On March 2nd Sigma Group’s Team Hercules proudly partnered with Read Across America.  We gladly celebrated the birthday of beloved children’s author Dr. Seuss by reading to several groups of children at the YMCA of Greater Bergen County.

Dana, our Associate Media Director, said it best when she noted her favorite part was, “Captivating the children’s attention and taking their imaginations for a wild ride through storytelling.”  With Dana manning the ship the children were indeed treated to quite a ride.  She spent over an hour reading story after story to a group of three-year-olds who sat with wide eyes and open mouths through it all.  Dana provided a voice for each character in her story and with an animation that rivaled even the most dramatic Disney character.

For Joanna, our Account Director, it was being able to share three of her own children’s favorite stories with new smiling faces that gave her the most joy.  This also provided Joanna with an experience that she could share with her own children about her day that they could easily relate to.

For me the best part was not only seeing the joy that we were able to bring to the children but also the joy the children brought to all of our participants. It was a win-win experience that created an energizing natural high that lasted all day long! It certainly was time well spent.

This is one of the many ways Sigma Group and Team Hercules are “making it matter.”  We feel that allowing employees to enrich their day by focusing on a cause with purpose rather than profit provides our communities with a commodity they can cash in.

Read Across America is an initiative that requires so little time and resources that there really is no negative to this program.

The needs of the world just seem so overwhelming, right?  We find ourselves saying, “Why bother? We can’t fix everything!” and then doing nothing.  I think that’s probably a very logical solution according to our selfish, perfectionist, overachieving natures –  “If it can’t be done right, why do it at all?“  Sound familiar?

While it is true that one person can’t solve all the troubles of the world, we at Sigma have realized that everyone holds great power to make a big difference.  The power that one person has to improve the quality of life for a few, or the ability that one person has to lend a helping hand, is tremendous.

We recently created a community outreach program called Team Hercules (we have a tradition that lends itself to all things Greek).  There were two reasons we created Team Hercules.  Reason #1: It’s a program that empowers all of our employees to reach out beyond themselves and beyond the confines of these office walls to give back and better our community.  And Reason #2: I’ll get into that in a minute, at the end of this post.

So why should I — an HR manager challenged to come up with ways to build teams and increase productivity — think it is important to enact the whole “Think globally, act locally” mantra?

Empowering our employees to serve their community and help those in need has given Sigma the opportunity to build and strengthen core relationships that are built on more than doing good work.  This program helps employees find factors that motivate them beyond the mighty dollar or pat on the back.  These community outreach programs sometimes force our employees to reach beyond their comfort zones and dig deeper into themselves, and maybe their pockets, while getting a glimpse into the lives of others.

Whether it be a team going out to deliver and stock the shelves of a local food pantry, or collecting school supplies for children in need, or simply reaching out to the community to lend a helping hand — everyone wins.  There is something for everyone — for the company, for our employees and for the recipients of our good will.  We all win!

We gain appreciation.  There is nothing that feels better or can put more pep in you step then true appreciation.  Knowing and feeling it from head to toe.  An employee that feels appreciated is more likely to show appreciation, and so on and so on…

We get great experience.  Every new experience is an opportunity to learn, an opportunity to feel, and an opportunity to use our knowledge to make a positive change.  With every new experience we fill up the creative banks within our brain and we see the world a little differently.  Experiencing new things is never boring.

We get fulfillment. I don’t normally like this word because in suggesting that we need fulfillment can suggest we might feel empty.  However, let’s be realistic and admit that at times we all can feel a little empty.  I have never walked away from a volunteer event that didn’t leave me feeling like I got back so much more than I gave.  Bye-bye empty feeling.

So in a business that is fueled by wins — new clients, new accounts, new assignments, great press — that drive our bottom line, can Team Hercules really be counted as a business “win” for Sigma?  I certainly believe so.

My final thought — a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson and my Reason #2 for creating Team Hercules:  “Every great achievement is the victory of a flaming heart.”