Leading with CARE
The fact is, we all need and crave connection—and over the last two years, the pandemic has left us starved for it. Which is why, when I reviewed our annual employee engagement survey results in Canada, I wasn’t surprised by the insights our team shared. They were looking for more ways to connect with each other, the communities in which we work and live, and to have a clear voice with senior leadership.
As a direct result of this feedback, and in alignment with our enterprise values, we took action to address these areas of opportunity in our corporate culture, and created our inaugural CARE Committee in February 2021.
This employee-driven team is on a mission to create meaningful experiences for our employees and give back to our communities coast-to-coast through charitable giving and community engagement efforts.
The CARE Committee works directly with our executive team and is focused on advancing our corporate culture efforts across four key areas:
- Charitable: Identifying and working with approved national charitable organizations, which supports our mission and involves employees in our giving to maximize impact
- Community: Maximizing our impact to the local communities we live and work in through employee engagement and participation
- Employee Engagement: Acting as voice of employee while building programs to support improved employee engagement scores and employee satisfaction
- Social: Responsible for driving a robust, all-inclusive schedule of Canada-wide social events
“Being a part of CARE means we are empowered to represent the voices of all Canadian employees from coast-to-coast, across various functions. Creating the CARE committee demonstrates that our leadership team truly values employee feedback and is committed to building a strong corporate culture for all,” says Jessica Corporon, Project Manager and CARE Committee Co-Chair.
CARE has made a meaningful impact to the ways we connect and engage with each other. In just the past year, we’ve:
- facilitated a financial donation to support those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic through United Way Canada.
- collaborated with our Women’s Initiative Network (WIN) to host a national food drive through the holiday season across Canada.
- facilitated the donation of product in partnership with our suppliers.
- supported the first National Day of Truth and Reconciliation through Orange Shirt Day and a financial donation to Indspire.
- supported a back-to-school drive, where they involved our employees in our giving.
- organized a Halloween costume contest where our teams could participate live in our distribution centers, or virtually.
Make no mistake, if you are a leader of people—your team is watching you. They watch how you react and take their cues from you. If you ask for employee feedback, you need to be prepared to hear the positives and the negatives, and most importantly—if you ask, you need to act on what you hear. Empowering employees to take action by engaging with each other and leadership—letting their voices guide the activities—drives greater engagement and better business outcomes.
There will always be unforeseen internal or external challenges at work—going through it together in a safe, connected culture is what fuels and sustains us. How do you show your team you lead with care?
