Set Goals & Find Collaborators: How to Start A Corporate Volunteer Program

Here are some practical steps to take when designing your employee volunteering and workplace giving program. Be sure to read part one of the series “Starting An Employee Volunteering Program? What Do Your Employees Think?”


Begin with the end in mind

In his book, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” Stephen R. Covey explains that everyone should take time to decide what they want out of life. For Covey, this means that we "Begin with the End in Mind". We should "begin each day, task, or project with a clear vision of your desired direction and destination, and then continue by flexing your proactive muscles to make things happen." Often we get caught in the tyranny of the urgent and forfeit the important.

This is good advice for life. It is also good advice for designing and managing employee volunteer programs.

One of the earliest steps in creating an employee volunteering or workplace giving program, is identifying the purpose and parameters of the program. Ask yourself, “What are all the good things that could happen as a result of this program?” These benefits should be based on ideal, desired outcomes. Don’t worry - you will be adjusting them later based on potential constraints and other realities within your context. But for now,  list as many objectives as possible. Here are some possible benefits that may be of interest to you:

• Improved image as a good corporate citizen
• Increased brand recognition and customer loyalty
• Increased employee loyalty
• Increased employee health and lower health care costs for company
• Decreased employee absenteeism
• Increased ability to attract new talent
• Positive perception as solid investment
• Increase in employee morale
• Enhanced employee skills
• Leadership development for employees
• Increased team work
• Improved networking among employees across departments and divisions
• Acquisition of new skills and competencies
• Increased social capital within the broader community
• Decrease in unemployment in community (fascinating study here)

Identify shared benefits

After compiling a list of objectives, separate the list into the three groups who will benefit from the program: the company, the employees, and the community. For example, take “recruit new talent” and place it in the category that benefits the company. Similarly, take “improve employee morale” and place it in the category that benefits employees. Some objectives will fit into more than one category. It is important that employee volunteer programs are built to offer benefit to all three categories. When the objectives are separated into categories, choose the 3 or 4 top goals that appear to be highly beneficial for everyone.

Find collaborators in other departments

Employee volunteering is not philanthropy. In order for the program to function as a part of the company’s CSR/corporate citizenship strategy, it is essential to integrate the program within other functional and departmental strategies. In some cases these connections may be fairly obvious.

For example, if one of the benefits of the employee volunteer program is the ability to better recruit new talent you should be talking to Human Resources. Without a doubt, your HR department already has a recruitment strategy in place. This is a great opportunity to integrate employee volunteering with the existing HR strategies for recruitment.

Another natural connection with HR is in employee development. Here’s an example of how this might work based on a great bit of research by Corporate Citizenship based in the UK. (Read Volunteering - The Business Case here).

The corporate responsibility team at Société Générale engages with the HR department with regard to the development of training programmes. Typically, the head of CR will look at programmes which have been developed by HR and see if there is scope to add a CR element. Training which tends to lend itself to this kind of input includes leadership,  resentation, confidence, listening and innovation development. Discussions between the two departments have begun regarding individual development linked to realising managerial potential. HR identifies areas for development for  individuals and volunteering can sometimes be used creatively to fill that need.

Take some time to discuss the potentially mutual benefits of employee volunteering or workplace giving with other departments and business divisions. Ask for input on the program objectives and determine whether or not there is potential for working together. This process will not only provide essential information, it will begin to offer each department the opportunity to buy in to the employee volunteering program before it even launches.

There’s still a lot of work to do at this point - but you’ll be on the right track. What’s more - you won’t be the only one invested in the program’s success.

Stay tuned - we’ll have more soon.


If you’d like to learn more about this, we'd love to talk to you. You can reach us here:
chrisjarvis@realizedworth.com
angela@realizedworth.com
317.371.4435

Set Goals & Find Collaborators: How to Start A Corporate Volunteer Program

Do You Know What Employees Are Saying About Your Volunteering & Workplace Giving Program?

Are you responsible for engaging employees in your company's volunteering or giving program? Are you being realistic about your employee's perceptions of the program? Do they even know you have a program? Or are you 'bending the map'?

The first step in any of our client engagements is to understand what employees think of the existing corporate citizenship or CSR programs. Employee perceptions provide essential information. Why? Because companies often make assumptions regarding what employees know and feel about the corporate citizenship programs. Most of the time, these assumptions are woefully wrong.

Managers responsible for CSR and corporate citizenship spend every waking moment (and many sleepy moments) getting the word out the company initiatives. The idea that there are thousands of employees who may not know about these initiatives is almost too hard to believe. Just the suggestion that two out of three employees have never even heard about the companies community investments, philanthropic efforts or CSR strategies seems absurd.

The problem is - it’s true. Most of your employees know little to nothing about your company’s corporate citizenship program. We know it’s true - because we ask them.

This misunderstanding will doom any program from the very beginning. Believing your one place and building an employee volunteering program based on that misinformation will get you lost in the woods. Very lost.

Oh no! I’m lost!

