
The Boost
May 2022
Table of Contents
President's Video Message - Desiree Bombenon
Education Committee Update with Gloria Tonne
Member Spotlight: Video Interview with Sherry Oxner of Answer365
CAM-X Update & Welcome New Supplier Member VanRein Compliance
Two Grey Suits: WHAT YOU CAN (AND SHOULD BE) DOING NOW TO RETAIN YOUR EMPLOYEES
Convention Committee Update with Brad French
President's Message

Desiree Bombenon
Education Committee Update
Respectfully submitted by Gloria Tonne
Committee Chair
Ronal Osborn said, "Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow."
This month brought us our spring COACH U Leadership Training and with a theme of "No Looking Back – Forward We Go!" the clinic's energy was one of positivity, comradeship, and growth.
The Education Committee is overjoyed with the speakers and their topics. They knocked it out of the park, and we are so happy to see new faces speaking up, asking questions, and providing the input we need to keep our COACH U sessions relevant and valuable.
I can shout from the rooftops how truly impressed we all were, but I think quoting directly from the attendees says it all!
"It was a great experience. All the presenters were well prepared and great visuals. I can't wait to attend the next event."
"This is not an easy job and then to bring together such a fine cast of characters to bring a positive spin on things...10 stars. I want to meet all these people."
"I loved it! Everyone was wonderful."
"I am happy and pleased that I was able to be part of this event as I learned a little more about what it takes to not only be the best person I can be but to be the best Supervisor/trainer and CSR that I can be and how to successfully grow with modern technology and dealing with others in the Industry."
"Thank you, Linda, for getting all participants involved. It definitely pulls me out of my comfort zone to speak in front of the group, but I learn the most when we all share."
On behalf of myself and the Education Committee, we would like to thank everyone involved for their hard work and dedication to making this year's clinic a success. The volunteer speakers were terrific, and kudos to all participants who actively joined in.
We cannot forget those who reached out about joining a CAM-X committee; Howard Zinn said, "Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world."
Joining a committee is our small way of being the changes we want to see in the world, and together, we can create ripples that influence and guide us towards greatness.
If you'd like to know more or have a great idea for a webinar, please reach out to Linda at linda@camx.ca.

Gloria Tonne
CAM-X UPDATE
Respectfully submitted by Linda Osip, Executive Director
Mentoring Leadership Development Program
Update:
We are pleased to announce that we received 17 applications for the first program
6 Applicants were chosen by the selection committee
Speakers and Topics:
May 3 Barbara Bradbury: Leaning to love 10 workplace personalities and help them find their success May 5 Gloria Tonne: Resilience and Leadership
May 10 Cindy Roma: SBAR Business Processing Workshop
May 12 Pat Vos: When should I wear my leader hat and when should I wear my manager hat?
May 17 Nadine Sans-Cartier: Successful call quality monitoring by building relationships!
May 19 Gail Smit: Treat Your People Better Than You Want Your People to Treat Your Clients and Their Callers
May 24 i24: Holvie Senosier, Sabrina Perron & Miakay Michaud: Emotional Intelligence
May 26 Deborah Anders: Be the Change You Want to See
May 31 Trish McMaster: Personal Responsibility
June 2 Linda Osip: Feedback Huddle
Welcome New Supplier / Vendor Member:
VanRein Compliance
COACH U & Convention Highlights
The Education Committee is currently working on the COACH U program – details to follow
Convention Line up:
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Pre - Conference Day Event: details to follow
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Opening Reception
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Opening Keynote: Sarah McVanel: Recognition: The Solution to the Great Resignation
You’re not losing your best people to the competition. A bump in pay won’t stop the turnover floodgates. Gone are the days you have too many resumes. The Great Resignation is here.
Microtrends have collided to create confusion about how to retain today’s workforce. The good news is, employees’ needs haven’t changed… they’ve just started voicing it louder as they stomp out the door. Are you listening? Welcome to the Age of the Employee Experience.
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Workshop hosted by Sarah McVanel and Dana Lloyd (AnswerPlus) Where Have All the Good Ones Gone
No applicants, new hires not lasting through onboarding, turnover within first six months of being hired. Have we ever, as an industry, seen such a turnover tsunami and talent drought? So what can we do about it? Where have all the good staff gone? (And are they even out there?) In this breakout, learn about how AnswerPlus took their staffing crisis as an opportunity to reimagine and reinvent their talent journey. By taking a big picture view of the employee experience, they were then able to put in place specific, concrete, practical, energizing, and successful micro-tweaks in the early phases of an employee's journey with the company. Not only were their much-needed gains, but this work also fueled an excitement to reinvented and reintroduce strategic people practices. If you want to explore how you, too, could create a short and long-term approach to workforce planning in the age of "The Great Resignation", join Dana and Sarah to learn, discuss, and explore what is possible.
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Awards Luncheon!
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Agent Panel: Hosted by Gary Blair & Dana Lloyd
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Networking Breakout Session
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Pub Crawl: FUN times in Kingston!
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Employee Engagement Session
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Keynote: Margaret Trudeau (includes book signing for all delegates)
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IT & Security: Bill Hughes & Friends - A relevant and engaging session about Keeping up with the complexity of change
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Closing Keynote: Dr. Dr. Stephen W. Thomas is a professor and researcher at Smith School of Business at Queen’s University in Kingston, ON, Canada. He is also the Executive Director of the school’s Analytics and AI Ecosystem, an award-winning hub for research, teaching, and collaboration in applied analytics and artificial intelligence.
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Gala Dinner on the Kingston 1000 Islands Cruises
Would you like to become more involved with CAM-X?
We are looking for committee members for all committees and we would love to see new faces involved in webinars and COACH U as a speaker or panelist. This is an opportunity to GROW yourself. There are some pretty cool people who are waiting to meet you and help in your career evolution. Email me and I'll hook you up! linda@camx.ca
*Recordings of all webinars are available email linda@camx.ca
Pre Employment Software Update:
We are actively working to add Personality Profiling as an option


