At a glance:
Rebecca Morrow, Director of HR and Employee Engagement at one of the cutting edge, leading digital marketing agencies in the US, that was named SEO Agency of the Year by Search Engine Land, lead a shift to a fully remote-first workforce. She’s here to share how she leveraged coaching to support this shift and hit business goals.
- Company:
HigherVisibility, a remote-first digital marketing agency - Challenge:
Supporting people leaders and rising stars in a remote-first environment to meet and exceed targets - Solution:
A people-first approach to management and one-on-one executive coaching through Sama - Result:
Stronger leadership, better employee engagement, effective communication
94%
more effective communication
84%
developed a more diverse skill set
93%
confident to progress in their careers
About HigherVisibility
HigherVisibility is an award-winning digital marketing agency specializing in SEO services, PPC management, website design and maintenance, and conversion optimization. They were recently named SEO Agency of the Year by Search Engine Land and are consistently recognized as a leader in their industry by multiple third party review sites.
They are also very proud to be included for their expertise in numerous publications including Search Engine Journal, Inc, Forbes, The Huffington Post, along with many others.
With a very talented and recognized team distributed across the US, HigherVisibility operates in a remote-first environment, one that Rebecca Morrow, the Director of HR and Employee Engagement, and the three founders/managing partners are dedicated to supporting.
It was important for HigherVisibility to be a place where their team would thrive and perform. That is why they built intentionally from the ground up to meet the unique challenges of a distributed, high-performance workforce. Morrow has been instrumental in leading the initiative by creating a people first approach, unlocking a transparent and human culture.
The Challenge: Supporting Remote People Leaders in a High Performance Setting
HigherVisibility operates across 4 time zones bringing industry leading results to clients like Allied, Brilliant Earth, and Orange Theory.
Without shared office spaces, spontaneous conversations, or in-person rituals, the typical markers of company culture can easily dissolve. With distributed teams, culture must be intentionally designed and consistently reinforced in order to foster connection, collaboration, and impact.
When we flipped the switch to a remote-first workforce, we wanted to give people an opportunity to make sure they had the right tools in their digital toolbox to promote objective growth.
— Rebecca Morrow, Director of HR and Employee Engagement
To support this shift, Morrow had to provide support to both leadership and individual contributors during the transition — it had to be hyperpersonalized, easy to implement, and people had to actually use it.
Why coaching?
HigherVisibility has a diverse distributed team that comes with an equally diverse set of challenges. While the company initially addressed these through a training platform, the employees seldom engaged as they were not tailored to their individual needs or in the flow of work. Lasting behavioral change was therefore harder to achieve. This led her to exploring solutions that were hyper-tailored to each employee’s needs and strengths.
The one-on-one nature of coaching provides a more personalized and practical approach to organizational change. Unlike training, coaching addresses individual needs directly, helping employees apply new skills.
We didn’t want to just throw a course at them. We wanted to help them build real leadership capabilities. not in theory, but in practice.
— Rebecca Morrow, Director of HR and Employee Engagement
Why Sama?
When exploring coaching solutions, HigherVisiblity needed a partner that could deliver meaningful impact without adding to the team’s workload. Sama stood out for its ease of implementation, unlimited coach swaps, guaranteed chemistry matches, and real-time data tracking, all designed to make coaching both effective and effortless. As Morrow puts it:
Offering coaching is one thing, but offering coaches that are certified and come to the table ready to help find solutions is a whole other thing. Sama’s coaches lift our leaders up, they raise their professional goals and success and the company culture along with it.
— Rebecca Morrow, Director of HR and Employee Engagement
Solution: Personalized Coaching People Love
Sama was rolled out in partnership with the Be A Better YOU program, Morrow’s powerful internal initiative focused on supporting continuous growth and development at every level of the organization. “It centers leadership and development around personal and career growth of the employees, hence the YOU”, Morrow explains.
“I created the program Be A Better YOU in conjunction with Sama when we first partnered, because I think it’s important that people know that we’re investing in their careers and their growth.“
Sama provides a structured yet flexible avenue for individuals to build on their strengths, tackle real-time challenges, and work toward their career goals, making it a natural fit within the company’s broader commitment to helping every team member thrive.
