Nationwide and our associates have long been dedicated to caring about and serving the communities where we live and work. As a result of the many challenging events occurring over the past year, there was a growing desire from associates to discuss what was going on and how Nationwide could engage in driving positive change. We immediately initiated opportunities for our associates to connect across the country and get engaged in becoming catalysts for change with the workplace and in our communities.

Nationwide developed associate exchanges, called Catalyst for Change, designed to provide an opportunity for all 34,000 of our associates to come together as One Nationwide on these issues.

Leaders from across Nationwide hosted a series of these fact-based, facilitated associate exchanges that allowed associates to be involved in a constructive discussion where they could share their emotional reactions to what was occurring, learn facts about key societal issues, become aware of what Nationwide was already doing to substantially support our communities and then engage in identifying how they can individually and collectively commit to actions to impact positive change – both at work and in their communities. Because of the high impact of these sessions, the face-to-face exchanges were expanded to include virtual webinar sessions that are available to all associates to enable constructive conversations across the company’s diverse geographies.

During many of the sessions, associates expressed the desire to learn more about current topics such as immigration, poverty, homelessness, police relations and civic engagement. As a result, Nationwide established a quarterly education series leveraging experts to expand associates’ knowledge about these topics. The series is available to all associates either in person or virtually.

Leaders and associates alike have appreciated the level of involvement, the honesty and the willingness to openly share. The stories and experiences shared in these sessions resulted in an overwhelming feeling of hope, empowerment and accountability. Associates left with a universal sense of pride that Nationwide makes tremendous contributions to the communities in which we live and work as well as personal action plans on how they were going to engage locally in making a difference in our communities.

Additionally, most noted was our senior leaders’ sponsorship and participation in productive conversations about community and societal concerns impacting our communities and nation.