Each year, over seventy million Americans head out into the wilderness to reconnect with nature (or go hunting). Hiking into the woods is a great way to rediscover something about ourselves and to find our true selves. The problem is, in an effort to find our true selves, thousands of Americans get lost doing it. Literally lost.  People may be finding their true selves and the meaning of life, but they have a hard time finding their way back to the car in the parking lot.

Being lost in the wilderness can be a frightening experience.  It can also be quite deadly.  William G. Syrotuck, a search-and-rescue (SAR) expert, conducted systematic research on 229 SAR cases.  He was interested in a number of things, but focused on the behaviour of people who get lost.  He discovered that 11% of those who had gotten lost ended up as a fatality.  Out of all of the fatalities recorded in that group, almost 75% died within the first 48 hours.  Most of the deaths were due to hypothermia.

Amazingly, most of those who died did so within 2 miles of their group or parked car. A 30 minute walk.  How is that possible?  How can someone, usually with a map, some sense of direction, and hiking gear forget where they are or not find their way back 30 minutes of travel?

Well for one thing, it’s easy to get lost.  If you are having a great conversation on the trail or deep in thought, you are probably not paying close attention to the details that could act as markers to retrace your steps.  Or, if you are a little inexperienced with being in the wilderness the terrain can look pretty similar, this tree or that tree, this rabbit trail or that one, they all look similar.  Especially because of a normal human reaction we all have in moments of crises or panic. That reaction is called "bending the map."

Bending the map

If you have ever done any traveling that involved looking at a map that did not have clear street names, highway numbers, or other indicators of your location you may have experienced "bending the map."  You look around and for whatever reason believe that you may not be where you thought you were.  You grab the map, scrutinize it, look around again, and then stare back down at the map as if it were for the wrong city, state, province, region or even country.  You look back up and mutter something under your breath (or at least that’s what I’ve been doing as I get lost in the maze of streets here in Rome).

Next, you begin to line up the landmarks with what is on the map.  In a city, usually you can deduce your problem, or just ask someone walking by to make sure that the map in your hand isn't some horrible practical joke by the printing company.  They point out a couple simple misunderstandings in YOUR perspective and you suddenly make sense of everything.

Now, put yourself in the middle of nowhere, with 2 other guys who weren’t paying attention either (or worse, they were but their ideas on which way is north don’t agree).  No one is going to walk by and help you with perspective.  The bears are kinda glad you showed up, and now it is just a waiting game for the locals to open the buffet.  You’re in a world of hurt and you know it.  Problem is, you cannot quite believe it.  So, we become ridiculous optimists.  We look at the horizon, then back at the map, then at the trees and river next to us, then back to the map.  We bend the map.

We tell ourselves, and the guys next to us, that that river shouldn’t be there, but maybe it’s the river that’s on the map just a few inches over.  And that there isn’t a mountain on the map, but maybe it’s the mountain from over on the right a bit.  ‘Yeah, yeah, that must be it.  We must be right here (no where near where you actually are) so that means we go this direction for an hour (it will end up being five) and we’ll be back at the car before dark.’ 

Professionals have identified five general stages of bending the map;

1. You deny that you're disoriented and press on with growing urgency.
2. You admit you're lost, you begin to panic.
3. You calm down and form a strategy.
4. You deteriorate both mentally and physically as your strategy fails to get you out.
5. You become resigned to your plight as you run out of options.

This is a dangerous and fatal mistake.  We try to make reality conform to our expectations rather than see what is actually there.

Bending the employee volunteering map

A similar process happens when managers responsible for employee engagement in sustainability programs, CSR, volunteering, and workplace giving find their best efforts are yielding minimal results.

1. You deny that employee engagement in the program is all that bad. Instead, you press on with growing urgency believing that improved communication will raise awareness resulting in improved participation numbers.
2. You admit it’s not working and you begin to panic. You reach out to other sources of information, mostly other company’s, and try to compare notes. There is a strong belief that somewhere out there is a ‘best practice’ that will solve your problems.
3. You calm down and form a strategy based on what another company has claimed worked for them.
4. You deteriorate both mentally and physically as your strategy fails to get you out. To your horror, you discover that most other companies are in exactly the same position. Low participation rates. Low awareness. Everyone is asking each other ‘What’s working?’.
5. You become resigned to your plight as you run out of options. You decide to reset your expectations. Employee volunteering is never going to be very popular (beyond the one big day/week out of the office). This is the rest of your life.

Seeing things clearly

The reality check of knowing what your employees know and seeing what your employees see will save you and the corporate volunteering program from this depressing and fatal process. The best part? Gathering this information is not as difficult as might be imagined. Here are three actions that are relatively easy to perform:

1. Conduct a simple survey: Asking as few as six questions will offer some very important insight:

• Do you volunteer in the community? Why or why not?
• Have you ever participated in the company’s employee volunteering program? Why or why not?
• Do you feel the company invests enough in the community? Why or why not?
• How would you describe your neighbor’s or friend’s perception of the company’s community investment?
• What could we do better in this regard?
• Do you use the resources and online tools to help our employees volunteer in the community? Why or why not?

