Building an Employee Volunteer Program: A Webinar

A recent webinar on some of the structural approaches to employee volunteer programs and their relationships to overall performance – plus, some of my favorite corporate examples of best practices.

As companies seek new methods for engaging employees and other stakeholders, employee volunteer programs (EVP) are becoming increasingly popular. As those programs are implemented, the most effective models and frameworks are ever evolving. It is essential that corporations tailor their EVP to the needs of employees and key external stakeholders while anchoring the programs within their organization's overall commitment to corporate responsibility.

EVPs range dramatically from a company-sponsored "day of volunteering" around a specific cause, to a robust, skills-based program.  Recently, I, along with Lisa Kimmel, the general manager of Edelman Toronto, had the opportunity to present a webinar for Canadian Business for Social Responsibility (CBSR) where I was able to share about some of the structural approaches to employee volunteer programs and their relationships to overall performance – plus, we talked about some of my favorite corporate examples of best practices.

You can listen to the webinar at the link provided below. There are also links to some questions that were not addressed during the session, sources referenced during the session, and additional resources that you may find useful. 

• Audio recording
• Webinar presentation slides
• Q&A
• Realized Worth
• Building a Volunteer Program - CBSR Executive Briefing
• List of additional resources 

 Other resources referenced during the webinar:

• http://3blmedia.com/theCSRfeed/CBSR-2010-3BL-Media-interviews-Tania-M-Carnegie-Executive-Director-and-Community-Leadersh > Tania Carnegie, National Director, Community Leadership, KPMG LLP (Canada) interview from the CBSR 2010 Summit.

• http://3blmedia.com/theCSRfeed/CBSR-2010-3BL-Media-interviews-Mike-Pedersen-Corporate-Operations-TD-Bank > Mike Pedersen, Group Head, Corporate Operations, TD Bank Financial Group, interview from the CBSR 2010 Summit.

Click here for information on CBSR's next webinars.

Contact us to continue the discussion:

CBSR - blake@cbsr.ca 

Realized Worth - chrisjarvis@realizedworth.com

Edelman - lisa.kimmel@edelman.com


Realized Worth works with companies to design and implement employee volunteer programs. If you'd like to talk about your company's needs, contact us here: 317.371.4435 or chrisjarvis@realizedworth.com, angela@realizedworth.com

Building an Employee Volunteer Program: A Webinar

The Business Case for Employee Volunteering - Case #2

 
CASE #2 - Better Talent

Many companies have employee volunteer programs, but for many companies in Europe, Canada and the US these programs are underfunded, underdeveloped and underutilized. This blog series is meant to offer a number of compelling reasons why your business needs to invest (a bit more) in employee volunteering.

Finding New Talent

“Firms are also facing strong demand for CSR from their employees, so much so that it has become a serious part of the competition for talent. Ask almost any large company about the business rationale for its CSR efforts and you will be told that they help to motivate, attract and retain staff." (Read the full Economist article here.)

“People want to work at a company where they share the values and the ethos.”

- Mike Kelly, head of CSR, KPMG Europe

Companies in the process of recruiting new talent from college campuses already know that millennials have a unique perspective on employment. (If you’re the one charged with interviewing them, be prepared; you may be surprised by an odd sense of being interviewed yourself.) Recruiters are also discovering that the criteria they are being assessed against are not what many businesses are traditionally prepared for. Rather than salary and benefit packages, millennials are asking about a company’s corporate social responsibility. In fact, nearly 50% of interviewees from the millennial generation will raise the issue of CSR during the interview or hiring process with a potential for-profit employer.

According to the 8th Annual DeloitteVolunteer IMPACT Survey, more than half (61 percent) of the millennials surveyed said that they are likely to factor a company’s commitment to the community into their decision if choosing between two jobs with the same location, responsibilities and pay and benefits. Surprisingly, that was true even among those millennials surveyed who rarely or never volunteer.

But this isn’t recent news - In a 2007 survey of 2,418 students in 53 undergraduate programs in the U.S. and Canada conducted by Net Impact, it was discovered that 77% of respondents planned to seek socially responsible work immediately upon graduation. In the follow-up 2010 study, that number jumps up to 84% of undergraduates intending to seek out a socially responsible workplace.

