March 4, 2016
Heightened employee engagement is one of the primary benefits of having a corporate social responsibility program and communicating about it effectively.
Several recent studies have made this point loud and clear:
- 86% of companies believe their employees expect to be provided opportunities to engage in the community – according to “The New Corporate DNA: Where Employee Engagement and Social Impact Converge,” the results of a survey of 120 companies by America’s Charities.
- The biggest benefits of sustainability reporting come from enhanced relationships with employees and the ability to recruit young talent – according to a survey of 91 EHS and sustainability leaders at U.S.- and Europe-based companies by environmental, health, safety, risk, and social consulting firm ERM.
- 89% of companies have found a positive correlation between employee participation in volunteering and higher engagement at work – according to a survey of 236 companies in the “2015 Community Involvement Study” by the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship Carroll School of Management.
- Consulting employees who participated in CSR initiatives were up to 32% less likely to leave the firm compared with their non-participating counterparts – according to a European studyanalyzing more than six years of data from a leading global management consulting firm, by INSEAD The Business School for the World.
- Volunteering is one of the best and least expensive ways of building employee skills and providing leadership training – according to “Trends of Excellence in Employee Volunteering Series” by Points of Light Institute. Key Finding: Excellent employee volunteer programs spend about $416 on each employee who participates in a volunteer program, compared with the $1,400 that U.S. companies spend, on average, on employee training per participant.
Want to learn more about this topic? Send me an e-mail or comment here to start a conversation. Or, if you’re in the Cleveland area, attend the next Corporate Roundtable/Corporate Sustainability Network meeting at Cleveland State University on the morning of March 11. Click here to register. I’ll be moderating a panel, which will consist of Rule6 consultant and conscious capitalism thought leader Andy Powell, Elena Stachew of Fairmount Santrol and Argerie Vasilakes of GOJO Industries.
