A Corporation s. Guide To Employee. Engagement. A Corporation s. Guide to Employee. Engagement

Transcription

1 A Corporation s Guide To Employee Engagement A Corporation s Guide to Employee Engagement 1

2 You ve no doubt heard about how many companies are going overboard in adding on bonus perks for employees think on-site gyms, daycare services, or even laundry in order to attract and retain top workers. But here s a secret: It s not about extra perks or frills. The best way to attract and retain great employees is by engaging them, and making them feel like a part of something bigger. That s where corporate social responsibility (CSR) comes in! It s the idea of your corporation giving back to various causes, and encouraging your employees to take part as well. In this ebook, we ll take a look at the meaning behind CSR, as well as the various ways your company can use charitable causes to help its staff feel engaged and satisfied at work. 1

3 O1 Corporate Social Responsibility, Defined Corporate social responsibility makes people in a workplace feel, well, like they re doing something important. Although day-to-day activities are vital from a business standpoint, it s also necessary to cultivate a sense of having a bigger social impact. For both Millennials and the upcoming Generation Z, being socially involved is hugely important. For both Millennials and the upcoming Generation Z, being socially involved is hugely important. According to Forbes, these demographics feel the need to be invested in social responsibility, particularly in the workplace. And, surprise they re the skilled generations that you want to hire. That s why your company needs to put together a corporate social responsibility program not only does it help connect employees 2

4 PLANNING TIP Take a look at what similar companies are doing for their CSR programs and get some inspiration for what successful activities you could try and incorporate. (of all ages!) to a greater cause, it also helps them feel more invested and engaged with their work. Plus, you ll get the good karma boost of knowing your company is giving back to a worthy cause! And you won t be alone, either FrontStream research has found that almost 65% of Fortune 500 companies offer a CSR program in the form of corporate gift matching, with a common minimum donation amount of $25. That s just one place you can start we ll look at other forms of CSR throughout this ebook. 3

5 O2 Know Your Staff Before you determine what kind of activities your CSR can do, it s best to step back and take a look at your staff demographics. You might not want to suggest heavily physical fundraising activities like running a charity marathon, for example if your staff are on the older side. Likewise, if you ve got a workplace with a lot of competitive Millennials, you should look for CSR activities that include things like leaderboard rankings or team challenges. It s all about making sure you appeal to the widest amount of staff as possible, in order to encourage them to participate. You may want to send around an internal survey to see what kind of activities they d be interested in, and what sorts of causes they d like to support. 4

6 PLANNING TIP Don t go into creating a CSR program under the assumption that everyone has the same values or wishes when it comes to charitable support you need to consider giving your staff plenty of options. 5

7 O3 Corporate Gift Matching When it comes to corporate social responsibility, one of the easiest programs you can integrate is corporate gift matching. This allows your corporation to match the donations of individuals to a cause dollar for dollar. Here s how it works: Say an employee of your company wants to donate to a charity. If your company has corporate gift matching, the employee will have the option to get their employers (you) to match their donation, thus doubling their giving total! Better still, it allows your employees the freedom to choose where they want their hard-earned dollars to go. Whether it s to an animal shelter or cancer research, if your company allows for corporate gift matching, your employees will have the satisfaction of knowing that their employer is also helping the causes they care about. PLANNING TIP Corporate gift matching is huge when it comes to building good faith between employer and employee everybody likes to know that their company cares about their causes so don t skip this option! 6

8 O4 Payroll Giving Another simple way for your CSR program to take advantage of your staff s generosity is through payroll giving. With this option, employees can choose a set amount of money to be deducted from each paycheck and donated to a cause of their choice. Through our research here at FrontStream, we ve found that this is a particularly lucrative form of donating the average employee who enables payroll giving donates approximately $242 per year. Payroll giving is a responsible, sustainable way to support important causes, and it doesn t require a lot of paperwork or complicated arrangements. If you ve got the right software, this can be a snap to set up, so make sure you get the word out there! Top Types of charities ThaT benefit from payroll giving: Philanthropy, Voluntarism & Grantmaking Foundations 59% Human Services 10% Education 5% Health Care 4% Diseases, Disorders & Medical Disciplines 3% Religion-Related 2% Animal-Related 2% Youth Development 2% Arts, Culture & Humanities 2% PLANNING TIP In communications to your staff, be sure to emphasize that this option is available to them, and that many charities rely on month-to-month donations to help their future initiatives. 7

