With 2009 likely to be remembered as one of the most challenging years for business, it would have been easy to relegate corporate social responsibility (CSR) and associated staff motivation programmes into the 'not business-critical' category. Yet, despite clawbacks elsewhere, there is heartening evidence that, far from suffering the budgetary axe, many of these projects - because they span the intersection between CSR and staff engagement drives - are viewed as hugely important to a business's health.
In the past two months, both Bupa and Vodafone have announced a huge expansion in both of their overseas staff involvement projects and, according to figures just released by Volunteering England in September, there has been a rise in volunteering enquiries from businesses this year, with 86% of volunteering centres reporting an upsurge in approaches.
Bupa's expansion of its corporate volunteering initiative was made after analysing the impact of its initial activities which began in earnest in 2007, when the company celebrated its 60th anniversary and sent 60 volunteers from across the business to refurbish an orphanage in Thailand. Research revealed it had an even more positive impact on staff than had been predicted.
"People raised money as part of going there and showed themselves to be really committed," says Bupa's group HR director, Bob Watson. "We measured how people felt afterwards and 90% of volunteers felt proud to be an employee and 100% said they felt positively about the challenge. We had 85% give presentations to colleagues about the challenge and overall the strength of emotional engagement was much greater than we'd expected."
Watson says the initiative created a "tremendous feel-good factor" throughout the company. This was underlined when the first wave of employee research carried out after the challenge saw a 7%-8% rise in engagement, a lift Watson ascribes at least in part to the volunteering programme.
The success of the Thailand programme encouraged the company to commit to its largest ever international staff volunteering challenge. Between September and November 2009, 120 Bupa employees from across the globe travelled to the remote village of Miraflores in Ecuador to build essential health facilities. Groups of 10 volunteers flew out to Ecuador every week for three months to work alongside registered charity, the Martha Estrella Foundation. The Ecuador Challenge was wholly funded by Bupa, with volunteers aiming to raise £1,000 each. There were 320 applicants for the 120 places on offer.
Vodafone has also increased its commitment to volunteering this year after initial activities were viewed positively. Its international World of Difference programme helped drive a two percentage point rise in employee engagement (as measured in October 2008) at a difficult time for the business.
The success of the international programme persuaded Vodafone to launch the World of Difference UK programme in September, delivered by the Vodafone Foundation. This gives 500 staff the chance to put something back into the community. The two-month programme, open to anyone aged 18 or over, lets them take a paid placement with a UK charity of their choice. Clearly, this is a significant investment by the telecoms company. So how did it manage to gain approval from the UK general management team in a year when it has had to make redundancies and freeze pay?
"We've had to make some tough calls about jobs and pay but at the same time you have to show you are investing for the future," says Vodafone UK HR director, Matthew Brearley. "Effective CSR programmes are drivers of employee engagement. Seeing us as a company involved in things beyond purely commercial activities really motivates our people."
Brearley says the initiative was able to proceed because it had the enthusiastic backing of UK CEO Guy Laurence. "I personally would like to see this building into an iconic programme where the interest and scale will continue to grow," adds Brearley. Its impact on engagement will be measured in the next round of employee research.
Undoubtedly, there can be huge motivational benefits for those who participate in such initiatives, which often also ripple out to employees taking a close - and frequently proud - interest in events. Some programmes are constructed to factor professional development into the mix alongside CSR and motivation. A good case in point is IBM's Corporate Service Corps (CSC), a component of its Global Citizen's Portfolio, announced by CEO Sam Palmisano in July 2007.
CSC provides 'IBMers' with opportunities to acquire global leadership skills and to develop as a global corporate citizen. Projects include facing societal, environmental and educational issues. Working in diverse, multi-national teams of eight to 10 people, IBMers have provided in-depth business and IT consulting support to clients in strategic emerging markets such as Romania, the Philippines, Ghana, Tanzania and Vietnam. Clients include small and medium-sized enterprises, entrepreneurs, non-profit organisations, educational institutions and governmental agencies. Since July 2008, 100 of IBM's high-potential leaders representing every part of the business and 30-plus countries have completed their assignments. In 2009, the programme was expanded to 500 participants and reached new markets such as Brazil, China, India and Malaysia.
"I came back feeling I was invincible," says IBM external relations manager Vince Smith, who spent four weeks in mid-2009 working in a remote area of South Africa on improving its tourism prospects. "IBM views this as sitting between corporate citizenship and leadership development. By exposing the leaders of tomorrow to different cultures and putting them in challenging environments as part of teams of people from different cultures, there's a great benefit to the IBMers involved. Their ability to thrive in an evolving IBM is significantly enhanced."
In a similar vein, David Liversidge was promoted to head of information systems for sales and marketing in Western Europe at AstraZeneca after volunteering with VSO for three months in Mongolia. "It was the most significant personal development experience I have been through," he says.
