Skip to main content
RBC
When you think of the world's most innovative companies, a Canadian call centre may not jump to mind. But SureCall leads the way in equitable hiring practices, environmental sustainability and community giving through an innovative approach to business rooted in purpose and values.

SureCall is the creation of Desirée Bombenon, winner of the 2020 RBC Momentum Award, earned at the Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards late last year.

While a student at the University of Calgary, Bombenon joined the dispatch department of Page Direct – a Calgary-based paging and telecommunications company where she worked typing out messages for pagers. With the rise of cell phones, the company sold its paging assets and evolved – under Bombenon’s leadership – to become an after-hours answering service. As the organization grew and changed, Bombenon felt a need to do more with it from a perspective of environmental and social governance – so when Bombenon’ ideas weren’t readily accepted, she took a few years off to think about how she could create real value for the organization and the team.

Bombenon came back to the organization as a stakeholder and reinvented it as SureCall Contact Centres Ltd., offering customized services for clients while creating more of a consultant role for frontline staff. “I wanted to come back with the influence to change the organization into something that had purpose and values.”

In doing so, she built a better work environment where employees could feel accomplished, valued and know they were achieving something that was bigger than simply coming in to do a job.

An unconventional recruitment process

To create a different kind of business, Bombenon recognized the need to establish a different kind of hiring process – particularly in the call centre industry where there is a high turnover rate of frontline staff. This included taking the cognitive bias out of hiring, and instead assessing candidates based on their alignment to the values and the culture of the company.

“We have a very different way of recruiting and hiring,” explains Bombenon. “We have a no resume, no interview process. We’re not interested in an individual’s past performance – we’re only interested in their future potential.”

Instead of following a traditional application path, a candidate fills out a profile that matches the values and culture of the organization. If they reach a score of 85 or higher, they’re pretty much hired into the role. It’s a process that leads to a diverse and inclusive workforce, as there is no knowledge of gender, sexual orientation, race or religion when the candidate applies.

“You can’t find a more diverse group of individuals than if you walked into our building today and looked at our team,” says Bombenon. “There is no cognitive bias in bringing in those individuals except for a bias for the type of values, culture, beliefs and philosophies our organization has.”

Once hired, new employees go through a comprehensive onboarding program that focuses on the values and culture of the organization. “We spend a tremendous amount of time first talking about who we are, about our culture and what we’re trying to do as an organization,” says Bombenon. “We talk about the benefits of giving back to the community and what that means to the community – and we look for engagement with our bigger picture and bigger purpose.” It’s only after this process that the candidate is walked through the roles available, the skill sets that will be required, and what the best fit would be for them as an individual.

One of the outcomes of this first-of-its-kind hiring process is a low rate of turnover, which Bombenon explains is due to the accountability and connection an individual feels towards the organization. “Because it’s their choice to work here, they’re highly motivated to prove themselves.”

A deep commitment to social and environmental governance

One of Bombenon’s primary objectives when reinventing SureCall was to create an organization that was a force for good – not only for her employees but for the planet and the communities within.

Becoming a Certified B Corporation in 2019 was the exclamation point on her team’s efforts. “We already had processes in place, but it still took over eight months of hard work to receive the B Corp Certification,” says Bombenon, which means that the organization is upholding the highest standards of social and environmental performance and, according to the Certified B Corporation website, “legally required to consider the impact of their decisions on their workers, customers, suppliers, community and the environment.”

“Being B Certified means we are living the B Corp values, maintaining a paperless workplace, making sure our hiring processes meet diversity and inclusion standards, establishing recycling and composting programs in the office, using ethical vendors and more.”

Furthermore, SureCall was recently named Best For the World™ 2021 by B Lab Global in recognition of its exemplary performance, specifically for their involvement in community giving. In fact, SureCall ranks in the top 5% of all B Corps in its size group worldwide for their sustainable business practices.

Doing Good With Every Call

An integral part of SureCall’s culture is its commitment to giving back. Through two high impact programs, the organization is making a significant difference in the lives of many.

Their Good Call™ program launched in 2016 as a local endeavour to assist not-for-profit organizations and local charities. It has since spun into something much more purposeful, evolving to also help fund national and international projects through the contribution of revenue. “We give two percent of our top line revenue, which means that even if the company is not profitable, we are still giving two percent to the program to make sure projects can move forward. That in turn motivates the team to work really hard.” The model also enables client acquisition and retention, as clients know that two percent of their invoice is directly contributing to meaningful causes locally and around the world.

SureCall’s Hero Girls™ program, meanwhile, helps educate and empower girls in underserved and developing communities. A program Bombenon built while attending Harvard University’s Advanced Leadership Initiative, it supports more than 100 girls a year through scholarships, mentoring and entrepreneurship programs, enabling girls to learn how to be leaders, contribute back to their communities and create self-efficacy for themselves. “Some of these girls have launched innovation projects within their villages that nobody imagined they could have done,” says Bombenon. Every call the SureCall team takes contributes to this important cause, so the team believes they truly are ‘Doing Good With Every Call.’

