global employee engagement solutions

2011: Latest Versions of CSRinsights

We thought we'd do something different for our end-of-year CSRinsights by highlighting where and why people donate their time and money. By using 2010/2011 data, we focused on the top five most influential stats we could find that influence the future direction of CSR and how online technology supports market demands.

Perhaps employees don't say this out loud, but it's often a question that comes to mind: Why should I get involved in CSR programs?

Most employees already work 40 hours a week, so devoting a hour of volunteering is just as valuable as donating $100 (both being as equally challenging to extract). But we know an inherent 'generous' attitude exists for us as human beings, so how can we stimulate this generosity?

This edition of CSRinsights passes along some best practices and insights on how to incentivize employees to join your corporate social responsibility programs and initiatives, which ultimately drive engagement and the bottom business line.

Payroll deduction, the ability for employees to voluntarily give from their paycheck to a nonprofit of their choice, accounts for the highest median dollar amount donated by employees, according to CECP's 2010 Giving in Numbers. With workplace giving peaking during the last quarter of the calendar year, this edition of CSRinsights aggregates various insights related to how participation, risk, cost and global payroll programs can be improved through technology and third-party partnerships to drive employee engagement, corporate giving and overall community impact.

It's in the facts. Research proves a measurable payoff exists of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives to companies as well as their stakeholders. So, we turned on our proverbial flashlight to aggregate quantifiable data that so easily gets lost in reports, stacks of research and that endless labyrinth we call - the mind.

We wrote this edition for two very simple reasons: 1) To provide you with a high-level business case, within one page, that clearly lays out the proven benefits of a well executed CSR program, and 2) to equip our readers with a source they can pass to others who may find such information meaningful and influential within their own decision making process.

But you can try your hardest! It may not (technically) be in your job description, but corporate social responsibility creates employee passion and happiness. Learn the obstacles that prevent mass happiness and turn them into solutions.

As much as we continuously seek to make everybody happy in the workplace, it ends up feeling next to impossible. Sound familiar? However challenging the feat may be, it's something every corporate culture aims to achieve. Some may even say that employee happiness is a corporate responsibility. Therefore, a lot of the happiness hype falls upon the shoulders of you - within CSR and the employee engagement sector.

Happiness increases with philanthropy and volunteerism, making CSR a key player in enabling employees to feel valued, have a higher sense of self-perception and life happiness in general. In addition, CSR participation contributes to psychological and emotional links between the employee and their employer and organizational commitment. The advantage to all this (happiness and the challenge of making it widespread) is that positive employees outperform negative employees in terms of productivity, sales, energy levels, turnover rates and healthcare costs.

Maximize Impact from Reporting

Recording of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) activities is appearing with greater frequency in business models, annual reports, company collateral, and a variety of outward facing communications. If done correctly, the returns can be huge - though how many companies are placing the appropriate time, effort and value in generating these reports?

Sixty-nine percent of corporations create a dedicated section (when reporting) to showcase employee engagement, charitable giving, volunteerism, total community expenditure, etc., according to Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). However, only a small percentage of these corporations focus on qualitative measurements. Furthermore, a lack of reporting guidelines related to employee engagement, which is still widely considered a "nice-to-have" over a "must-have" for the company's business strategy, leaves interpretation open for how companies can present the results to be more effective.

Considering the fact that employee engagement correlates with job satisfaction and loyalty, maximizing the impact from reporting volunteer hours and dollar amounts can be essential. Focus on the strategic outcomes, not the input, so audiences understand how employee community engagement relays back to a sustainable workplace culture and social benefits. We've compiled four suggested techniques that may help you in your reporting efforts.

International Workplace Giving

Global companies are actively seeking out solutions for their international work forces. The interest is wide-spread and consistent. Yet, to date, the demand for such an offering has yet to be adequately supplied. Even the most progressive, charitable, and supportive companies ask for a commonly (and widely) accepted product that brings about an equal solution, for all employees, throughout the world. It's not unreasonable to think that, by now, technology would have been able to deliver this. However, the accepted conclusion tells us otherwise. We mention this for one simple reason: the challenge is real and we are working with our clients, partners, and enthusiast to find the most reliable, comprehensive, and secure global solution0-all in our effort to develop global good!

After all "developing global good" is not just a marketing catch-phrase. It expresses YourCause'spurpose to influence corporate philanthropy beyond national borders and help deliver assistance to international charities. For this reason, we make it our priority to explain why and how a CSR strategy should consider expanding charitable options to international workplace giving.

Millennials: A New Generation of Expectations

We hear a lot of buzz about Millennials and that's probably because, at 95 million strong, they will make up the largest and most educated generation yet. These self-expressive, optimistic and tech-savvy twenty-somethings possess unique values that will play a large role when strategizing employee engagement programs in CSR initiatives.

Although most full-time positions in the workforce are currently filled with the generation before them (Gen X), more than half of Millennials ages 25 to 29 finished their formal schooling and are well on their way to launching careers and families, according to the Pew Research Center. Thus, we strongly suggest that, as more Millennials trickle into the workforce, companies integrate CSR strategies aligning with the generation's high expectations for the products they purchase, the companies they work for and the nonprofits they support.

Here's some insight into the giving and volunteering trends of the Millennial generation, which will help you design programs that gauge participation now and years to come.

Cultivate Change through Storytelling

When an individual decides to support a cause, it's simply because they care. But how does one get inspired to care in the first place? Access to information around social issues and emotion-inducing stories play a large role in giving decisions. With this in mind, consider how you can create a learning culture and promote storytelling within your philanthropic culture, energizing employees to give.

To illustrate this point- our culture at YourCause is around community, supporting diverse causes and sharing experiences that are meaningful to grasp a greater understanding. YourCause Founder Matthew Combs and Account Manager Brian Lind were shocked that 16,000 children die each day from lack of food or nutrition and decided to understand a hunger victim's plight by challenging themselves to a three day fast.

Matthew and Brian's perspectives changed through this 72-hour journey, becoming more sympathetic to those suffering and grew more apt to support hunger organizations. They voluntarily kept a diary to document their experience and share the agony that results from hunger to influence others to care.

We aren't saying you should challenge your employees to a three day fast. However, you can create opportunities for employees to become active in causes they learn about and, in turn, inspire employees to cultivate stories that motivate them and others to take action.

Disaster Strikes. Now What?

In the past three years, a required response to more than a handful of disasters occurred including: the earthquakes in China, Chile and Haiti; the floods in Tennessee and Pakistan; and now, the most recent earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan. As heartbreaking as they may be, disasters happen every year. Forecasting them only helps to provide the best, most effective response.

In three years providing our services, YourCause aggregated enough data to show that the first three days (72 hours) is the most crucial time to respond to a disaster. "Turn-key" programs that immediately respond and act upon the emotion and interest of the public at-large show the best results of giving, demonstrating that time truly is of essence.

YourCause spoke with Kristi Fontenot, AMD's Community Affairs Specialist, to gain additional insight into how a company can expedite their disaster relief efforts.

It's Time to Spread the Good News
They say it's hard to keep a good thing a secret and your corporate social responsibility program should be no different. If you struggle with communicating your CSR initiatives to your employees, then you may be cutting your program and business goals short.

Therefore, we (at YourCause) wish to share insight to improve internal communication, whether it's within our CSRconnect platform or any other for that matter. Why? Because we believe if you're doing good, the good should continue to thrive. So, we invite you to read about Dell Inc., which proves to be a successful case study of internal communication. With more than 183,816 hours logged through their Make a Difference volunteer community, we think it's a secret worth sharing.