western Financial provides personal and business insurance at more than 210 branches from British Columbia to the Maritimes. Incorporating a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) strategic plan for all its people is paramount.

“We are on a journey that focuses on the DEI of all our people because we care,” says Kristy Rachkowski, chief people & culture officer. “The thing that makes Western a unique employer is that we are very focused on delivering an exceptional employee experience, because we know that if we take care of our team members, they will take great care of our customers.”

One way has been establishing employee resource groups for Pride, women in leadership, Asian employees, single/working parents and even one to support Ukrainian employees amid the war in Ukraine. Soon there will also be an Indigenous group that will involve DeVos. Western Financial promotes special awareness days throughout the year, including National Day for Truth and Reconciliation/Orange Shirt Day and Nelson Mandela International Day.

Embracing diversity involves a serious commitment that Western Financial pledged when creating a DEI lead role in the summer of 2020, in response to the worldwide outrage at the death of George Floyd that May. Since then, diversity measures have intensified, including adapting workplace designs for people who are physically challenged. All this came in conjunction with building stronger DEI connections with customers and communities.

“As we move forward and start planning for the new year, we are keenly focused on employee development, on enhancing our efforts on DEI, and on talent management and succession planning so that our people can have rewarding career paths for the long term within our organization,” Rachkowski adds.

DeVos couldn’t agree more. “They are very supportive if you want to progress in your career. There’s training we can take and we are encouraged to take. If you want to dip your toes into a different area, Western guides and supports you so you can be the best in this industry,” she says.

Another measure for DEI is employment equity surveys.

“We ask our people for feedback through multiple channels and take action based on what we hear,” says Rachkowski. “We are focused on continuous improvement and seek ways to transform each and every day. We celebrate our differences and have created a culture where open, honest discussions occur at all levels.”

Those open discussions have helped build DeVos’s confidence within Western Financial.

“I can talk to my co-workers or manager about anything and that speaks volumes to me about Western,” she says. “Honestly, they are my second home, my second family.”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's Canada's Top 100 Employers winners, published November 18, 2022 in The Globe and Mail. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.

Western Financial Group develops local talent

From the time Melissa Young started work as a receptionist in 2014 for Western Financial Group in her hometown of Wainwright, she knew she wanted to play a leadership role. Today, she is doing just that.

As a leader, personal lines, sales and service centres, in Wainwright, Young oversees seven Western Financial branches in the region.

“The opportunity to run multiple locations for a large organization is not something I would have thought possible to do from Wainwright,” she says. “But at Western, I’ve found that there are no boundaries if you are passionate about you want to do and willing to work toward it.”

Based in High River, Western operates in 184 locations across Canada, many of them situated in small towns or rural settings. The company, which provides both personal and business insurance, prides itself on recruiting local talent and grooming them for success.

For Young, Western’s management program for future leaders proved to be a turning point.

“It was just a really good opportunity to learn the leadership style of Western and to network with people across the organization,” she says. “You work with an assigned coach who helps challenge you and build your skill set as a leader.”

The COVID-19 pandemic presented a unique challenge for Western, especially since some 1,300 of the company’s 1,800 employees continued to serve customers at front-line branches across Canada.

“There was a lot of fear about the pandemic, especially at the beginning,” says Young. “But really, Western never missed a beat. They implemented additional sick days to give people peace of mind. They gave us all the tools we needed to keep both our employees and customers safe. And they never stopped communicating with us and keeping us informed.”

Improving the lines of communication had been a top priority for Kenny Nicholls when he took over as Western’s president and CEO in 2016.

“I knew that one of the key drivers of our success hinged on our ability to improve full-circle feedback at all levels of our organization,” he says.

Nicholls began hosting quarterly town halls and encouraged a much higher level of communication and transparency between leaders and employees. He says those practices served the company well when the pandemic hit, even if many of the discussions had to be done online.

“Based on the feedback from employee surveys and the discussions we’ve had through town halls, virtual chats or conferences, our people are genuinely appreciative of our efforts,” says Nicholls. “This mutual respect and understanding allows our teams to maintain a culture we can all be proud of as we work together to bring our vision to life.”

Lisa Osachoff, Western’s chief people and culture officer, says she has been particularly moved by the commitment of employees to provide a high quality of service to customers though challenging times.

“I just know how much our front-line people have gone through during the pandemic,” she says. “We’ve been tested, but we’ve proven to be up to the task. Ours is a very strong culture that continues to get even stronger.”

Part of that culture is about giving back through the company’s charitable arm, the Western Communities Foundation, which regularly provides infrastructure grants to support local projects as well as post-secondary bursaries for deserving high school students.

“Our branch employees are so close to the communities where they work and live,” says Osachoff. “So it really makes a difference when they can help contribute to the well-being of their neighbours.”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's Alberta’s Top Employers winners, published January 25, 2022 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.