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Erica McMannes
Founder + Chief People & Community Officer I Military Spouse in CX I Executive Board Member
Erica McMannes is the Founder and Chief People & Community Officer of Instant Teams, a company she co-founded in 2016 with Liza Rodewald.13 Instant Teams is a customer experience marketplace that connects companies with military spouse talent for remote work opportunities.12
With over two decades of leadership experience in the military community, Erica has held various roles within the Department of Defense and private sector.3 Prior to founding Instant Teams, she worked as a consultant for veteran-owned startups in Silicon Valley, specializing in remote team development, brand distribution, and content creation.3
Erica's professional background includes:
- Community Director at Purepost, Inc. (formerly GuideOn) from 2014 to 201714
- Military Strategic Partnerships at Borrowshare for 1.5 years1
- Various roles at Army Child, Youth and School Services for 3 years and 8 months1
As a prominent voice in military spouse employment and remote team leadership, Erica has been featured at notable events such as HubSpot's INBOUND Conference, Amazon's Women in Operations Leadership Summit, and the Department of Defense's Annual Military Spouse Employment Partnership Summit.23
In 2023, Erica was inducted into the Order of Our Lady of Loreto by the Army Aviation Association of America and the U.S. Army Aviation Center, recognizing her contributions to the Army Aviation community.3 She is also an alumna of programs such as Patriot Boot Camp and V-WISE, and a two-time winner of grant-led startup pitch competitions.34
Through Instant Teams, Erica works to improve military spouse unemployment rates by providing remote opportunities, career continuation, and upskilling programs.3 The company has participated in Congressional roundtables, National Defense Authorizations Act reports, and Department of Defense pilot programs to advocate for military spouse hiring and entrepreneurship.3
Highlights
As a remote first company at Instant Teams sending mail out to team members is one of my favorite monthly outings. Branded boxes, velocity awards, and extra goodies may seem simple but sometimes something tangible is all it takes to feel connected to co-workers across the globe!
#remotefirst #remotework #remoteteams #instantteams #teamwork #recognition #corevalues
My favorite things about each brand we work with and each CX team we get to build for them:
✅ It's an operationally impactful business solution that scales with social impact built right into every new team
🏆 Whether our customers have worked with military spouses before or not, they quickly see the high propensity for translation of MANY skill sets and life experiences into the CX space
🌎 The spread of industries we get to work with allows great alignment with the varying skill sets and career experiences of military spouses (EdTech CX = teachers, counselors, trainers etc. InsureTech & FinTech CX = medical billing/coding backgrounds, banking, account management, insurance, brokers, etc. Cybersecurity CX = Crisis Management training and life experiences as a part of the military community, Success under Pressure, Data Management, Analytics, Administration skills, etc....the list goes on!
💪🏽 There's power in Customer Experience teams (and their many wins) being led by this unique talent community with often more "life experiences" than most. Experiences that teach empathy, community, quick thinking, organization, overcoming challenges, independent drive, cultural affluence, inclusion, and again....the list goes on!
🌳 The network effect of military spouses being introduced to these brands and customers has also opened new corporate networks, career advancement opportunities, exposure to pathways and technology, and often longevity - which is win for both sides of the marketplace we serve!
It's almost 8 years ago to the day, Liza Rodewald and I invited ourselves to Silicon Valley and hit the Palo Alto trail for Customer Discovery. It was intimidating to say the least and we were only armed with a set of questions we knew we needed answers to in order to someday - as we grew and scaled -serve the big companies, in big ways, with big enough teams to see financial impact happening with each spouse employed.
We've seen the CX space evolve in real time, watched as different outsourcing models have changed, ushered in a chaotic periods workforce shifts, felt the pressure of many economic and corporate waves and are honored to have learned from, worked with, and each customer along the way!!
#customerexperience #outsourcing #CX #customerjourney #ExperienceManagement #CXsolutions #CXtalent #CXteams #remotework #remoteteams #militaryspouses #militaryspousemployment #brandaffinity #brandambassadors
