Meet 2021 President’s Award winner, Derrick Polakoff
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Five-year WestJetter, Derrick Polakoff, Chief Guest Solutions Specialist, Operations Control Centre (OCC) is one of 16, President’s Award winners from 2021. Known amongst his leaders and peers as a champion of WestJet’s values, Derrick goes above and beyond in everything he does to create a positive and productive workspace for everyone he works with.
During the pandemic while WestJet’s operations slowed down, Derrick did not. Taking it upon himself to develop apps and workflows to automate and improve guest solutions, tasks, processes and communications, Derrick changed the future of OCC processes and communication in a significant way. WestJet has come out of the pandemic more efficient because of Derrick’s voluntary and exemplary efforts.
We sat down with Derrick to ask him a few questions about WestJet and what being a President’s Award winner means to him:
What is one thing you want to share with our guests?
Thank you for sticking with us through these hard times, while we never get to talk to you in operations you are always the first thing on our minds!
Where do you see WestJet in the future?
Returning better than ever from the pandemic and continuing to lead the way in providing a great guest experience.
What’s your favorite WestJet memory?
Working as a CSA in Yellowknife and seeing people from all over the world amazed at the Aurora! All our destinations have something that makes them special!
What has the last year been like for you?
Challenging but rewarding, the pandemic has been hard on all of us but looking back on it I am proud of what we have accomplished in the last year.
What Derrick’s leader had to say:
“Derrick is an absolute pleasure to work with, from both a leader and peer perspective. He is patient, works at a high capacity, listens extremely well, has a great attitude, and seeks out feedback to ensure his outputs are as strong as possible. Derrick is always positive and never hesitates to support whenever and wherever he can,” said Marty Farrar, WestJet Director, Operations Control.
