How to Build a Community of Corporate Impact Leaders

Why and how are companies supporting their employees as Corporate Impact Leaders? These internal communities accelerate sustainability by activating a peer community and by supporting employee-led actions. Some practical steps can help you get started, along with examples from Philips and Kersia!

1. Why it Matters

Employees want their companies to be more socially and environmentally responsible, but they also want to be part of the action. It's no longer enough for sustainability to sit with executive committees and specific functions. We’ll never get to the pace of business transformation needed.

2. The Challenge

Most companies aren't equipped to support a critical mass of employees contributing to positive impact in their daily jobs. Corporate Impact Leaders can facilitate this transformation but they require the right support. How to get employees in motion?

“We realized that while employees are passionate about improving lives, they don’t always see how they can contribute beyond their day-to-day roles.” 

- Annette Jung, Impact Finance Lead, Philips

3. Close the Social Innovation Gap

Ambassador impact communities are a sandbox for Corporate Impact Leaders and employees to drive new ideas that link purpose to action. Employees share challenges, access peer support, and test new KPIs. This ‘test and learn’ environment is especially effective when employees collaborate with social entrepreneurs.

4. Close the Skills & Mindset Gap

Ambassador impact communities equip employees with skills and mindsets to drive change, navigate uncertainty, and lead with purpose. This includes empathy, systems-thinking, resilience, risk-taking, and agility.

“Before I embraced the changemaker mindset, my role was more conventional - now, I see my work as part of a larger mission to drive positive change.” 

- Björn Heimeshoff, Senior Marketing & Product Manager, Kersia

5. Close the Collaboration Gap

Internally, Ambassador impact communities help employees network beyond departments and functional siloes. Externally, they become a pipeline for new partnership and collaboration models.

6. The Key Ingredients

Create a safe space for the difficult conversations and peer support; find the right tension between senior leadership directive and giving employees freedom and autonomy; start small and progressively build towards a critical mass of employees thinking and acting differently. This is your community of employee changemakers!

7. Outcomes

Better employee engagement and pride, smarter innovation, stronger unified culture! For example, at Kersia, 60 percent of ambassador employees say they are taking positive actions (internally or externally) that they would not have otherwise taken.

Are you ready to launch or expand your community of impact ambassadors? Contact ofruchaud(at)ashoka.org or sfaujour(at) impacteurope.net to learn more!