This article is part of a series that explores a hiring trend out of the Great Resignation — the rise of the boomerang employee. These are employees who left a company but after further consideration, return. In the series, RBCers share their decisions to come back and the new skills and deeper perspective they bring with them.
For Judy Fong the pandemic was a wake-up call. After two years as a senior leader at another Canadian institution, she started to think back to when she was the happiest. “Everyone started reflecting on life and their careers during the pandemic. That reflection helped guide me,” she says.
With a 24-year career in financial services, there was a lot to look back on. Judy worked in personal banking for 17 years in a variety of roles, then came to RBC in 2014 as a branch manager.
Judy says the bank supported her as a woman and especially, as an Asian woman. “Many of my colleagues newer to banking would say they had rarely seen a female Asian branch manager and told me I inspired them. RBC gave me the opportunity to highlight diversity.”
During her almost five years at RBC, she became deeply involved with several employee resource groups for colleagues to connect and grow, including those for minorities and women in leadership. Judy also planned, organized and emceed a Lunar New Year celebration where many Ottawa-based employees thanked her for bringing together RBC’s Asian community. The event was the first of its kind for RBC and Judy says she got a lot of great feedback about how it helped create a greater sense of belonging. Through the Discover RBC program, Judy helped to inspire that same feeling by organizing and hosting a day-long welcome event for new RBCers.