Wendy Nish’s career with CWB started 16 years ago and, as she puts it, came to her completely by happenstance. She had just graduated from university, and a friend of her parents who worked with the bank asked for her resume. It didn’t take long for an opportunity from CWB to arise.
“When it came to looking for an employer, I wanted to find an organization where it felt they were looking out for my interests,” says Wendy.
The help and encouragement that Wendy feels from her employer is something she wanted to extend to the members of her own team. And her commitment to not only her team but to the organization when CWB was centralizing its loan support is what led to her receiving CWB’s Pillar of Excellence Award. She was, in fact, one of the first people to come into the new centralized loan support team, and helped develop the new processes and systems while assisting new employees who came into the team with learning their new roles.
Wendy’s own trajectory saw her starting her career at CWB as a teller at one of the branches. From there, she quickly moved through the ranks, ultimately finding herself working in equipment financing before growing into a managerial position. She sees people as the most important asset that CWB has, with the organization demonstrating that with their focus on employees.
Being people focussed is where Wendy considers her personal values aligning closely with CWB’s corporate values. In her current role, Wendy’s clients are the other CWB branches, rather than external customers. So being able to assist the account managers at the branches with issues they may be facing is something that Wendy finds she’s passionate about.
“If we can make things smooth for the account managers, then things will be smooth for their clients and that means those clients will likely be coming back to do more business,” says Wendy. “It’s nice to be able to help clients and, now that I’m a manager, being able to help my employees get to where they want to be. I like being able to work my way up and help other people reach their goals.”
It’s not only in the day-to-day operations that Wendy sees CWB going above and beyond to support its employees. She mentions the flexible schedules that allow employees to balance their personal lives with work while receiving recognition for outstanding achievement. With employees feeling so well supported, she views CWB as being a positive force in both their lives and communities.
“CWB provides a lot of opportunity for employees to contribute to their communities, and many employees are able to go out and volunteer for causes they find most important,” says Wendy. “The head office and many executives will even reach out and express support for campaigns that they want to see us involved with.”
Taking a cue from what she sees from the company as a whole, Wendy mirrors much of her leadership style based on being people-focused. She prides herself in keeping an open door policy with her team, always willing to provide guidance whenever anyone needs it and making sure anyone building a career with CWB is able to reach their goals.
“Loan services being centralized was a big change for CWB, and I wanted to ensure that everyone felt comfortable with the direction we were heading,” says Wendy. “I was there for the teams to help them with this new change, and it was important to me to make sure that everyone felt good about this new change.”
“When it came to looking for an employer, I wanted to find an organization where it felt they were looking out for my interests,” says Wendy.
“It’s important to me to have an employer who’s encouraging and helpful, and I see that in CWB. They’re people focused and if we need anything, they’re always there to support us as employees.”
The help and encouragement that Wendy feels from her employer is something she wanted to extend to the members of her own team. And her commitment to not only her team but to the organization when CWB was centralizing its loan support is what led to her receiving CWB’s Pillar of Excellence Award. She was, in fact, one of the first people to come into the new centralized loan support team, and helped develop the new processes and systems while assisting new employees who came into the team with learning their new roles.
Building a career
Wendy’s own trajectory saw her starting her career at CWB as a teller at one of the branches. From there, she quickly moved through the ranks, ultimately finding herself working in equipment financing before growing into a managerial position. She sees people as the most important asset that CWB has, with the organization demonstrating that with their focus on employees.
“A big reason I’ve stayed with CWB for the past 16 years is their people-first focus,” says Wendy.She explains that the people she has worked with through all of her different roles with the bank have helped keep CWB fun while still tackling the many day-to-day challenges. “There have been a lot of different challenges and opportunities. It’s not always the same thing year in and year out. But there’s always been a great group of people to work with here at CWB.”
The importance of people focus
Being people focussed is where Wendy considers her personal values aligning closely with CWB’s corporate values. In her current role, Wendy’s clients are the other CWB branches, rather than external customers. So being able to assist the account managers at the branches with issues they may be facing is something that Wendy finds she’s passionate about.
“If we can make things smooth for the account managers, then things will be smooth for their clients and that means those clients will likely be coming back to do more business,” says Wendy. “It’s nice to be able to help clients and, now that I’m a manager, being able to help my employees get to where they want to be. I like being able to work my way up and help other people reach their goals.”
It’s not only in the day-to-day operations that Wendy sees CWB going above and beyond to support its employees. She mentions the flexible schedules that allow employees to balance their personal lives with work while receiving recognition for outstanding achievement. With employees feeling so well supported, she views CWB as being a positive force in both their lives and communities.
“CWB provides a lot of opportunity for employees to contribute to their communities, and many employees are able to go out and volunteer for causes they find most important,” says Wendy. “The head office and many executives will even reach out and express support for campaigns that they want to see us involved with.”
Values in leadership
Taking a cue from what she sees from the company as a whole, Wendy mirrors much of her leadership style based on being people-focused. She prides herself in keeping an open door policy with her team, always willing to provide guidance whenever anyone needs it and making sure anyone building a career with CWB is able to reach their goals.
“Loan services being centralized was a big change for CWB, and I wanted to ensure that everyone felt comfortable with the direction we were heading,” says Wendy. “I was there for the teams to help them with this new change, and it was important to me to make sure that everyone felt good about this new change.”