Community Impact in a Virtual World
Chief Client Officer
- Nov 23, 2022
At the start of 2022, GMR launched our Agency Experience Councils (AECs) – groups that impact the culture of GMR and drive advancements in the StoryMaker experience across wellness, sustainability, community, and connection. When presented with the opportunity to act as executive sponsor of the Community Impact AEC, I jumped at the chance to stand alongside my co-leads Dane Siegenthaler, Amanda Werner, Cassandra Ziller, and Jeremy Gomez to create a meaningful impact not only inside our agency, but across the communities where our StoryMakers live and work.
When we set out to establish our corporate social responsibility strategy, we knew that community involvement in a virtual world would be more important than ever before. It pushes us to do something together in support of GMR’s values—creating bonding moments that were once organic and frequent, but now require intentional effort. That’s where the idea for Global Service Day was born.
Global Service Day
While GMR has always offered agency-organized volunteer opportunities for our StoryMakers, we’ve never done it as a collective, instead opting to plan individual days of service at hub locations. Inspired by our clients who run similar corporate-wide volunteer events, my AEC team and I knew we needed something that fit the global nature of the agency and had a replicable format to create lasting relationships and measurable impact across different cities, and even countries.
Last month, more than 150 GMR StoryMakers around the world joined the Community Impact AEC in GMR’s inaugural Global Service Day. The day, which supported more than a dozen non-profit organizations, was a combination of what we do best at GMR—creating memories. And while we weren’t in the office, I can confidently say that our work and creativity greatly benefited from the opportunity to come together across the globe to create what we call “bright bulb moments.”
Moving Forward
We have big plans to do more heading into 2023. With the success and positive feedback from Global Service Day, we’re pushing to make this event even larger and more impactful. Additionally, the agency provides each StoryMaker with two full days of volunteer time. Our goal is to help every employee fill that time with opportunities that fulfill them.
We know that the job market is competitive, and we want to continue to invest in opportunities that align with our agency values and generate real, meaningful experiences for our StoryMakers. If you’re interested in learning more about the StoryMaker experience at GMR, send me a message on LinkedIn. I’m always happy to connect.
