Mapping Success in Employee Volunteering
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Learning, Practice, Results. In Good Company Mapping Success in Employee Volunteering The Drivers of Effectiveness for Employee Volunteering and Giving Programs and Fortune 500 Performance To help community involvement professionals steer their volunteer programs toward high community and company impact, this report presents an absolute and a relative benchmark of effectiveness for employee volunteering. The absolute benchmark consists of the Drivers of Effectiveness for Employee Volunteering and Giving Programs composed of the six practices or drivers that, according to existing research, generate community and company impact. The relative benchmark consists of findings from a survey of over 200 Fortune 500 companies that measured collective compliance with the drivers and identified best practices from high performers. On the cover: Lockheed Martin’s “Engineers in the Classroom” program aims to inspire students to think of careers in engineering as compelling, rewarding and even fun. Learning, Practice, Results. In Good Company By Bea Boccalandro Contents Faculty Member Message from the managing director i Executive summary Boston College Center for 1 Introduction Corporate Citizenship 1 Purpose 1 Author and partners 1 Definition of the Drivers of Effectiveness This project sponsored by for Employee Volunteering and Giving Programs (EVGPs) 1 Methodology behind the Drivers of Effectiveness for EVGPs 4 Methodology behind the Fortune 500 survey 7 Drivers of Effectiveness for EVGPs and Fortune 500 performance 7 An overview of Fortune 500 performance 10 Driver 1: Cause-effective Configuration 15 Driver 2: Strategic Business Positioning 21 Driver 3: Sufficient Investment 24 Driver 4: Culture of Engagement 29 Driver 5: Strong Participation 32 Driver 6: Actionable Evaluation 37 Conclusions 39 Project advisers 40 References © 2009 The Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship. All rights reserved. www.BCCorporateCitizenship.org Mapping Success in Employee Volunteering Employees strengthen corporate citizenship from the inside out with compassion, promising ideas and unparalleled energy. Learning, Practice, Results. In Good Company Message from the Managing Director Business today faces an escalating demand and growing need to play a greater role in addressing society’s problems. Employees will be the key to any company’s efforts. This survey and report on effective community involvement through employee volunteering and giving programs could not be timelier. The data collected from more than 200 Fortune 500 companies are the richest and most informative I’ve seen in recent years. Until now, practitioners and academics alike have often relegated employee volunteering and giv- ing to the margins of corporate citizenship. This is a missed opportunity. Brought into the core, employees strengthen corporate citizenship from the inside out with compassion, promising ideas and unparalleled energy. Community involvement professionals from around the globe will find great value in the knowl- edge and guidance presented in this report, sponsored by Bank of America. I believe it contains long-sought guidance on how to tap the full potential of employee volunteering to strengthen corporate citizenship. It reinforces the need to align community involvement, like other aspects of corporate citizenship, with the business strategy. And it stresses the value of evaluating and measuring the impact of programs on the community and the business. I am excited about the opportunities this report opens up for companies seeking to evolve their community involvement. As companies study, apply and even critique the guidance of this report, they will strengthen their corporate citizenship, elevate their businesses and brighten their com- munities. Cheryl Yaffe Kiser Managing Director Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship www.BCCorporateCitizenship.org Mapping Success in Employee Volunteering This project scrutinized the research and the Fortune 500 practices related to employee volunteering to lay the path, or at least a set of landmarks, leading to high impact employee volunteering. Learning, Practice, Results. In Good Company Executive summary As the trailblazers of an emergent field, com- More than nine in 10 Fortune 500 survey munity involvement professionals have long respondents have formal EVGPs. Having managed their Employee Volunteering and made it to the mainstream, however, em- Giving Programs (EVGPs) without benefit of ployee volunteering is now challenged to an established path to success. Fortunately, make an impact. The vast majority of Fortune the body of knowledge relating to employee 500 respondents have EVGPs that are not volunteering is finally robust enough