Recent research underlines the positives to come out of volunteering. Business in the Community has gathered feedback from 545 employee volunteers over the past two quarters. It indicates 96.9% felt it was important their employer supported volunteering; 85% also felt an increased sense of pride in their employer as a result of support for volunteering, while 89% felt more committed and 88% had an improved perception of their company.
All well and good - but what should employers do to make sure their programmes are effective? "Employers need to make the most of their existing resources and to structure their strategies according to what is robust, realistic and relevant to their communities," says Gennie Franklin, employee volunteering director at Business in the Community. "This will ensure their commitments are sustainable. Employees are hesitant to be seen to participate in activities that are perceived as profit-generating. The vital ingredient is that business leaders continue to support and value employee volunteering and encourage their teams to do the same."
In July 2009, the prime minister, Gordon Brown, launched the National Talent Bank, an initiative of the Council on Social Action (CoSA), which is being delivered by Business in the Community in partnership with TimeBank, the body that pairs up businesses with volunteering opportunities. It is currently recruiting businesses and charities to provide high quality volunteering opportunities for employees.
TimeBank recently conducted research of its own with jobsite reed.co.uk and found employees are often apprehensive about asking for time off to volunteer. So there is a need for employers to outline their attitudes to volunteerism with greater clarity. However, the research also found an impressive 84% of employers understand that volunteering can add skills to their workforce, 70% feel volunteering enhances the community profile of their company and 77% know building good relations with their communities is important.
There are plenty of compelling arguments for HR directors to take a long hard look at motivation-building opportunities of this kind - even when budgets are under huge pressure.
- Gen Y likes to help
Companies that help their employees volunteer their professional skills to non-profit organisations may have an edge when it comes to recruiting Gen Y talent. A Deloitte & Touche USA survey of 18-26 year-olds found nearly two-thirds (62%) of the respondents said they would prefer to work for companies that give them opportunities to contribute their talents to non-profit organisations. Four out of five respondents (80%) identified themselves as volunteers and 97% believed companies should offer their staff opportunities to volunteer their work-related skills or talents to non-profit organisations.
The vast majority of volunteers surveyed (74%) said they do it to have a meaningful impact on their communities or to fulfil a personal desire to give back. Most Gen Y volunteers (80%) are also confident that non-profit organisations could benefit from their professional skills and talents.
Volunteerism can also help them advance their careers. More than four out of five respondents who volunteer (82%) believe it helps them develop leadership and other vital workplace skills.
- Alcatel-Lucent
In September 2009, technology giant Alcatel-Lucent announced its employees contributed nearly 50,000 hours of volunteer work - the equivalent of more than five years - supporting some 225 projects in 42 countries during its International Days of Caring initiative over the summer. Organised by the Alcatel-Lucent Foundation, this global employee volunteer programme is one of the company's most visible manifestations of its commitment to social responsibility.
"These are great numbers," says Foundation director Beatrice Tassot. "We are very proud because we increased the number of projects and also the number of countries. The fact we are going through a recession did not have an effect on volunteerism. Even though as a company we've lost some employees, we didn't lose any enthusiasm for giving back."
Tassot says the idea of volunteerism is gaining greater traction globally and the Foundation's budget for such initiatives is growing. The number of projects showed a 40% increase from last year, and the number of countries involved was up 60%.
One project mentored by Alcatel-Lucent staff was a team from Haberdashers Monmouth School for Girls who entered the Annual Engineering Education Scheme competition in Wales with a tracking system for search and rescue boats operated by the Severn Area Rescue Association.
VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES FOR 2010
Who: VSO
Type of volunteering that is up for grabs: International
Details: Can create 'bespoke' volunteer packages for VSO Business Associate (VBO) partners, helping to motivate and retain high-performing staff as it has already done for the Welsh Assembly, AstraZeneca and Accenture
Contact: corporate.partnerships@vso.org.uk or call 020 8780 7361
Who: National Trust
Type of volunteering that is up for grabs: Conservation
Details: More than 8,000 employees from over 500 companies have been involved in Employer Supported Volunteering through the National Trust since projects started in 2001
Contact: Amanda Chambers, volunteer adviser on 01793 817659 or 07786 250444
Who: Macmillan
Type of volunteering that is up for grabs: Assisting cancer information and support teams
Details: Creation of tailored corporate fundraising programmes also an option
Contact: Wendy Askew, Macmillan's corporate volunteer involvement co-ordinator. Email waskew@macmillan.org.uk or call 01925 846757
Who: Barnardo's
Type of volunteering that is up for grabs: Offers Employer Supported Volunteer Programme.
Details: A wide range of volunteer opportunities for employees, including one-off team challenge fundraisers, such as Store Wars events, where teams run a local Barnardo's shop for a day to raise as much money as they can.
Contact: John Ellis, deputy director for volunteering (UK) on 020 8498 7472 or john.ellis@barnardos.org.uk
