Making Waves 2022 Digital Learning Event – Presentation Recaps

On February 10^th, Kart Vyas, from Workplace Safety & Prevention Services, conducted two information sessions dealing with mental health in the workplace. In the morning session, Kart first explained how common mental health is in society and the workplace (it impacts us all) and how difficult it can be to identify. Mental health costs Canadian business $15-25 billion per year so it is a major challenge. He then reviewed the many myths associated with mental health and the need to remove the stigma associated with it. Kart talked about steps that can be taken by managers & supervisors to help their employees who may be dealing with a mental health problem and reminded attendees that organizations should not forget to look after their managers and supervisors as well. Companies need to prepare for the anxiety and extra home responsibilities their workers may experience with return to office/facility plans that are now starting to take place.

The second session focused on strategies and actions that organizations can undertake to deal with mental health in the workplace and promote a safer work environment. Companies should be proactive to protect mental health. Employers have a legal responsibility to look after the well-being of their workers and provide protection from physical, mental and social hazards in order to offer a healthy work environment. Appropriate policies need to be in place.

Kart provided a number of resources that provide information on mental health, tips, and policies for companies to deal with mental health in their workplaces and ways to promote positive mental health.

We thank Kart very much for taking the time to speak to our members and passing on his knowledge on this very important topic.

On February 15^th, Mr. Sanjay Dhebar, a faculty member with the Schulich Executive Education Centre (SEEC) and a partner with the Leonnova consulting and training firm, held an excellent interactive webinar for members on selling in today’s pandemic world and what it takes to be successful with your customers. Sanjay, with participant involvement, talked about selling challenges that stand out today as well as the key pivot-leverage change that has taken place. Sanjay then dug into factors, including the key one, that drives sales growth. Sanjay finished off the session with a review of different personal characteristics that can be best suited for field sales persons versus management and support positions.

We would like to thank Sanjay for taking the time to talk with our members and providing his insights on selling. You can connect with him on LinkedIn, Instagram #Leonnova and by email at sanjay@leonnova.com.

The last session of the 2022 Making Waves Online Learning Event took place on February 17^th with a presentation by Vafa Akhaven on the topic of providing Customer Experience (CX) excellence. Again, Vafa is part of the Schulich School of Business Executive Education Centre at York University and has 30 years of operating and consulting focus on CX. His talk first demonstrated a secret of establishing customer experience excellence – that being the use of “common sense” as a foundation. He then went onto explain the differences between Customer Experience, Customer Service (CS) and Customer Relationship (CR). The webinar reviewed some statistics and case study data on the benefits to companies that provide great customer experience.

The presentation then focused on the standards of what consumers/customers are looking for in their experiences with companies with a particular focus on another key foundation – “performance consistency”. The webinar closed with tips on setting up practices and approaches to achieve CX excellence within organizations.

We would like to thank Mr. Akhaven and all the Making Waves speakers for their presentations & discussions during this year’s event which has increased our members’ knowledge on a spectrum of topics and given participants something they can bring back to their companies and/or individual management. We look forward to conducting the event next time in-person!