Make sure to ask enough people to get a decent response rate. You may want to limit your survey to a particular market or region. You can even attach the questions to other surveys going out - such as an HR survey (they may or may not like the idea). Survey Monkey is an easy and free tool if you’re sending it out on your own.

2. Hold a few focus groups: This takes a bit more time than sending around a simple survey. First you’ll want to get a good representation in the room. Make sure to include people who volunteer alongside those who do not. A good number is probably six to ten employees. (Although we’ve done larger groups and they’ve worked just as well). Ask questions similar to the ones above, but spend more time facilitating the discussion between employees. Make sure to take copious notes.

3. Conduct one on one interviews: This process yields very useful information but can be time consuming. We recommend spending most of your time interviewing people you know volunteer already. That’s because they have a lot of insight as to why their fellow employees do not volunteer (and this just saves a bit of time). Here are some ideas for putting together a list of people to interview:

• Ask other senior managers in various departments to help you identify a sample of employees who they feel are active as volunteers in the community on behalf of the community or in their own personal time.
• Make sure the sample includes a cross section of all company divisions, markets, regions and hierarchical levels
• Conduct a limited number of phone and in person interviews to understand the employee’s volunteering experience and interest in community investment.

In each interview, be sure to explain you are interested in growing/improving the current employee volunteering programs. Following introductions, you might use two open-ended questions to invite responses. Follow your opening questions with additional questions focusing on more specific information about what the interviewee talked about. Here’s an example of how we do it:

• Have you volunteered before? (With the company? In your personal time?)
• What is your current perception and/or understanding of volunteerism (sustainability, workplace giving, CSR, or whatever the focus is) at the company?

Your follow-up questions might include:

• In what ways does the company benefit when employees volunteer?
• How have you (or have you) benefited from the employee volunteer program?
• What barriers might be keeping employees from volunteering?
• Do you have any suggestions for increasing volunteerism at the company?

Getting where you want to go

This is just one part of the process of starting or growing your employee volunteer program. Stay tuned - we’ll have more soon.


If you’d like to learn more about this, we'd love to talk to you. You can reach us here:
chrisjarvis@realizedworth.com
angela@realizedworth.com
317.371.4435

Do You Know What Employees Are Saying About Your Volunteering & Workplace Giving Program?

IKEA Pays ‘LIP’ Service To Community Investment

Should marketing and corporate citizenship go together? Yes and no. Thanks to IKEA for providing an instructive opportunity.

A good example of what not to do...

Last night, during a delicious meal in Venice (cool, eh?) I received an email asking what I thought about IKEA’s Life Improvement Project (LIP). The reason my friend thought to write and ask specifically about IKEA’s program was because our review of the program last year. Let’s just say it was less than favorable.

The goal of IKEA’s program is to “help inspire and empower people to improve their lives, as well as the lives of others in their community.” Good enough, but it misses that goal - by a long shot. While there have been some changes in this year’s version, the fundamental flaws remain the same.

We don’t make a habit of pointing out the flaws in the community investment programs of specific companies, but the IKEA program offers an instructive opportunity to point out what companies need to avoid if they want to design credible corporate citizenship programs.

Besides which, they’ve spent a lot of money and time marketing the program so we figure it’s more than fair to make a few observations on our little blog.

So very briefly, here’s what the program includes:

• “A Life Improvement Sabbatical Contest which offers an opportunity to win a year-long sabbatical* (worth $100,000) to improve the lives of others”
• “A series of free, in-store Life Improvement Store Seminars which provide tips and inspiration to improve people’s lives at home”
• “Random Acts of Life Improvement, unexpected moments when IKEA will surprise the public with tokens of appreciation to improve everyday moments in their lives”
• “A Life Improvement Challenge, where every IKEA store will commit $10,000 to support local community initiatives”
• “A Soft Toys for Education Campaign to donate 1 euro to children’s education programs for every IKEA soft toy purchased during the holiday season”

We want to be clear - none of these things are bad. These actions will not contribute to the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. No one is going to be hurt by these initiatives. No animals will be harmed.

So what’s the problem?

It’s not real. The Life Improvement Sabbatical Contest is almost a guaranteed waste of money. Worse yet, offering someone $100K to do something good suggests that to really make an impact, you need to quit your job for a year. While that’s an interesting concept, it’s just not true. Good community investment programs utilize the resources, time and interests that people have in the every day of their lives. If someone wants to work full time in the nonprofit sector, that’s fantastic. But we can all contribute from where we are. That’s an important message for a company’s citizenship program to declare.

Again - nothing wrong with quitting your job and devoting yourself to a cause or community. But that’s not sustainable for society. It’s not even a reality for most people. In fact, IKEA can only offer this opportunity to one person out of 7 billion. We need to think through more realistic approaches to creating shared value for as many people as possible.

There’s no transparency. As I read the press release, I realize that I have absolutely no idea where the $100K from last year really went. I know dogs and vets were involved but there isn’t one (not one) metric as to outcomes or impact. Nothing. This obvious omission tells me that it was never really the point in the first place.