Engaging New Talent

It’s one thing to find that hot new talent, it’s quite another to engage them. Your company may have a great CSR program. But millennials need to be able to actively participate in the process of being a good corporate citizen in order to tap into all that potential.

The same Deloitte Volunteer IMPACTSurvey revealed that - compared to those who rarely or never volunteer - millennials who frequently participate in their company’s employee volunteer activities are:

• Twice as likely to rate their corporate culture as very positive (56% vs. 28%)
• More likely to be very proud to work for their company (55% vs. 36%)
• More likely to feel very loyal toward their company (52% vs. 33%)
• Nearly twice as likely to be very satisfied with the progression of their career (37% vs. 21%)
• More likely to be very satisfied with their employer (51% vs. 32%)
• More likely to recommend their company to a friend (57% vs. 46%)

Affording New Talent

Now here’s some interesting news: Millennials are so committed to improving the world, and working with companies that share their passions, they are willing to work for less pay to do so. Students graduating with master’s degrees in business administration at 11 top business schools value corporate responsibility so highly, that when evaluating potential employers “graduates are willing to sacrifice an average of 14.4 percent of their expected salaries to work at socially responsible companies.” (Read the full article here.)

- David Montgomery, Stanford Graduate School of Business and Catherine Ramus, University of California at Santa Barbara.

Knowing this, companies like PwC have built recruitment strategies around community service projects and volunteering. Last year, PwC launched a partnership with Operation HOPE to teach financial literacy and empowerment. The Five Million Kids Initiative (5MK) would require PwC to commit it’s 525 intern volunteers to work on some of the toughest high school campuses across the country. (But then a gang fight broke out at the recent programs and  some executives wondered if things had gone too far - you can read the whole story here). 

It’s a New World 

The expectations of millennials must be met by companies if they hope to attract, engage and afford the best and brightest of the next generation of employees. Millennials are unlike the previous generations of employees (Boomers, for example) whose interest in making a positive contribution to society is defined by philanthropy or charity - they don't necessarily expect it to be integrated with work. The "boomer" will traditionally volunteer on his/her own time and will view financial donations to a cause as a personal affair.

The new generation expects integration. A full 88% believe that businesses should be proactively addressing social concerns and environmental issues. They are unwilling to relegate concerns for a more sustainable planet to their free time and they believe that waiting to do good until retirement is unnecessary. The issues of climate change, hunger, war, education must be addressed today - or there may not be a tomorrow.

But very few (only 37%) believe companies are working towards this better society today. Millennials intend to change that reality by becoming champions of change within society and the workplace - and they believe companies should work with them to do so. A robust employee volunteering program provides millennials with an immediate and tangible opportunity to experience the kind of integrated approach they are looking for.

“Having a purpose beyond making a profit distinguishes our company. It helps us to attract and retain phenomenal employees."

- Marc Benioff, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, salesforce.com, inc. 

Be sure to check out the other blogs in this series:

Business Case #1: Employee Volunteering Creates Employee Engagement
Business Case #2: Employee Volunteering Attracts Better Talent
Business Case #3: Employee Volunteering Is Employee Development
Business Case #4: Employee Volunteering Offers A Competitive Advantage
Business Case #5: Employee Volunteering Increased Corporate Intelligence
Business Case #6: Employee Volunteering Reduces Health Care Costs 
 

 Contact Realized Worth to evaluate your Employee Volunteer Program:
chrisjarvis@realizedworth.com or angela@realizedworth.com - 317.371.4435 
 

The Business Case for Employee Volunteering - Case #2

The Business Case for Employee Volunteering - Case #1

Case #1 - Employee Engagement

Many companies have employee volunteer programs, but for many companies in Europe, Canada and the US these programs are underfunded, underdeveloped and underutilized. This blog series is meant to offer a number of compelling reasons why your business needs to invest (a bit more) in employee volunteering.

Employee Engagement: The direct connection to business success

The evidence supporting the importance of employee engagement is incontrovertible. Beyond the reports and analysis, even common sense will tell you that an engaged workforce is important to a company’s well-being and profitability.

