It’s that time of year again.
Lunch boxes are coming out of storage; bookbags are finding their way out of the back of the closet; there’s a mile-long list of supplies not yet purchased hanging on the fridge. This is the reality of many of our employees. It’s true, back-to-school time can be stressful and costly, but life just got a little easier for members of the Incept family facing the countdown to the school bell.
Before I go on, it’s important to take a look back – a look at one of our values, Present. What this means to Incept is that you have to be fully present in both your home and work lives. For a number of people, that’s no small task, especially when we reach such a busy time of year. Looking at present from a higher perspective, it just seems right that Incept should do what it can to help their employees stay present at home!
Back to the here and now, throughout the week of August 16th, Incept employees with children in grades K-12 (as well as Incept employees attending college this semester) received a welcomed surprise. Each of them took home a bag jam-packed with school supplies appropriate for the age group of their children – or, in some cases, themselves!
- Boxes upon boxes of 1-subject notebooks: $.15 each
- Pencils by the pack (a lot of packs): $.88 per pack
- Crates-worth of 24 pack crayons: $.25 a box
- A pile of rulers: $.50 each
- A mountain of filler paper: $.75 per pack
- Tons of 2-pack glue sticks: $.25 per pack
- Helping out just shy of 100 members of the Incept family: Priceless!
Incept Gives is always looking for ways to make a positive impact on the world around us. Sometimes you don’t have to look far from home. The goal was to help ease the burden of a tough time of year on our employees. Goal achieved.
Where else can you find a company culture like this?
Sunday, August 1st, was a day I can best summarize in one word: memorable. I say this because that was the day of the 2010 Incept Summer Fun Family Picnic.
When we starting talking about the idea of having a “warm month equivalent” of our Christmas party, we weren’t exactly sure what direction to go. Enter our company culture…
Step One was to decide the type of event we wanted – adult-only or a family event. We left that decision up to our Conversational Marketing Experts (CMEs) by turning it into a poll on Facebook. After tallying the votes, it was decided that the picnic would be family event. From there on it was smooth sailing. (As a member of the planning committee, I can say from personal experience that the entire process was made easier by the feedback of our CMEs.)
Fast-forward to the day of the picnic – the food being passed out, cornhole bags getting tossed, kids coloring, and the sweet sound of supervisors falling into a dunk tank filled the air. For a dollar you could take 3 tosses at dunking the bosses! What made it special, though, was where the money was going. All of the proceeds from the picnic went into our Employee Fund, which was established with the goal of re-opening a school in Haiti.
Everything about our company culture involves compassion and generosity. The Summer Fun Family Picnic gave us a chance to enjoy the company of friends and meet the families we all talk so much about at work. More importantly, it gave us a chance to help others whose needs, we feel, are our responsibility to fill.
To our CMEs, thank you for your generosity and kindness. Thank you to the brave souls who plunged into the cold water of the dunk tank: Virginia, Kevin, Keith, Steve, Brian, Dave, & Sam. And to the children in Haiti who we are so passionate about helping, we won’t stop until we’ve met our goal. That’s a promise!
Compassion can be defined as a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering. As I’ve said before, our employees don’t just use our company values as guidelines for how they should behave while they’re at work, they LIVE by them. Just the other day, I was touched by an example of this dedication to living compassionately. What follows is the story of how a veteran CME nearly brought me to tears by demonstrating selfless compassion and caring:
The week following the Hope For Children Gala was full of emotion for me. (If you have any doubt why that is, check out my previous post about the Gala and how it touched me.) Thursday was our May Employee Of The Month Meeting and I was given a chance to express my feelings. Long story made short, I stood in front of the entire company and asked each employee to help me in my mission to raise money to reopen a school in Haiti, sponsored entirely by Incept employees.
Enter Mary Cutlip, a veteran CME, who is known around the contact center for her positive attitude and her big heart. A few short weeks ago, Mary’s husband passed away unexpectedly. Mary and her daughter, Katie, have both worked for Incept for years and hold a special place in many of our hearts. So, as a company, we banded together to raise money to help them in their time of need. Fast-forward to that Thursday, as I walked walked back to my seat after speaking, Mary reached over and descretely handed me a donation. She didn’t say a word to me, and no one saw her do it. She just did it because it was what she felt was right. Just a few weeks after we had all come together to raise money to help her with her hardships, Mary decided to pay it forward.
If I had to sum up what she did, I would call it: a selfless act of compassion and true leadership, as an example of the person we all should aspire to be. I don’t think there has yet been a more worthy example of how we – at Incept – live our company values. Thank you Mary, for being an example for the rest of us to follow!
Because of everything we’ve been fortunate enough to have available to us, we set up an initiative called Incept Gives to give back hope. Jeff White, our Founder/Chief Listening Officer, has worked for years to be able to give hope to those who have none. In the process, he built a strong relationship with Cross International, an organization dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty in some of the poorest places in the world.