It lacks engagement. Voting for your favorite cause/charity/desperate situation is so 2009. There are so many more interesting and engaging ideas for involving customers in corporate citizenship programs. They can vote by giving small amounts (a quarter for example - organizations like Benevity can help you do this). They could join the employees in the volunteering programs (Starbucks has successfully done this). But the biggest problem is that voting programs don’t actually do much more than engaging people in voting. There is no attitudinal or behavioral change. (Voting happens between November 28 and December 23).

It’s a marketing program. The Random acts of Life Improvement is solely marketing. Giving out free stuff to customers has nothing to do with CSR or Corporate Citizenship (or at least not the way it’s described here). Neither do the Life Improvement Store Seminars.

It’s blind philanthropy. Donating 1 euro per sale of a soft toy is fine, but that’s straight up philanthropy. Which (I want to be very clear) is fine. Companies that make philanthropic donations a part of their product sales are smart. The problem is that neither I, nor the customers who donate the money, will have any idea how IKEA helped 8 million kids? Apparently, to date, the company has been able to donate $47.5 million to help kids in 40 countries. The euros are used “to support children’s educational programs in developing countries.” But how? Were the children able to go to school? Did they have access to clean water so they could stay in school? Were they supplied with vaccines and affordable medicine so they didn’t miss school?

We don’t know.

(Here’s a better example of how a program connects donors to impacts.)

IKEA has made improvements

There have been some improvements which should be noted. This year “IKEA is providing $10,000 to one team in each of its 38 stores ($380,000 total) to support a local community project.” That’s a significant increase from last year’s contribution of $10,000 to just five community projects.

So that’s cool.

But IKEA’s greatest mistake is confusing marketing and community investment. Again, we (Angela and Chris) need to be clear about something - corporate citizenship and marketing or PR should be working together. But they should never be confused.

Companies that have good corporate citizenship programs should make every effort to ensure their customers, vendors and shareholders know about what’s being achieved. That’s a smart and integrated approach to corporate citizenship. But mixing together obvious sales strategies such as the ‘Life Improvement Store Seminars’ and calling it community investment is not credible.

Here’s the rule - marketing serves corporate citizenship. It is never the other way around.

This whole program was conceived by Ogilvy & Mather, IKEA’s creative agency, so... I’m not sure why I would have expected anything else. (I’m sure they are a fine firm - but it’s tough for most marketing agencies to develop corporate citizenship programs).

You can read more about IKEA’s other 'Responsibility' initiatives here. They are a bit buried on the corporate website but they cover an impressively wide range of issues and activities.

If you’d like to learn more about this, we'd love to talk to you. You can reach us here:
chrisjarvis@realizedworth.com
angela@realizedworth.com
317.371.4435

IKEA Pays ‘LIP’ Service To Community Investment

What Is Real Corporate Citizenship?

Will corporations be successful in their citizen efforts to address critical social and environmental issues?


The Rise of The Corporate Citizen: The Promise

As we noted in part one of this blog series, corporations are assuming a new role in today’s society. Historically, it has been religious groups, nonprofit organizations, and governments that have mobilized to address social and environmental issues. Now the corporations of the world are playing this role.

Why?

Corporations Want to Make the World Better

Corporate citizenship continues to grow as a key element of today’s business strategy. Granted, the idea of corporations acting as good citizens has been around since the 1950‘s. Yet developments in the economic, technological and geopolitical landscape of the past couple decades have significantly increased the scale and power of the private sector. As the influence of corporations grow, so do the expectations of stakeholders.

Non-financial performance has quickly become an important, if not expected, piece of the corporate annual report. Governments, non-governmental organizations, investors and consumers are demanding leadership in the management of social and environmental issues related to the company’s sourcing, supply chain, production and sales.

Corporations not only have the unique opportunity to address social and environmental concerns, the public has given them a mandate to do so.

Water is Critical to a Better World

The list of social and environmental ills that clamor for attention is seemingly endless. It is likely however, that there is widespread consensus on the issue that is number one on the list: water.

According to Water.org, the nonprofit Matt Damon helped to establish, almost a billion people around the world lack access to safe water. That means more than 3.5 million people will die from water-related diseases. Not even war has seen the consistent killing of so high a number of people. The situation is so critical that in October of 2010 “the main United Nations body dealing with human rights has affirmed that the right to water and sanitation is contained in existing human rights treaties, and that States have the primary responsibility to ensure the full realisation of this and all other basic human rights.”

What Role Can Companies Play?

Companies like PepsiCo use water to make their products - a lot of water. In 2001 PepsiCo used 7.1 litres of water to make just one litre of Pepsi. Water is obviously a big expense for PepsiCo. Decreasing the amount of water it takes to produce a bottle of Pepsi would be a huge benefit to the company’s bottom line. Over the past decade, the company has managed to dramatically reduce water usage - to as little as 2.4 litres by 2010.

As a corporate citizen PepsiCo’s expertise could be said to be essential to addressing the global water crises. But knowing a lot about water is one thing; using that knowledge to help make the world better is another. In an effort to contribute to a solution on a global scale PepsiCo joined the United Nations’ CEO Water Mandate, “a unique public-private initiative designed to assist companies in the development, implementation and disclosure of water sustainability policies and practices.”