to begin ideally structured for high impact on society identifying the EVGP components that lead or the company. Fortune 500 respondents to meaningful and substantive impact in the have an average compliance with the driv- community and the company. This project ers of 26 percent and more than half have scrutinized the research and the Fortune 500 compliance scores of less than 30 percent. practices related to employee volunteering Common EVGP weaknesses include failure to lay the path, or at least a set of landmarks, to draw from the full suite of corporate assets, leading to high impact employee volunteer- insufficient resources, isolation from relevant ing. business functions, low employee participa- tion and inadequate evaluation systems. The report presents an absolute and a relative benchmark of effectiveness for employee vol- This is not to say that EVGPs are not contrib- unteering. The absolute benchmark consists uting to the wellbeing of employees, busi- of the Drivers of Effectiveness for EVGPs nesses and, most important, communities. composed of the six practices or drivers that, Across every indicator of every driver, some according to existing research, generate com- companies are decisively and ingeniously munity and company impact: demonstrating success. Nevertheless, the collective potential of employee volunteering 1. Cause-effective Configuration transforming our social and corporate sectors 2. Strategic Business Positioning remains largely untapped. 3. Sufficient Investment 4. Culture of Engagement However, if company response to date is any 5. Strong Participation indication, the promise of employee volun- 6. Actionable Evaluation teering will be realized. No sooner had the drivers laid down a rough path to greater The relative benchmark consists of a survey EVGP effectiveness, than community involve- of over 200 Fortune 500 companies that ment professionals were on the march. Many measured collective compliance with the enterprising companies are already illuminat- drivers and identified best practices from high ing the way forward. performers. Employee volunteering has succeeded in establishing a foothold in corporate America. www.BCCorporateCitizenship.org Mapping Success in Employee Volunteering i On Marriott’s Spirit to Serve Our Communi- ties Day in Atlanta, Georgia, senior executives joined employees from 16 local hotels to sort food that provided over 8,000 meals (left to right: Bill Bolling, Founder and Executive Director of Atlanta Community Food Bank; J.W. “Bill” Marriott, Jr., Chairman and CEO of Marriott International, Inc.; and Ed Paradine, Vice President, Marriott Market Management, Central Region). Learning, Practice, Results. In Good Company Introduction Purpose evidence-based actionable and measurable This report aims to help corporate commu- assessment criteria on the degree to which an nity involvement professionals configure their EVGP is structured to make a meaningful and Employee Volunteering and Giving Programs substantive impact on the community and the (EVGPs) to effectively impact their communi- business. “Meaningful and substantive” com- ties and companies. It presents an absolute munity impact denotes detectable progress and a relative benchmark of effectiveness for relative to a charitable cause or public good. EVGPs. The absolute benchmark consists of Examples include increasing the local high the Drivers of Effectiveness for EVGPs, com- school graduation rate or improving the ef- posed of the evidence-based six practices that ficacy of preventive services offered by a health lead to community and company impact. The clinic in a developing country. “Meaningful relative benchmark, drawn from a survey of and substantive” business impact refers to a 203 Fortune 500 companies, enables readers detectable improvement in an item related to to compare their EVGP scores on the drivers business success such as employee retention to average Fortune 500 respondent scores, or product appeal. and to learn how select companies meet the drivers. Collectively, the drivers define a state of ideal EVGP effectiveness. That is, an EVGP that has Author and partners 100 percent compliance with all six drivers This Boston College Center for Corporate is maximizing its impact on community and Citizenship report was authored by Bea business to the best of existing knowledge. Boccalandro, a Center faculty member and president of VeraWorks, a firm dedicated to Methodology behind the Drivers of helping companies develop effective commu- Effectiveness for EVGPs nity involvement. Bank of America sponsored Development the project. Researchers, practitioners in The Drivers of Effectiveness for EVGPs were leadership positions and other experts listed constructed out of a thorough review of rel- under “Project advisers” (page 39) helped evant research