9 O5 Charitable Events If you want to expand beyond payroll giving and really see how engaged employees can be, why not organize an annual corporate peer-to-peer event? Charitable events can bring employees together and foster a sense of team spirit, especially if it appeals to their competitive side (inter-department challenges, perhaps?). These out-of-the-offce events bring a social aspect that young employees love, and they can be a huge piece of talent retention. For example, the Canadian branch of PR firm Edelman holds The Little Give every year, in which employees are split into groups, assigned a nonprofit, and tasked with solving a pressing problem. Over 48 hours, the teams work together with the nonprofits to find a solution for their needs while engaging and bonding at the same time. 8

10 PLANNING TIP It doesn t even need to be something on a huge scale think of a team of employees representing your company in a 5K charity run, or putting together an office bake sale. This is a great excuse to get creative for a good cause! 9

11 O6 Workplace Volunteering If there are too many logistics around setting up your staff with a 5K run or a community event, consider a simple day of volunteering. Some employers allow their staff a free day off every year to do charity work, and though it s always good to give employees the choice to volunteer on their own, you could help build engagement by encouraging groups to take a volunteer day together. Some employers allow their staff a free day off every year to do charity work Volunteer days could be used for things like sorting food at a food bank, assisting with a trash clean-up, or helping out at an animal shelter. Having offsite events for charity not only gets colleagues out in the community, but teaches them to work as a group. 10

12 PLANNING TIP Keep an eye on community events to see what s coming up and if there s a pre-existing volunteering campaign you can incorporate into your CSR plans.

13 O7 Case Study Need a good example of a CSR program at work? Take the Wellmont Foundation s employee giving campaign. With the uniqueness of nonprofit hospital systems being a hybrid of both fundraising and corporate entities, there is a great need for comprehensive and scalable technology to unify complicated workplace giving campaigns. As a nonprofit, Wellmont Foundation solicits donations for internal hospital initiatives, as well as from external facilities conducting employee United Way campaigns. In 2010, they set out to adopt a workplace giving solution to unify their 12

14 employee giving, patient assistance and United Way fundraising into a single employee giving campaign. With Panorama Workplace, the Wellmont Foundation found flexibility it needed with payroll options such as per-pay-period donations, one-time deductions and paid time off donations, as well as the ability to use giving levels based on pay. Wellmont is now preparing for their seventh campaign using Panorama Workplace. They have more than 6,6000 employees spread among multiple hospitals and numerous clinical sites. Last year, they raised $540,000 and had 30% participation, which is well above average for the industry. All of this adds up to engaged staff and a huge boost in fundraising for the United Way. Last year, they raised $540,000 and had 30% participation, which is well above average for the industry 13

15 Everything you need to run your fundraising in one platform. galas seating charts mobile bidding registration teams branded customization Online Auctions Peer-to-peer and Giving Days easy export consolidated dashboard campaign reporting Custom Reporting Monthly Giving suggested donation amounts corporate matching recurring donations Donor Management Volunteer Management common donor profile reporting smart lists registration event search reporting What Panorama plan is right for you? PRO PREMIUM ENTERPRISE Custom reporting dashboard Peer-to-peer and project fundraising, giving days, and a donate button Online auctions, event seating, mobile bidding, and ticketing Everything Evrything in in Pro Pro p,l plus us: Donor management and volunteer Nonprofit portal CRM 360 Donor degree and volunteer view of your giving activity management Unlimited 360 degree records view of and your s giving activity Everything in Pro and Premium plus Fully white labeled peer-to-peer campaign and event pages Fully customized event registration, including multi-site events Dedicated account manager Want some extra help? Ask us about our 1:1 training options. Schedule a Talk to us: sales@frontstream.com or x1