Is PepsiCo Acting? Or Just Talking?

By joining the CEO Water Mandate, PepsiCo has agreed that “they have a responsibility to make water-resources management a priority, and to work with governments, UN agencies, non-governmental organizations, and other stakeholders to address this global water challenge.” More specifically, the company has gone on record and pledged to provide safe water to 3 million people in the developing world by 2015.

Admittedly, while important, signing documents and making public declarations of intention alone will not solve the water crises. Even the UN’s declaration that access to clean water and sanitation is a human right probably matters very little to small villages in Ghana.

In order to be responsible corporate citizens companies have to take real action.

This past year, PepsiCo announced a new idea based on the tradition of the US Peace Corps called PepsiCorps. Within a matter of months, 168 applications came in from employees around the world willing to participate in the month-long pilot taking place in Ghana this past October. The eight employees chosen for the team came from Vietnam, US, Turkey, Canada, and Spain representing various PepsiCo business units, functions and company locations.

The team traveled to Southern Ketu, on the coast of Ghana. The team’s objective was “to equip district leaders, local chiefs, and the community with the means and business tools” to ensure access to clean and safe drinking water.

Real Corporate Citizenship

The success of company’s corporate citizenship program ultimately depends on people. To be precise, it depends on employees. The same could be said of the Peace Corps. The success of the program depended on individual citizens traveling abroad, building relationships, and doing the work that needed to be done. Therefore, in order to gain credible insight to the PepsiCorps program we need to look beyond the strategies, UN initiatives, and press releases. We need to hear from the employees themselves. What did they see? What did they experience? What did they do? What’s different?

Is the world better because eight PepsiCo employees spent a month in Ghana?

Next time we’ll take a closer look at the PepsiCo team and the specifics of the project and try to begin to answer that question.

Realized Worth works with major corporations to launch high impact employee volunteer programs. We focus specifically on the challenge of employee engagement. Call us to chat: 317.371.4435.

What Is Real Corporate Citizenship?

Employee Volunteering - An Amazing Resource or a Terrible Waste?

Are you meeting your employee volunteers at their highest level of contribution? Here’s how one Microsoft employee is changing the world.

Your Employees Have a lot to Offer

The employees at your company are smart, energetic, and driven, right? Not only that, they are probably generous and socially conscious. They thrive in settings that have a clear purpose and offer a sense of meaningful accomplishment. Yes, they know they are there to get the job done for which they were hired. And when the work they do is connected to making the world a better place, you know it's true - your people give 110%! (Just in case you're not sure we're right; read this).

For many of your employees, the chance to contribute to the community is a thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding activity. Many times painting fences and cleaning youth centers can be the right fit. (We’ve talked about why these activities can be a good fit here.)

However, for a significant number of your employees, painting and cleaning is a terrible waste of a valuable resource.

What Do You Offer Your Employees?

During last month’s Giving Campaign at Microsoft, we met with Adnan Mahmud, a program manager for Microsoft. But more famously, he is also the Co-Founder and Director of Jolkona.

Jolkona is an online micro-giving platform. People can find hundreds of projects to which they can make donations of any size. That’s great - but it’s not all that new.

What’s fascinating about Jolkona’s giving platform is the feedback loop. Every donor, no matter how small the amount, is personally contacted on a regular basis. So if you’ve donated $5, you’ll receive updates on how that donation is making an impact. Your dollars don’t just go toward a cause or end up in a big bucket. With Jolkona, you have the chance to give to low cost, high impact projects and receive tangible proof that your dollars achieved an important and measurable impact.

Here’s an example of what we mean by an important and measurable impact:

• 2 girls were saved from honor killing in Iraq
• 8 orphans received clothes in Iraq
• 6 women received farming training in Sudan
• 2 girls received 1 year of education in Afghanistan
• 2 businesses showcase opportunity provided in USA
• 2 mothers and newborn received nutritional support in India
• 2 months of primary education provided in Uganda

Knowing how what you gave made a difference is incredibly compelling. It may even be addictive.

Outgrowing Microsoft

Jolkona went live about 2 years ago with just 4 projects. Since then, Jolkona has quickly grown to include more than 100 projects spread across 70 countries. A big part of that growth has been a result of being included in Microsoft’s Annual Giving campaign. Kevin Espirito, the Senior Manager of Employee Engagement for Microsoft Community Affairs, offers his employees the opportunity to donate through Jolkona along side thousands of other community and nonprofit organizations. (Kevin's a great guy - you can find him on twitter).

The Microsoft employees are very enthusiastic about Jolkona. Adnan admits he has the wonderful problem of trying to keep up with demand for the site. With only two full time employees, Jolkona has processed over $200,000 in donations to date. In fact, the current rate of donations is quickly moving past the $10,000 per month. That’s with only 1500 users.

