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August 01, 2006
Companies looking to keep their workforces competitive are finding ways to get more out of volunteer programs.
Kathleen Martin Fiander, group manager of global advertising for Microsoft, frequently ducks out of her office during the day to serve on the board of Youth Eastside Services in Seattle. But instead of issuing a reprimand, Microsoft pays the organization for her double-dealing. Chris Sommers, a senior sales engineer at Salesforce.com, spends up to 16 hours per week on non-work-related projects, like setting up a database to track clients of Project Homeless Connect in San Francisco. "I will turn down customer meetings at times to do this," he says. HSBC paid for U.K.–based employee Elizabeth Cooper to travel to Iceland for two weeks to track glaciers. And Dustin Warr, director of strategic accounts at Expedia, just returned from a company-sponsored, two-week trip to the Yucatán peninsula, where he used his knowledge of the travel industry to improve the operations of a local ecotourism outfit. His excuse: "I wanted to do something more altruistic."
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is big business these days, but that charity goes beyond financial contributions. A study released in June by the National Consumers League, found that only 3 percent of consumers defined CSR as giving charitable donations; far more connected it to responsibility for the environment (12 percent), a commitment to communities (23 percent) or to employees (27 percent). Many companies are now turning to their workforce, instead of their checkbooks, to advance CSR policies. To do so, they are rethinking internal volunteer programs that have traditionally functioned as a forgotten line on a benefit list, mobilizing armies of workers to serve as volunteer ambassadors across the globe and trying to quantify an elusive figure, the impact of their goodwill.
Several trends have converged to make employee volunteerism a hot topic right now. One is the view that as governments fail to effectively deal with large-scale disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the December 2004 Asian tsunami, businesses have a responsibility to pick up the slack. Having an organized, large-scale volunteer program in place ensures that companies will be prepared to respond quickly to any future disasters—responsiveness that will gain positive attention from the press and from the communities served.
A second factor is a post-Enron belief that corporations should be transparent and accountable in all their dealings, profitable or otherwise. Timothy McLaughlin, vice president of corporate volunteer development for the Points of Light Foundation admits that when it comes to return on investment, the nonprofit industry has lagged behind. "We're finding that there are huge gaps in how folks have been measuring the effectiveness of programs. It's no longer good enough to say, 'This looks good and it feels good.' People are looking at this as a more serious part of their business."
AngelPoints and VolunteerMatch are two San Francisco Bay Area companies that provide software-based tracking and reporting for corporate volunteer programs, and both have seen companies take a growing interest in their products. "I think people are taking the same kind of management discipline that has been turned on other areas of business and applying it to volunteer systems," says AngelPoints' vice president of marketing, Andrew Dailey. "It's not enough to track how many hours were volunteered last year. They want to look at activities on a geographical basis; they want to know what are the four top organizations they work with and whether those organizations align with their strategies; they want to track individual volunteers and the skills each is developing."
Changing demographics are a third reason volunteer programs are being reevaluated. A demonstrated commitment to improving society is seen as an effective tool for recruiting younger Generation X and Y workers. "The average Gen Xer…is constantly asking, 'Am I being challenged? Am I growing? Am I making a difference? Is this company making a difference?'" states Dailey. On the other end of the spectrum, a volunteer program can forestall the brain drain many companies are facing as baby boomers reach retirement age, but not the limit of their productivity. For retirees with expertise to share, Dailey says a mentorship program is a natural fit. "A lot of engineers at Intel [Corp.] are involved in education, teaching math and science skills. That not only grows the future Intel workforce, but a whole community of people who will buy Intel products."
To capitalize on all that do-gooding has to offer, many companies are enacting policies that make it easier for workers with full-time commitments to take part in community service activities. Some examples include setting aside a yearly number of hours or days that employees can spend volunteering, matching that time with grants and offering sabbaticals, which allow employees to take off up to a year to work at a nonprofit while collecting their regular salary.
Another trend has been toward skills-based volunteering, in which the employee lends professional expertise, whether in computer programming or marketing, to a nonprofit that could not otherwise afford such skilled labor. Companies also encourage activities to be more employee-driven, less dictated by management. "If a big portion of their employee base is working two or three jobs, like at a major hotel chain, [these employees] probably don't want to feel obligated to give up a Saturday to go to a chairman's favorite walkathon," Dailey says.
At the same time, companies are becoming more strategic about which nonprofits they support, choosing certain causes, like education or environmentalism, that align with their strategies and vetting the list of organizations they consider eligible for funds.
Microsoft limits its support to charities that are secular and have a separate program budget. The software company launched a time-matching program for its North American workers last October; once an employee has volunteered more than 10 hours at an organization, every additional hour will be matched automatically by a $17 donation up to $12,000 per year. "Essentially this program allows every employee at every level to be a philanthropist," says Andrea Taylor, director of community affairs in North America. "We're very encouraged by the participation to date."
A rising star in this field has been software company Salesforce.com. They introduce their commitment to volunteerism to new hires at orientation, during which they spend a half-day working with one of several local charities. Once past orientation, Salesforce encourages employees to use 1 percent of their working time (six days per year) on volunteer projects. The company will match that time with a grant, up to $500 for every 10 hours volunteered. Would-be volunteers can find opportunities through an online system, but employees are encouraged to take the lead in organizing new programs; such initiatives are rewarded with Community Action Team Grants of $1,000 to $7,500.
