A CEO’s Guide to Employee Engagement
My top 5 tips for volunteerism and the ideas I’m most passionate about.
By Caroline Barlerin
I want to dive deeper into employee engagement as one of the business benefits of social good and explore how CEOs can optimize what they’re doing to achieve high engagement and happy, fulfilled employees.
First, the stats. It’s been proven many times over:
74% of respondents to a Cone Communications study said their job is more fulfilling when they have opportunities to make a positive impact at work.
76% of millennials would choose to work for a socially responsible company, even if that meant accepting a lower salary than at other companies.
53% of adults reported that it’s “critical” to work somewhere that aligns with their values.
Daniel Pink, author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, also notes that for any industry, what gets employees excited and engaged at work is autonomy, mastery, and PURPOSE.
Even if your company isn’t a social enterprise, you can have what Pink calls a “lowercase p” purpose. People want to feel like they’re doing something that makes someone’s life a little better.
One way to foster this feeling is through CSR, especially programs like employee volunteerism.
How to Do It Right
A whole book could be written on employee volunteerism, engagement, best practices, and advice. There are already blog posts that cover different aspects. What I want to do is give you a top 5 tips list for volunteerism and share the ideas I’m most passionate about.
TOP 5 TIPS
Give employees the time to volunteer. Lack of time is the #1 reason surveyed employees give for not volunteering. As the CEO, it’s a corporate culture issue. Set an example by taking time yourself to volunteer, and remind managers that employees’ requests to volunteer during the workday (within company policy) should be honored—without any guilt-tripping.
Share the impact of their volunteering. Research shows that employees are more engaged with volunteerism when they know the impact they’ve made. This goes back to Pink’s message of people needing to feel like they’re making a difference. So don’t go radio silent after an event! Communicate things such as the number of people helped and/or positive feedback from the organizing nonprofit.
Go skills-based. Your employees have valuable skills that they could be sharing with nonprofits, such as accounting and marketing. Don’t be afraid to step out of the traditional volunteerism box and offer skills-based opportunities. Employees will feel fulfilled knowing they’ve helped a nonprofit stretch its budget, make sound strategic choices, or organize its finances.
Track your results. Don’t forget to gather metrics on employee engagement before volunteer programs, as well as after, so you have a baseline to compare to. Gallup offers a pretty comprehensive list of questions. Use the feedback to tweak your strategy and improve your results.
Live your values. All of these tips can only go so far if employees don’t believe you actually care. Facebook, Uber, WeWork, Away…a plethora of companies have proven that you cannot get away with fake values, i.e., not walking your talk. You might be able to pull it off for a while, but it will come to light. (This, of course, aside from the fact that it’s first and foremost unethical and shameful.)
Related Content: A CEO’s Guide to CSR