Yet the largest single donor doesn’t work at Microsoft. He’s not even an American.  Apparently, a gentleman in Switzerland found Jolkona online and loves it. He donates on a weekly or monthly basis.

It’s not just individuals. Companies other than Microsoft are now using the platform to facilitate their workplace giving and philanthropic initiatives.

• Waggener Edstrom Worldwide (WE) just wrapped up a successful giving campaign where they matched up to $5,000 (U.S.) of individual donors' contributions to global development projects.
• In China, Hias Gourmet, a culinary company, is using Jolkona to manage their philanthropic activities.

This is exactly why we think Jolkona is a great example of how to meet your employees at their highest level of contribution.

For many employees, almost 2 out of 3, volunteering is not a regular part of their lifestyle. There are a lot of reasons why that’s the case, and most of them make a lot of sense. Maybe they grew up in a home where no one modeled volunteering. Maybe they have a young family and there doesn’t seem to be any extra time. Maybe they have commitments to family members who are ill or in some kind of need. Whatever the reason, most employees don’t volunteer.

For the segment of your employee population who doesn't volunteer, painting fences makes a lot of sense. You want to offer an achievable, experiential, and rewarding experience. People need a chance to fall in love with volunteering. Asking inexperienced volunteers for a huge up-front commitment is a very tough sell. (Here is a more thorough discussion of this reality).

Offering Employees a Higher Level of Contribution

Adnan is not one of these volunteers. He was already convinced that ‘giving back’ was something that needed to be part of his life. Adnan grew up in Bangladesh. He witnessed some of the worst conditions on the planet facing people trying to make a living and raise their children. A big part of his life has been about trying to figure out how to use what he knows as a program manager at Microsoft to improve the lives of his fellow countrymen in Bangladesh.

Asking Adnan to paint a fence wouldn’t have been a terrible crime. We’re sure, having met Adnan, that he’d be more than happy to participate in these types of community investment programs at Microsoft.

But limiting Adnan to paining fences would have been a terrible waste.

Adnan is using the skills, networks and promotional opportunities offered by Microsoft to create an effective tool allowing people around the world to join him in saving lives.

If you’d like to learn more about how to do this, we'd love to talk to you. You can reach us here:
chrisjarvis@realizedworth.com
angela@realizedworth.com
317.371.4435

Employee Volunteering - An Amazing Resource or a Terrible Waste?

The Rise of the Corporate Citizen

A new idea

John F. Kennedy was exhausted. It had been a long day and now, at 2 a.m. Kennedy was just arriving at the University of Michigan. The upcoming Presidential election was just three short weeks away and Senator Kennedy had been traveling across the country in a last ditch effort to secure every last possible vote.

Kennedy stepped to the podium. A cheering crowd of some 10,000 students filled the auditorium in front of him. His speech began weakly with a joke that he had come to Ann Arbor to go to bed. The students cheered, their energy filling the air. Kennedy’s exhaustion was replaced by their enthusiasm and as he stood in front of the future of the nation, something magical happened.

An idea was born.

Kennedy set aside his prepared notes and spoke from his heart:

"How many of you, who are going to be doctors, are willing to spend your days in Ghana? Technicians or engineers, how many of you are willing to work in the Foreign Service and spend your lives traveling around the world?"

A couple of nights later the students wrote out a call to action on a napkin. Within a few days time 1,000 students had signed the petition to create Kennedy’s Peace Corps. Six months later, having won the election, President Kennedy signed an executive order and the Peace Corps began. Since then, more than 200,000 citizens have participated in the Peace Corps serving in 139 countries around the world.


An idea with a rich tradition

The Peace Corps may have been born that night in Ann Arbor, but the idea itself had been around for awhile. In 1951, Kennedy, as the Representative of Massachusetts, proposed the following:

"Young college graduates would find a full life in bringing technical advice and assistance to the underprivileged and backward Middle East ... In that calling, these men would follow the constructive work done by the religious missionaries in these countries over the past 100 years.”

This idea of mobilizing American citizens to assist nations and communities around the world had been considered by Kennedy and other members of Congress since the conclusion of second World War. Yet Kennedy’s comments revealed an idea with a much richer tradition. The Peace Corps was rooted in missionary work that had been carried out by churches and other religious bodies for hundreds of years.

When asked where the idea for the Peace Corps came from, Kennedy answered that he had based much of his thinking on the example of Operation Crossroads Africa founded by Rev. James H. Robinson.


A Tradition Continues

Just a few weeks ago on October 14, PepsiCorps landed in Ghana. An 8 member team, drawn from around the world and across PepsiCo’s business units, was tasked with addressing the acute issue of access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene in the Ketu South District.

PepsiCorps is a month-long project in partnership with CDC Development Solutions. Each member of the team is expected to draw on work-related skills to help the host community and achieve the goals of the project. The team will be living and working alongside members of the Ketu South District community. The hope is that they will become “more attuned to on-the-ground realities and develop deep insights into the connections between business and social needs.” (You can read the teams' blogs here).