As recipient of the 2020 RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards RBC Momentum Award, Desirée Bombenon is transforming the call centre industry, leading the way in equitable and unbiased hiring and building initiatives that matter to communities, her employees and her clients.

More from the Canadian Women Entrepreneurs Series:

Women Entrepreneurs: Making a Difference Through Leadership and Innovation

Read Next

Bobbie Racette is proving the power of an inclusivity-first approach with Virtual Gurus

Read Next

Technovation Montréal CEO Stéphanie Jecrois shares how building tech skills builds confidence

Read Next

How Theory+Practice and its founder Rogayeh Tabrizi connect businesses with their customers through data

Read Next

Shauna Curry is Addressing One of the World’s Most Pressing Issues — and Women Around the World are Taking Action

Read Next

Strong Values and Unwavering Resolve: How Jacqui Winter Built and Grew HR Project Partners

Read Next

One37 Founder Fadwa Mohanna is Leading the Charge on Digital Trust, Data Privacy and Gender Equity in Tech

Read Next

Nichole Nzegwu Founded Krave Granola with a Mission to Give Back

Read Next

Areli Beauty: A Skincare Brand with a Message of Empowerment and Self-care

Read Next

Bee Video Productions: Turning a home-based business into a global digital creative team #OpportunityKnocks

Read Next

Taking a Bet on Herself: Canadian HR Solutions Founder Caroline Power Shares Her Transition from Corporate Life to Thriving Entrepreneur

Read Next

Ellie Bianca: A Skincare Brand Aiming to Impact
1 Million Women

Read Next

STEM-Ready Kids Around the World: How Anu Bidani Grew STEM MINDS From a Community Business to a Global Company

Read Next

Sharing Our Cultures: Promoting multiculturism and inclusion in Newfoundland and Labrador

Read Next

Bryan and Sarah Baeumler Share 5 Tips on Starting and Growing a Business

Read Next

Community-based, Community-built. The Local Power Behind Laila’s Cheesecake Co. #OpportunityKnocks

Read Next

Women in Tech: It Takes a Village to Raise a Female-led Venture

Read Next

How Dr. Eugenia Duodu is Using STEM as a Vehicle for Change for Youth

Read Next

RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards (CWEA): A Virtual Celebration of Impact and Achievement

Read Next

How Sylvia Parris-Drummond’s Business is Creating Change for African Nova Scotians

Read Next

#SmallBusinessRedefined: Muttluks Founder Marianne Bertrand on Running a Seasonal Canadian Business

Read Next

CANN Forecast + SheEO: Making a Difference Through Technology and Radical Generosity

Read Next

Catherine Metrycki on disrupting the flower industry with tech-based Callia Flowers #IMadeThis

Read Next

How Women Are Changing the Face of Business

Read Next

Lily Tse on Founding Think Dirty and Uncovering Truths in the Beauty Industry #IMadeThis

Read Next

Kathleen Quinlan on Founding Fiore Botanica From Her Kitchen #IMadethis

Read Next

The 27th Annual RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards: Celebrating Business Owners Making a Difference

Read Next

Jayne’s Cottages: Building a Luxury Cottage Rental Business Through Trust and Service #IMadeThis

Read Next

Heather Modlin on the Rewards of Creating a Non-profit Business- Key Assets Newfoundland and Labrador #IMadeThis

Read Next

Creating a Powerful Force for Women Entrepreneurs with SheEO Activator Dagmara Fijalkowski

Read Next

Jennifer Hamilton on Creating Oxygen Yoga & Fitness: #IMadeThis

Read Next

Founders of Routine Share How They Turned Their Clean, Natural Products into a Thriving Global Business #IMadeThis

Read Next

Saccade Analytics: Turning 30 Years of Research into Insight, a Testing Device for More than 200 Neurological Disorders #IMadeThis

Read Next

SheEO CAN Summit 2019: Celebrating the Women Who Are Influencing Change, Making a Difference, and Leading the Way to a Better World

Read Next

Founder of Lumel Studios, Luann Baker-Johnson, on Creating Art in the Far North

Read Next

How LeDaveed’s Andy Dale is Doing Business Differently #IMadeThis

Read Next

Innovation is Nothing Without Adoption: Q&A with Horizn founder Janice Diner #IMadeThis

Read Next

Founder of Knix, Joanna Griffiths on Building a Mission-Driven Business #IMadeThis

Read Next

Give Us Your Dirty Laundry: How Vaundry Is Solving a Tedious Chore Through Tech #IMadeThis

Read Next

Dr. Marjorie Dixon on Why She Founded Anova Fertility #IMadeThis

Read Next

Empowering Women Entrepreneurs Today, to Build a Stronger Tomorrow

Read Next

Toni Desrosiers on Why She Founded Abeego #IMadeThis

Read Next