But let’s start with the bad news - According to a recent Scarlett Survey, on average, it’s safe to assume that at least 31% of your employees are disengaged. Worse yet, 4% of those who are disengaged are probably hostile. That means that they are speaking poorly of your company to all their friends and family and most likely stealing office supplies. (Seriously.)

On the other hand, according to Gallup, companies with high levels of employee engagement enjoy a significant uplift of every business performance number. Gallup performed a meta-analysis across 199 studies covering 152 organizations, 44 industries, and 26 countries. They discovered that for companies where employees were more engaged than not, their profitability jumped by 16%. Not only that, general productivity was 18% higher than other companies. Customer loyalty was 12% higher and quality jumped up by an incredible 60%. (Harvard Business Review)

But what’s the connection between employee engagement and volunteering?

First, it’s important to establish that there is, in fact, a connection. In Ireland, a recent study found that 87% of employees who volunteered with their companies reported an improved perception of their employer. More importantly, a whopping 82% felt more committed to the organization they worked for. 

In another study conducted by VolunteerMatch and UnitedHealthcare entitled “Do Good Live Well Study Reviewing the Benefits of Volunteering”, researchers found that employees who volunteer through their workplace report more positive attitudes towards their employer as well as colleagues. An interesting benefit to employers is the improved physical and emotional health of employees who volunteer. That means that if companies want to decrease their health costs, they should be looking to volunteering as an affordable and accessible solution.

Why is there a connection between employee engagement and volunteering?

Specifically, employee volunteering programs increase engagement levels at work when it connects to an individual’s need for meaning and accomplishment. This was first demonstrated in 1968 when Frederick Herzberg article "One More Time, How Do You Motivate Employees?" was published. The article was so popular, that by 1987 it was the most requested article from the Harvard Business Review having sold 1.2 million reprints.

Frederick Herzberg, was a psychologist who suggested that, based on his data, what made people happy at work was not the same thing as what made people unhappy at work. What makes us unhappy at work is lousy pay, lousy work conditions (like your cubicle space or no windows), and a lousy boss. If you fix those it makes a better working condition but it actually won’t make you happy at work.

What makes you happy at work are things like achievement, recognition, more responsibility, the chance to advance, personal growth, etc. These concepts all have to do with personal fulfillment  and our humanity. When a company takes time to formally offer an opportunity to get involved in community, what they’re doing is creating the right kind of space for people to express their personal interests and personal desires that go beyond what they’re doing as part of the company. And so it integrates their life inside that building, or that assembly line, or those sales calls with the rest of the world.

If you are more satisfied with who you are as a person, you simply do better in life. People with a purpose outperform those of us wandering around wondering what it all means. Companies that are able to connect people to passions and interests where they feel they’re making a significant contribution as a human being, will see a direct correlation to significant benefits.

Assuming it’s true that employee engagement is increased through volunteering, the business benefit is crystal clear. Companies satisfied with low participation rates or only annual activities, are missing huge financial benefits.

How huge?

According to the 2008/2009 study, Driving Business Results Through Continuous Engagement by WorkUSA, companies with engaged employees experience 26% higher revenue per employee, 13% total higher total returns to shareholders, and a 50% higher market premium.

Think about it. What is your company’s earnings per employee? Microsoft’s is currently at $244,831 per employee. Increasing that number by 26% equals a $63,656.06 increase in revenue per employee. To ignore that potential would be bad business.

For an outstanding discussion on this topic, I recommend setting aside 10 minutes of your day to watch the following video by Daniel Pink, the author of Drive. It’s already been viewed by nearly 6 million people - I promise, you won’t be disappointed.

Be sure to check out the other blogs in this series:

Business Case #1: Employee Volunteering Creates Employee Engagement
Business Case #2: Employee Volunteering Attracts Better Talent
Business Case #3: Employee Volunteering Is Employee Development
Business Case #4: Employee Volunteering Offers A Competitive Advantage
Business Case #5: Employee Volunteering Increased Corporate Intelligence
Business Case #6: Employee Volunteering Reduces Health Care Costs 
 

Contact Realized Worth to evaluate your employee volunteer program:

chrisjarvis@realizedworth.com or angela@realizedworth.com - 317.371.4435

The Business Case for Employee Volunteering - Case #1