Ghana was the first country in the world to receive Peace Corps Volunteers on August 30, 1961. Inspired by the best qualities of missionary work around the world, the United States government  mobilized citizens for the benefit of other nations facing seemingly insurmountable social and environmental crisis. The Peace Corps was established for the following purpose:

“To promote world peace and friendship through a Peace Corps, which shall make available to interested countries and areas men and women of the United States qualified for service abroad and willing to serve, under conditions of hardship if necessary, to help the peoples of such countries and areas in meeting their needs for trained manpower.”

Now, 50 years later, PepsiCorps has landed on the beaches of Ghana. Inspired by the best qualities of the Peace Corps tradition, PepsiCo has mobilized its employees with similar aspirations:

“PepsiCorps is about more than volunteering; it speaks to the responsibilities of businesses  to the communities and the larger world in which they are embedded.  This theme of prospering at the intersection of what’s good for business and what’s good for society derives from PepsiCo’s mission – Performance With Purpose.”

Over the next few weeks we will examine the rise of the Corporate Citizen. This will not be a theoretical exercise (although we admit that the field of corporate volunteering and corporate citizenship is in need of good theory). Instead we will be taking a closer look at the PepsiCorps experiences, successes, and failures in Ghana over the past few weeks.

We’ll be looking to better understand this new role corporations are taking in the world. In light of the past successes and failures of the earlier initiatives of religious organizations and governments, what should we expect? What can we hope for?

Stay tuned, this should be interesting.

Realized Worth works with major corporations to launch high impact employee volunteer programs. We focus specifically on the challenge of employee engagement. Call us to chat: 317.371.4435.

The Rise of the Corporate Citizen

Dollars for Doers: The Incentive Nobody Wants

When 184 managers of employee volunteering programs were asked which program was most successful they answered “Dollar for Doer programs”. But they’re wrong - and here’s why.

Employers think it's great

According to the latest report produced by the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP), Giving inNumbers: 2011 Edition, "Dollars for Doers has been the most frequently offered employee-volunteer program” for the past few years. More companies offer Dollars for Doers than any other employee volunteering incentive including employee recognition awards, flexible time for volunteering or even a day of service.

That makes sense. Dollars for Doers programs enable employers to recognize the volunteer efforts of their employees with cash. When an employee volunteers with an eligible nonprofit, the company matches their volunteer hours with financial donation to that nonprofit. The typical formula is  $10 per each eligible hour spent volunteering, although according to the CECP report it is not uncommon to see corporate matches of $20/hour or more.

If you'd like to learn more about Dollars for Doers, the Entrepreneurs Foundation offers details about this type of program with a sample template.

I suppose the reason Dollars for Doers enjoys such widespread popularity is that it makes use of the most universally understood incentives - money. Apparently its working. When CECP put the question to program managers what is the 'most successful domestic and international programs” guess which incentive program topped the list? Dollars for Doers.

So why then are only 7 employees out of 100 applying for this cash incentive?

Employees don’t care

That’s right. Dollars for Doers is arguably the least utilized employee volunteer program. We’ve often heard that the participation rate for Dollars for Doers is around 20%. It’s not. According to CECP it is a minuscule 7%.

We spoke with our friend, Kevin Espirito about this very issue during our visit to Microsoft a couple weeks ago. Kevin is the Senior Manager of Employee Engagement for Microsoft Community Affairs, and is responsible for the company's volunteer strategy, giving campaign, Puget Sound employee engagement, and the year-round matching gift programs.

Despite the huge financial and volunteering investment Microsoft makes in communities across the United States, (this year the company and employees are on track to give a whopping $100 million) Kevin will tell you that only 7.8% of Microsoft employees participate in Dollars for Doers.

Kevin has implemented a number of strategies to increase this number:

• Simplified the application process - drastically.
• Implemented an App for smart phones that allows volunteering employees to immediately record their hours.
• Invested time with Microsoft’s vendor who processes the Dollar for Doer funds to increase the program’s efficiency.
• Partnered with Nonprofits to encourage Microsoft employees to record their hours.

We wrote about Kevin’s brilliant out-of-the-box thinking during last year’s annual campaign at Microsoft. Each year he invites hundreds of nonprofits on to the Microsoft campus, offers great food and drinks and asks them to partner with him to increase the participation rate in the Dollar for Doers program. You can read about "Microsoft’s Smooth Kung Fu Moves" here.

The result remains to be seen, however. Even with Kevin’s solid strategies there may not be much change this year.

Why the disconnect?

In a recent interview with Margaret Coady, CECP's director, I asked why managers of these programs consider 7% a success. Margaret said that unlike almost every other question in the survey this one offered little guidance in defining "success." Managers were left to determine what success meant for each program and didn’t include their thinking in the response.

I asked Margaret to conjecture a bit as to why Dollars for Doers ranked number one given the low levels of participation. She offered two insights that made a lot of sense: First, Dollars for Doers is usually lumped in with other successful workplace giving initiatives. If the annual campaign is a success then it follows that the Dollars for Doers program contributed to that success. Second, Dollars for Doers appeals to managers. It’s flexible and it has that universal incentive of cold hard cash. How could it not be the smartest and best part of the employee volunteering program?

