Despite business budget cuts and overall belt tightening, corporate social responsibility efforts continue to gain momentum among many organizations. Why? Because in an era of recession and scandal, the public is paying more attention to what business is doing in terms of the environment, the safety of the products they buy for their kids and the food they eat.
This “back to basics” philosophy (see “Charting the Industry,” PRN 06/28/10 for more) is a natural catalyst, as organizations look to promote their CSR efforts among the public and with stakeholders. And one of the most important stakeholders in this area is an organization’s employees.
In a recent UN Global Compact / Accenture study of chief executives’ views on CSR efforts, employees were ranked second only to consumers as stakeholders who have the greatest impact on CSR (see chart on page 6 for full details).
According to Rajesh Anandan of UNICEF, getting employees fully involved in CSR efforts can’t be stressed enough. “Finding ways to engage employees in a meaningful way is an absolute necessary element,” he says.
As UNICEF’s VP for corporate and foundation partnerships for the U.S. Fund, Anandan is charged with assessing potential UNICEF partners’ operations and reputations before the organization enters into an agreement. Then, says Anandan, the level and type of employee involvement in a CSR initiative are determined. “The effort may be a marketing initiative in which employee engagement is limited,” says Anandan. “Or it may be an employee-driven grassroots effort.
In the case of UNICEF’s partnership with American Airlines, it was the latter that turned out to be the right fit. The union between the two goes back to 1990, and involves American Airlines flight attendants and airport lounge Admirals Club employees raising money through passenger donations of unused foreign currency in a program called Change for Good. However, says Anandan, the program languished over the years and was not close to reaching its full potential.
In 2009 the program was overhauled; it was expanded to include domestic flights for the first time in the program’s history. UNICEF and American Airlines initiated efforts to drive more volunteers (called Champions for Children) and raise awareness about the program, creating marketing materials that touted benefits such as:
• Give Champions for Children a vote to select projects funded by Change for Good.
• Give the volunteers the chance to go on a field visit to see how their efforts make a difference.
• Promote the feeling of pride—knowing that the volunteer is making a difference.
In addition, Change for Good (and its Champions) is promoted internally and externally through print and broadcast media, and an intranet destination was set up so volunteers can share photos and stories about customer donations.
The most important change: “Making the program a purely grassroots effort, run solely by the employees,” says Anandan. The results speak for themselves: In 2006 the program was generating about $50,000 per year in donations. Last year Change for Good raised $1.2 million for a variety of UNICEF programs. 
RIGHT TO CHOOSE
Giving employees a real voice in CSR initiatives is a concept that also resonates with Cindy Stone, VP and account director at AbelsonTaylor (AT), a Chicago-based pharmaceutical advertising agency.
For the agency’s Hearts AT Work program, employees chose to concentrate on projects that benefit children’s health and well-being. Getting the initiative going wasn’t that difficult, says Stone. “We sent out an initial e-mail to our 380 employees, and had 80 positive responses,” she says.
Now more than half of AT’s employees participate in some way. Stone’s theory explaining why that level is so high: “Young people we hire are instilled with the concept of giving back,” she says.
That CSR-centric mind-set has resulted in generous donations of employees’ time and money to numerous causes. To instill that mind-set, Stone recommends the following:
• Give people a lot of choices in the ways they can contribute. “This could be donating toys or clothes, or helping out at fundraising events, like the Walk to Cure Diabetes.”
• Have regular “celebrations” of employee CSR efforts. “We hold events in our café to share results.”
• Foster a sense of community via CSR programs. “Our Hearts AT Work program gets employees to think that maybe AbelsonTaylor is different from other companies—a place where people do really good things.”
TOP-DOWN SUPPORT
At VHA, an Irving, Texas-based company that supplies supply chain services to nonprofit healthcare facilities, it’s buy-in from leadership that drives employee engagement in green initiatives. “Our executive leadership is fully committed to these programs,” says Terri Scannell, director of corporate citizenship and sustainability at VHA.
To communicate that support to employees, VHA posts video messages from its leaders on a dedicated intranet site. “It’s important to communicate success, and that what people are doing is working,” says Scannell. To that end, VHA has a CSR scorecard on its site (www.vha.com) that documents results.
Here are some tips from Scannell that VHA used to help drive employees to donate nearly 28,000 volunteer hours since 2000:
• Align CSR with corporate values to increase the “pride factor” among employees.
• Look for interesting partnerships that will enhance employees’ community involvement.
• Encourage collaboration among groups within the organization. PRN
CONTACT:
Rajesh Anandan, c/o [email protected]; Cindy Stone, [email protected]; Terri Scannell, [email protected].