"The more we can respond to people's passions and requests, the more they're engaged," explains Suzanne DiBianca, executive director of the Salesforce Foundation. She adds that the policies have been a crucial differentiator for recruitment. Chris Sommers joined Salesforce.com three years ago in large part because of its integrated approach to volunteerism. "I'm not teaching children to read for a living, but I am doing good," he says. "It's redeeming for me, and for the company as well."
While many employees are motivated to volunteer all on their own, a successful program will make sure managers are on board. Posting participation rates by division can kickstart internal competition, and some companies, like Salesforce, set performance goals for this category. Trisa Thompson, a vice president in the legal group at Dell computers, says employee volunteers in her division often receive on-the-spot and department-wide awards, and she considers volunteer work as part of most performance reviews.
But it can be a thin line between encouraging volunteerism and making employees feel it's mandatory. While Thompson concedes that she has to be careful not to pressure employees, she feels that volunteer activities allow many workers to show their leadership potential. "When I look at the people who are highly successful at this company, almost all of them are highly involved in the community." DiBianca at Salesforce agrees: "We weren't sure when we started who our star volunteers would be, but often it's the highest performers in the company."
While many companies recognize their outstanding volunteers, at others the volunteer opportunity is itself the reward. The employee fellowship program at Earthwatch Institute, a nonprofit that supports international scientific field research, allows companies to send employees around the world on official expeditions. "Researchers need bodies who can perform rather basic tasks," explains Ed Barker, director of corporate partnerships for the Maynard, Mass.–based organization. "Everybody can observe and collect data." Trips last an average of 9 to 16 days, and the work done by volunteers can involve anything from surveying a coral reef in the Caribbean to tracking elephant migration patterns in Africa.
Earthwatch selects participants from a pool of submitted applications and has a comprehensive safety program, which keeps resource investment from the employer minimal. Their list of corporate partners includes Starbucks, which annually sends up to seven retail employees to a coffee-producing area of the world. "They are the face of the company, and we feel they need to have the excitement about our environmental commitment," explains Kristen Anderson, Starbucks' senior environmental affairs specialist. "A barista doesn't get to travel, so this gives them an opportunity to do something they wouldn't be able to do."
Earthwatch's most devoted partner is British-headquartered bank HSBC, which pledged to send 2,000 employees on expeditions as part of its five-year Investing in Nature agenda. Spokesperson Nhan Chien says HSBC's goal is to make employees "environmental champions," and participants are required to be involved in a community conservation project after they return. Elizabeth Cooper the HSBC employee who traveled to Iceland last July, recalls of her trip, "It wasn't like being on vacation, but I did feel very rejuvenated. You take so much more in when you're in that kind of environment, as opposed to when you're at work."
A pilot program launched in June by Expedia allows employees to volunteer their work expertise while they travel. As part of its partnership with the World Heritage Alliance (WHA), the online travel company selected five employees to visit the protected Sian Ka'an area of Mexico in June, and assist sustainable tourism operator Community Tours Sian Ka'an (CTSK).
Expedia has grown considerably from its dot-com roots, and the project was a great opportunity for participants to network and share ideas with employees from other departments, including one from subsidiary Hotwire. Some worked on upgrading CTSK's Web site, while others, including strategic account director Dustin Warr, helped the company improve its pricing model and presentation. Warr says the experience gave him a new perspective on the work he does every day: "I think the best part of it was that we, the employees, the so-called experts, came away learning more than anyone else. I now have more dedication, not just to doing my job, but to doing it responsibly." Expedia hopes to begin sending up to two groups per year to different WHA sites. "As a leader in the travel industry, we want to concentrate on what we do best," says Laura Piñones, who directed the WHA program for Expedia. "In the process I think that we have developed a great teambuilding experience that you could never get at home."
Planners at several incentive houses report that they have had clients consider including a community service project in an incentive program, but few have acted on the impulse. While St. Louis–based Maritz Inc. included an outreach project as part of its recent sales conference in New Orleans (see page 31), it has yet to extend such a program to its clients. "We're open to ideas," says vice president of sales programs Nancy Ogden, "but logistically, it's very difficult."
To make it easier, Hanover, N.J.–based Impact 4 Good has developed several turnkey teambuilding programs in which participants compete to create products that are later donated—two current projects involve building beehives for Louisiana farmers affected by Hurricane Katrina and solar cookers for use in the developing world. President Ira Almeas is a veteran of the incentive industry, with 20 years' involvement at performance improvement company Impact Incentives & Meetings. He says that this experience has helped him design programs that will appeal to incentive planners. Projects, which typically take two to four hours, can take place onsite at a hotel or event space and be combined with a lunch or evening event. "It's time-efficient and cost-efficient," says Almeas. Impact 4 Good has administered 20 programs since refocusing last year.
The company also offers suggestions to planners for ways that they can give even more; for example, by donating a banquet's leftovers to a food pantry or collecting unused hotel toiletries for local shelters. Almeas says that so far the biggest hurdle he has encountered has been convincing clients that the events won't detract from the power of the incentive. "We're not asking [participants] to do anything that will infringe on their reward," he argues. "People naturally feel good about giving back; there's nothing deeper or more motivating."
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