At Share Our Strength, an organization that addresses childhood hunger and poverty in the U.S., employees are working hard to serve their communities everyday. For Tracee Sanders, managing director of HR, she's on a mission to make sure employees take care of themselves, too.
"We're tackling food insecurity within the United States, and the systems that contribute to poverty. The work we do is very emotionally charged," Sanders says. "People get burned out — our staff feels like, if I'm not doing it, then that's going to affect a child being able to eat. If you have that in the back of your mind, you're going to just keep pushing."
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Sanders has worked with Share Our Strength for 12 years, and over that time, the mission and the size of the team has changed. Now, over 300 people work to tackle issues that cause childhood poverty and hunger, through campaigns like No Kid Hungry, which has provided more than a billion meals to children.
While there's no easy answer to the issues employees are solving for, finding time for rest and mental recovery is critical to their work. To facilitate these efforts, Sanders and her team instituted Respite Days, where the entire organization shuts down every other Friday so
"A lot of people were hesitant to do that, because when they took their time off, the work was still going on, and they'd come back and spend extra time just catching up," Sanders says. "So we as an organization decided to close the entire organization down, to rest, recharge and regroup.'"
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Beyond company-supported recharges, Sanders has gathered data from quarterly employee surveys to find emerging trends that could be addressed by employee benefits. The company has boosted benefit plans with access to physical therapy, chiropractic services
Share Your Strength now offers subscriptions to the Calm app, as well as ClassPass, to encourage employees to participate in physical fitness activities. The company also switched EAP providers, and now gives employees 10 free therapy sessions. The organization is looking into more financial wellness benefits and provides employees with one-on-one sessions with financial consultants.
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While Sanders has a full plate herself, she also takes the time to prioritize her own mental health and well-being. Acknowledging the importance of leading by example, she finds her own strength through her team.
"It's 100% a team effort, so I make sure I'm connecting with my team and we're building off each other, and that we're taking the time to go have lunch together and just laugh it up," she says. "You can have an HR job anywhere, but you want to work somewhere where you feel connected, and where you feel like you are respected, where you feel like you are making a difference. That's so important to me."