Show your staff they are worthy:
CSR and Supervisor Certification

Pre Employment Testing Demo Available
Contact linda@camx.ca for instructions

Two Grey Suits
WHAT YOU CAN (AND SHOULD BE) DOING NOW TO RETAIN YOUR EMPLOYEES

This article is part of the TwoGreySuits Managing Employee Performance Series and is offered by our partner, TwoGreySuits as a service to our members.
Why are so many people quitting their jobs? According to a recent McKinsey report, many employers think that it is a problem with compensation or work-life balance. But the employees who are quitting tell a different story. Their main reasons for quitting are 1) not feeling valued and 2) not feeling a sense of belonging.
If the past 24 months have taught us anything, it’s that employees crave investment in the human aspects of work. Employees are tired, and some are in fact grieving. They want a renewed and revised sense of purpose in their work. They want social and interpersonal connections with their colleagues and managers. They want to feel a sense of shared identity. Yes, they want pay, benefits, and perks, but more than that they want to feel valued by their organizations and managers. They want meaningful – though not necessarily in-person interactions, not just transactions.
In previous blogs we have expounded on the case for having regularly scheduled employee/manager 1:1’s. as a key ingredient for employee engagement. There are several documents in the TwoGreySuits Performance Management module dealing with how to do 1:1’s. For companies that aren’t doing structured 1:1’s a good start right now is to at least implement STAY interviews and for those companies already doing 1:1’s good idea to refresh these with conversations that are typically included in STAY interviews.
A STAY interview is essentially an employee engagement check-in that helps managers understand specifics on why employees have stayed at the organization and what has the potential to cause them to leave. What we are seeing now is that even previously satisfied employees may quit. Even these previously satisfied employees may start second-guessing their commitment to the companies where they now work as they see their employment options expanding around them, and particularly if executives mishandle the transition to a hybrid-work environment or worse, fail to offer one at all.
I have learned that some companies take exception to calling them STAY interviews because it indicates a transactional relationship vs. a high trust relationship. Employers and managers should think of STAY interviews as engagement discussions that supplement everyday interactions, survey feedback and individual motivation. So, is it appropriate to call them STAY interviews? The short answer is ‘it depends’. Organizations may choose to call them this but they may also alternatively work to ensure the right/important things are being discussed and the right questions are being asked in regular 1:1’s in regards to possible reasons an employee might not stay. The idea is to get at this important information in an effort to try and address employee expectations where you may not have invested any efforts before.
Your most important assets are walking out the door every day – how do you ensure they will stay?
Global research is very conclusive – at the very heart of employee engagement drivers is the quality and depth of the relationship with the manager and the employee. Manager’s people management skills are the most powerful factor in employee motivation, morale – and ultimately their own decision to stay or leave. When these relationships are strong, the manager really understands the employee more than a typical employee-manager relationship. As an example they will really know considerably more about their employees, especially their goals, their stressors, what excites them and how they define success; they’ll be able to identify what is meaningful to their direct report employees.
Knowing your employee’s spouses name or their children’s ages is not enough, you need to understand your employees, know their dreams, disappointments, goals, motivators, fears, and the activities that build or drain their energy. These relationships take time but can be nurtured along by empathy, being available, careful listening and action on part of the manager.
Effective management and leadership require that you understand your employee’s perspectives & their hopes and dreams and that you present them with challenges that leads them in the direction they want to be moving anyways.
