BC's Top Employers (2026) Magazine - Magazine - Page 44
44
BC’S TOP EMPLOYERS (2026)
E-Comm people are well-prepared for calls for help
I
t takes a special kind of
person to work the front lines
at E-Comm Emergency
Communications for British
Columbia Incorporated.
Karli Banns is one of them. In
the five years she’s worked at
E-Comm, she has served in a
number of positions taking calls
from and interacting with the
public. She now coaches others in
those roles.
“It is important to me to help
others,” Banns says. “When you
have done all you can to be there
for someone in need, there is a
real sense of pride and accomplishment at the end of your shift.
You know you helped someone in
a really tough moment.”
When you have done all
you can to be there for
someone in need, there
is a real sense of pride
and accomplishment
at the end of your shift.
You know you helped
someone in a really
tough moment.
— Karli Banns
Peer Coach
E-Comm is British Columbia’s
largest emergency communications provider, fielding 99 per cent
of the province’s 911 calls — more
than two million calls a year. With
centres in Vancouver and Saanich,
it serves 30 different police
agencies and 40 fire departments
across the province. As the “first”
first responders, the E-Comm
Call takers at E-Comm Emergency Communications for British Columbia have access to mental health
resources and other supportive benefits.
team provides a critical entry
point to emergency response by
connecting people with police,
fire and ambulance services and
maintaining the technology used
by first responders.
Yet in 2022, when E-Comm’s current interim president and CEO
Nancy Blair was first brought on
board, the company itself was suffering from staffing shortages and
increasing demand on emergency
services due to factors such as the
opioid health crisis and extreme
weather events including the 2021
heat dome, forest fires and major
flooding.
“Our staff were so overwhelmed,” Blair says. “It had
a huge toll on them. They felt
helpless. They were not able to
help people in need.”
Blair was hired into the
then-newly created and appropriately named position of chief
transformation officer to overhaul
E-Comm’s operations. With the
support of staff and leaders across
the organization as well as the
endorsement of the board of directors, she introduced a multi-year,
five-pillar transformation plan
to modernize E-Comm’s service
delivery. It focused on people,
operations and technology.
Support for staff was front and
centre among the many changes
introduced. For those coming
off tough calls, critical incident
support processes were revised
to provide trauma-informed help
right away. A coaching culture
was introduced by giving all
supervisors coaching training.
Mental health was prioritized.
A psychologist on call was hired
and integrated into programming.
Compensation and benefits were
reviewed and improved. Resources
like the Calm app or Haleo were
made available.
“Public safety requires a special
level of dedication, and our staff
do incredible work in a highstakes and high-stress environment,” says Blair. “It’s essential
that they have the mental health