Every participant was matched with a dedicated Sama coach and met regularly for one-on-one sessions. The coaching was entirely confidential, giving employees a safe space to reflect and grow.
People felt like they had someone who was fully in their corner – who could help them think through really challenging obstacles in a thoughtful, honest way.
— Rebecca Morrow, Director of HR and Employee Engagement
The Impact: Effective remote-first culture
HigherVisibility saw their leaders become more effective communicators, develop a more diverse skill set, make meaningful progress towards their goals, and feel more confident in the trajectory of their career.
94% became more effective communicators
“Sama gave us the tools to have hard conversations.”
Remote settings make sharing feedback challenging: if you’ve never met your colleagues it’s harder to have difficult conversations. Sama coaches help you have those conversations leading with empathy and emotional intelligence.
It’s very easy for communication to become extremely transactional at an agency because there are so many clients and so many projects so most of the communication happens in quick real time jabs. It’s hard to find time to exchange non-project specific feedback. Sama helps create that space for us and gives us the tools to have those conversations.
— Rebecca Morrow, Director of HR and Employee Engagement
92% made meaningful progress toward their goals
“Sama made our team more accountable.”
Agency cultures are extremely performance centric – clients have high expectations, creating external pressure that calls for structure, support, and accountability. Sama gave HigherVisibility’s team an external partner to help them define goals, stay on track, and follow through with action. That level of consistent accountability helped drive tangible performance improvements across the organization.
While you can always go to your immediate supervisor, you can always go to a colleague, but there’s always going to be some bias. But if you’re speaking to a third party objectively, you’re going to get a true stance as to how to move forward with whatever challenges you’re trying to work on, whether it’s a work life balance challenge, or how to grow as a leader.
— Rebecca Morrow, Director of HR and Employee Engagement
84% developed a more diverse skill set
“Sama is the core of our leadership and development.”
The leadership team at HigherVisibility recognized that true growth requires more than just technical skills: it takes self-awareness, adaptability, and ongoing development. Sama gave their people a structured space to explore and strengthen these less tangible, but critically important, leadership skill sets.
We are utilizing Sama to give our leaders, managers and rising stars an opportunity to really work on whatever professionally ails them, or to encourage breaking through those challenges in a way that gives objectivity.
— Rebecca Morrow, Director of HR and Employee Engagement
93% feel confident they now have the tools to progress in their careers
“Sama is data-first, making the ROI of leadership and development clear.”
In a remote environment, visibility into employee development can be limited. Sama’s platform provides real-time insight into how individuals are progressing, which areas they’re focused on, and where they might need additional support. That level of transparency helps HR and leadership make informed decisions and proactively nurture talent.
I love how data-first Sama is. Not only is the dashboard giving us a clear return on our investment, because that’s obviously important financially, but it gives us an understanding about how people feel within their professional stance and their goals.
— Rebecca Morrow, Director of HR and Employee Engagement
What’s next for remote-first work places?
My role is to make sure that people come to work on Monday mornings and have a very thorough, exciting and rewarding professional experience, and we do that by offering a human-first work environment. And to me, part of that is professional development. Part of that is offering things like coaching and offering that leg up so you can be your best self.
— Rebecca Morrow, Director of HR and Employee Engagement
Many organizations attempt to solve the need for personalized support and development at scale by turning to AI-driven solutions. While Morrow embraces AI as part of her HR tool stack, she’s clear that it can’t replace the human element. In her view, authentic connection, emotional intelligence, and nuanced conversation are still essential to building trust and driving growth.
Tools can enhance productivity, but it’s people who inspire, mentor, and lead. That’s why HigherVisibility continues to invest in human-centered development through coaching.
Key Takeaways
Sama helped HigherVisibility:
- Support people leaders and rising stars through personalized leadership coaching
- Build self-awareness and communication skills across the team
- Partner on creating a culture of reflection, growth, and intentional leadership
Want to see these results at your company?
Get in touch with Sama to learn how human-centered coaching can elevate your leaders, wherever they are. Book a call here.
