We sat down with Product Marketing Manager Keetra Pratt to ask her Five Questions about her first year at GM Financial, being a working parent and helping to create a virtual community to support Black professionals and their allies.
Q: Tell us a little about what you do for GM Financial.
A: I develop and execute marketing projects focused on account-related customer communications. We work with business stakeholders around the organization to ensure our communications are customer friendly. Our goal is to focus on getting the right message on the right channel at the right time and prioritize consistency across channels.
Q: What is one accomplishment you are proud of since joining the Correspondence Center of Excellence?
A: I worked with Public Affairs to help update the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act content on our brand site. This page shares the benefits and protections offered to eligible deployed and transitional military members who have a loan or lease with GM Financial. We were able to reword the legal language to be more customer friendly. Although it wasn’t a large or long-term project, I’m proud of what we did for such an important customer segment.
Q: You are a parent, right? What’s it like being a working parent at GM Financial?
A: I am! I joined the employee resource group for parents early after I was hired. It’s awesome to be part of a community of people who get it. Being a working parent takes flexibility, and there is a tendency not to want to take off even when you need to. I have a leader who understands and helps me do what I need to do without worrying about not being supported.
Q: You also started a virtual community for Black employees at GM Financial. Can you tell us more about that?
A: When I began working here, we were still fully remote. I hadn’t been in the office at all and was wanting to introduce myself to more people in the organization with whom I may not work directly. When I met with stakeholders, I was so excited to see Black women in senior and leadership positions. In my 20-year career, I had never seen that. I think it is so important to see people who look like you represented in leadership and around the company.
Representation matters. I worked with five other page admins to start a virtual community on our Viva Engage platform called “Melanin Voices.” Minority groups have different experiences in Corporate America, and it’s liberating to have a space where we can celebrate ourselves, advocate for each other and embrace our culture. In a hybrid environment, we can still see paths forward and upward through shared connections online.
Q: What is something about you that we couldn’t learn from your LinkedIn profile?
A: I have two boys more than 15 years apart in age. One is a “toddler-saurus” and the other graduates from high school in May. They are my “why,” and I’m grateful for a job that allows me to do great work and still focus on them.