Timberland Shares Best Practices on Empowering Employees Through Purposeful Work at Eighth Annual Sustainatopia

This week, global outdoor lifestyle brand Timberland joined sustainability and impact leaders from around the world at the 8th Annual Sustainatopia, a global event for investors, entrepreneurs, nonprofits, foundations and companies across social, financial and environmental sectors. The three-day conference, which kicked off in Boston, MA on October 9, brought together thought leaders from more than 60 countries. Its second year participating in the conference, Timberland shared how the brand engages employees to activate the company’s legacy of protecting and restoring the outdoors and supporting communities in which it operates.

Timberland’s senior manager of community engagement and communication, Atlanta McIlwraith, spoke on the “Empowering Employees through Purposeful Work” panel about the brand’s employee engagement strategy. Alongside leaders like Dell, WeSpire, SEED Strategies and Project WET, McIlwraith shared best practices for engaging a global workforce to activate purpose.

“It’s always inspiring to be a part of an engaged conversation about empowering employees,” said McIlwraith. “In the past 25 years of our Path of Service Program, we’ve learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t. I always enjoy the opportunity to share both sides of the story to help organizations strengthen their own community-focused programs.”

McIlwraith highlighted the ways in which Timberland defines and communicates purpose, how to find and balance a strategic focus for engagement while allowing employees to choose and serve their own passions, and the role the brand culture plays in employee engagement, including strategies to shift company culture over time.

Much of what Timberland has learned from its almost 25 years on the Path of Service™ is captured in its Service Tool Kit, available free for download on the company’s website. The kit offers a how to operations guide for planning and executing service events with excellence for 20-2,000 volunteers. 

Timberland encourages not only employees, but business partners and other local companies to join them and adopt a culture of service. To learn more about how Timberland enables employees and businesses for service engagement, download the Timberland Service Tool Kit.