Let’s look at this simple example; an employee who is now quite experienced as a work from home worker may have a strong want (even need) to be able to work from home for the summer at their cottage when most workers are back at the office on some regularity. They may not even ask for this. Pre-pandemic, this ask would have been seen in a very different light as it is now. Taking this example further; managers can be pro-active and offer up some of these ideas where the employee may think it is off the table to even discuss. In other words present your employees with work arrangements in this case that you know will help them in other areas of their life. You may know that this employee typically drives 5 hours round trip to their cottage on weekends and also that July and August are when they prefer to spend the most time there. You may also know they are spending some final moments with an elderly loved one at the cottage or a terminally ill peson, etc. By you offering this, you are showing empathy/understanding/respect by offering considerable time and expense savings for the employee perhaps in a time of need also. You are also showing empathy and that you genuinely care about the employee. Now, of course all the proper work from home protocols needs to be in place and more importantly, well understood, but the point is – understand your employee needs and wants and then present them with opportunities that align with their needs/wants at and away from work.
What do we talk about in these STAY interviews? What are the specific strategies a company should consider when doing STAY interviews? Two new documents have been loaded to the www.twogreysuits.com website to help you immediately with this. The new documents are titled:
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Best Questions to ask in a STAY Interview
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Considerations for Doing Effective STAY Interviews
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When you see talented, engaged, trained employees walk out the door for a different employer, you should be concerned, especially if it is a competitor they are going to. Now, when you see several employees leaving for the same competitor… RED FLAG, you are being exposed as a recruiting ground and your competitor likely has something significantly better to offer your employees than you do. (and word will spread fast, trust me)
Trying to hire good employees in these times with the announced reopening of offices and the confusion around employee wants/rights to keep working from home, many companies are already feeling or are going to be feeling the full force of high turnover and all that entails.
Research has historically suggested that the true cost of turnover is anywhere from 1.5-2.5 x the annual salary of the person leaving in hard and soft costs. As an example; lost productivity, training time, advertising costs, recruitment fees, HR time, hiring manager time, signing bonuses, employee morale, etc.
Companies that have experienced some hurt with unwanted employee turnover already realize the value in trying to prevent these resignations from happening in the first place. Stateside they are calling it “The Great Resignation” and by all accounts the numbers now are staggering. Recent research seems to indicate as many as 65-70% of employees are seeking a new job. Even if just half of these numbers are real, huge cause for concern.
You can get out in front of this wave by purposefully being proactive with STAY interviews and by using the information/documents provided for TwoGreySuits members.
TwoGreySuits is a leading-edge provider of on-line human resource management information, processes, tools and forms servicing the North American market. They have integrated the HR practices associated with the key drivers of Employee Engagement within the well-organized information on the website.
To login as a user: camx.twogreysuits.com
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Enter your email address and Password CAMX01
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If you are not currently signed up, please email me directly linda@camx.ca
The TGS System is a one-of-a-kind product that includes:
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The HR Power Centre for dealing with the day-to-day people management issues that inevitably arise
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24/7 HR Hot Line
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Topical regular Blogs suitable for reprinting by the Association members
Convention Committee Report
Convention 2022
Respectfully submitted by Brad French, Convention Chair
No looking back, forward we go!
This year’s CAM-X convention which will be held in Kingston Ontario from September 26th-29th. The agenda is being finalized and will be published as soon as it is complete.
Our starting Keynote speaker is Sarah McVanel with her talk on Recognition: The Solution to the great Resignation. For those that have not heard Sarah before you are in for a treat. To learn more about Sarah use this link. https://greatnessmagnified.com/
After Sarah’s presentation, she will be hosting a workshop with Dana Lloyd of Answerplus. Sarah has worked with Answerplus and will present key takeaways they have learned in our industry with a focus on “Where have all the good ones gone?”
Don’t forget that COACH U will be held just before convention allowing our supervisors to learn from our keynote speaker and attend the awards luncheon.
Registration is now open. Click here to register.
https://www.camx.ca/2022-conference
I look forward to seeing everyone! Mark your calendars now!

Brad French

Beautiful
Kingston, Ontario
