Assante

Our branch of Assante is a small company (50+) and our corporate group of 6 employees provides services to 20 financial planners and their teams. We received a grant from BC’s Workplace Training for Innovation Program that allowed us to contract Jouta’s services to improve the teamwork withint our corporate group of employees.

Cori interviewed each member of our team to get their personal outlook before we met as a group. Cori and Jouta’s approach is to encourage integrity between team members and to embody Jout’a values of transparency and truthfulness in all interactions between team members in order to build a high degree of trust. We learned a lot through this process and we still use many of the techniques we learned form Jouta in our daily interactions.

Since that initial experience with Jouta, we have accessed their HR services on a number of occasions. For example, our management team was struggling with a difficult decision on whether to terminate an employee and replace the role with a consulting service contract. We spent many hours reviewing possible scenarios that might work. We finally called Jouta and they responded immediately and assisted us through the whole process. This involved evaluating our current situation to help us make the right decision, assisting with the termination process and also ensuring all legal issues were appropriately taken care of. Because the termination resulted in gossip within the branch, we needed guidance on how to minimize the impact and to do our best to protect the privacy of those involved. Jouta’s guidance was invaluable on and allowed us to conduct the process with the same integrity we always experience in our interactions with Jouta.

We have consulted Jouta on several other difficult employee situations. We have always been able to count on them to be very supportive and to respond quickly, which is critical in these types of situations. Not only Cori Maedel but also her staff are a great asset for us to draw on for HR guidance.

We would be happy to recommend Jouta to any firm that needs assistance with Human Resources. For small companies with limited HR departments Jouta saves time and money and also helps alleviate stress. Is it great to know that we have a supportive ally to call on for Human Resource issues.

~Sue Jergens
Financial Planner/Branch Manager Assante Wealth Management