On Friday, May 7th, Cross International hosted an event that changed my life: The 3rd Annual Hope Gala (Hope For Children). The event was a resounding success. I think Jeff put it best in a post he made on the Incept fan page on Facebook:
Jeff White: I wanted to let everyone know that the Haiti fundraising Gala held this past Friday night was a complete success. Along with matching funds from a large foundation, the event raised a total of $217,000! Incept Gives was one of the event’s primary sponsors. This means that hundreds if not thousands… of children, who live in the poorest country in the western hemisphere, will have hope for a better life because of you. Simply put, your hard work puts us in the position to provide the funds that change lives.
Words really can’t describe how proud I am of all of you.
The primary goal of the gala was to raise enough money to reopen ten schools that closed when the people/organizations that funded them walked away, leaving them without the flow of support and care vital to their survival. The result of that single night will feed and educate thousands of children in the year to come. More importantly, during one night in northeast Ohio a group of complete strangers came together for people they will never meet, resulting in those children having hope. Hope that they can have a better life. Hope that there is someone out there who cares about them. Hope that they can accomplish things beyond their wildest dreams. Hope that proves their lives have value!
As Incept Gives continues to grow and find new ways to touch the lives of others, both locally and across the world, I have found hope where I least expected it. I never realized how much of an impact I could have with such a small amount of generosity. The gala caused me to feel things I have never felt before. It moved me so much I even wrote about it on my personal blog, explaining how touched I was. But it changed my life in a more fundamental way: I’ve now got the bug… the “charity bug.” At every turn, I see new ways to help others, and I love the way that makes me feel! And I owe it all to Jeff for allowing us to get involved and transform Incept Gives into something amazing. Who knows where we will turn up next. You’ll just have to stay posted, wait and see.
Working at Incept is a different kind of experience. I really get the feeling that the company is invested in my future, both as an employee and as a person. Here are just a few reasons why:
My Accountability Group - Lisa, Chris, Allison and Sarah
A few months ago, Incept decided to try something different. Something that would help our employees on a deeper level – a goal-setting and accountability program. It started with management and worked its way down to our CMEs. I was one of the first to jump on board.
When we talked to our President and Chief Results Officer, Sam Falletta, he said to us, “I want to help each of you reach your goals, even if they have nothing to do with your work.” He wanted to help each of us be “present” at home and work to allow us to feel more balanced and free up our minds to be more productive.
It certainly worked. I feel like my team holds me accountable for the goals I set, and pushes me to balance my life. The results have been amazing: people all over the company are reaching their goals and doing more because they now have the support system in place to help them feel more present.
Going along with the idea of trying something new and reaching for bigger and more challenging goals is the value, “never satisfied.” This one is pretty straightforward. There’s never a reason to stop improving.
This is one of my favorite values at Incept, as once you’ve reached your goal, the next level is always just within your grasp. Everything can be improved and we can always accomplish more with the strong support we have from everyone around us.
Everyone working at Incept contributes to this value. The impact each of us make and the way we push one another to new heights is what makes Incept great! We are never satisfied with being average or with only reaching our goals. There’s always something more you can do! Try finding that at your typical nine-to-five office. Just another reason why Incept is special!
Erin Smith - New CME and Blood Recipient
Below is a letter of appreciation from one of our new CMEs! As a previous blood recipient, she is thankful to be able to help other potential recipients get the live-saving blood they need.
April 13, 2010
Making calls for blood donations on behalf of blood centers means a lot to me on a personal level. Having had a heart transplant and needing units of donated blood products myself, and knowing that blood products are constantly needing to be replenished, gives me insight on exactly how meaningful these calls are. I would not be here today if it wasn’t for the selfless acts of those individuals giving a part of themselves to help save another life. My daughter would be without her mother and my mother would be without her daughter. It brings me to tears to even think about that. I also have family members that would have passed before their time had they not received this life-saving gift.
Being able to work for Incept and schedule donors to make blood donations is a privilege for me. In a way, asking for blood donations, knowing that I am helping to replenish the blood supply, is a small token of my thanks to those that have helped save my life. I am going to strive to be the best employee that I can be to ensure that I can schedule as many people as possible to donate and save a life. I like to consider myself somewhat of a humanitarian, and this position definitely works toward that goal. It is a pleasure to work on behalf of blood centers across America.
We would like to thank Erin for this amazing letter! At Incept, we give our CMEs the opportunity to save more lives in a single shift than any other job out there. If you are looking for your chance to make a difference, apply to be a CME at Incept today!
It’s that time of year again.
Incept Gives is always looking for ways to make a positive impact on the world around us. Sometimes you don’t have to look far from home. The goal was to help ease the burden of a tough time of year on our employees. Goal achieved.