The Problem with Dollars for Doers

The Cost is High: The CECP report indicates that “companies that dedicate large portions of their cash contributions to matching gifts appear to have a higher ratio of management and program costs relative to total giving. Matching gift programs require substantial investments in grant-management technology, employee communications, and staff to manage these programs.” These high costs can be worth it but you’ll need a higher participation rate to realize a solid ROI on the Dollar for Doers portion.

The Awareness is Low: If your company has a Dollar for Doers program, I guarantee that most of your employees don’t even know about it. Posting information about the program on the employee volunteering website is not going to work. Sending emails and reminders may actually incentivize people NOT to participate (it feels like nagging). The most successful strategy for creating awareness is collaboration through one-on-one conversations. This means you have to appeal to people’s WIIFM (What’s In It For Me). And you have to do it in person. Of course you can’t be everywhere, so you’ll need a strategy to multiply your efforts. Keep reading to find out how.

The Process is Clumsy: Unless you're a technology company like Microsoft you’re probably not going to be developing smart phone apps for your Dollar for Doers program anytime soon. Asking employees to remember to record hours and fill out semi-lengthy application forms is a huge barrier - not to mention all the work managers are required to do to develop the forms, post them online, collect the information and submit everything in a timely manner to release the funds. Instead consider using a third party solution like AngelPoints. If your budget is really tight (or non-existent), you might want to consider Spark! by Benevity which only requires a one-time, minimal setup fee.

The Eligibility is Low: Most of your employees who volunteer won’t qualify for the Dollars for Doers program. Companies often require a minimum number of hours per year to qualify. 40 hours is probably the most common threshold among the companies in our circles. Yet only 1 out of 3 employees volunteer on a regular basis - or enough to even qualify for the program. That means that the best companies can realistically hope for as a participation rate is 33%. On top of that, many companies do not include part time employees, further limiting the impact of the program to act as an incentive or reward.

The Motivation is Wrong: The bottom line is that for the employees who are both eligible and likely to take part in this program - it just isn’t motivating. Understanding the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivations will help managers position Dollars for Doers in a way that makes sense to employees. The following blog articles and video explain what I mean:

• The Business Case for Employee Volunteering #1: Employee Engagement
• Measuring the Strength of Your Employee Volunteer Program
• Want Good Volunteers? Forget the Altruistic and Find the Self-Interested

Making Dollars for Doers work

We use a process of ‘Capture and Convert’ to increase participation rates in employee volunteering programs.

Capture: Find the employees who are already volunteering in the community and embody the corporate purposes and vision. They may be volunteering on their own personal time or as part of corporate volunteering events. Either way these employees are influencers. They are a key to spreading the word about the Dollars for Doers program and are uniquely able to mobilize their colleagues to participate. The goal is to capture their hearts and minds with a vision for what the corporate volunteering program can accomplish for the community, the company and the employees.

Influencers can be identified through interviews and surveys. Once we find them we begin collaborating. This process should include both one-on-one conversations as well as focus group meetings. (We refer to as ‘Collaboratives’.) The process itself is important. Meeting with employees already volunteering in the community and collaborating on achieving shared goals and objectives creates strong peer endorsement. The result is an environment in which the program is offered by management while enjoying the advocacy of colleagues at every level within the company. (For more on how to do this).

Convert: Begin building interest and awareness among employees who may only volunteer on occasion. As I already mentioned, two out of three employees in North American companies volunteer less than once a year. A successful program needs to ‘convert’ non-volunteering employees by offering a meaningful experience. An experience-first approach is key to allowing employees their own intrinsic motivations for volunteering. This is achieved through a strategy of clear messaging which utilizes traditional communication channels as well as the personal invitations of influencers to ‘try it out’. The key is a volunteer experience which is both accessible and immediately rewarding.

Here are some of the benefits of this approach:

Increased Participation - This type of ground-swell approach is able to grow exponentially year over year.

Clear Leadership - You’ll be able to find employees most likely to be early adopters of the Dollar for Doers program due to their existing interest in and passion for volunteering.

Strong Advocates - Enabling influential employees who already volunteer in the community and have a desire to see more of their colleagues involved in community service while increasing their impact through Dollar for Doers.

Effective Support - With minimal training for your influencers, you’ll be able to multiply your one-on-one messaging and coaching for employees across the company.

 

Increased Satisfaction - People who use Dollar for Doers programs think they are great!

More about the CECP:

The Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy is the only international forum of business CEOs and chairpersons focused exclusively on corporate philanthropy. Membership includes more than 180 global CEOs and chairpersons of companies that together account for more than 40% of reported corporate giving in the United States. Download CECP's Ten-Year History to learn more about the organization's acccomplishments in its first decade.

The Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy has been collecting corporate giving data since 2001. Download the 2011 Giving In Numbers Report (PDF).

Realized Worth works with major corporations to launch high impact employee volunteer programs. We focus specifically on the challenge of employee engagement. Call us to chat: 317.371.4435.

 

Dollars for Doers: The Incentive Nobody Wants