The challenges of engaging staff – and how to overcome them
Employee participation has to be earned year-round and is a constant challenge for social impact managers. For this reason, it was a main topic of conversation at the Benevity Forum London, and we were able to share learnings, perspectives and, most importantly, best practices for maintaining a captivated workforce.
Here are the main topics that came up when discussing the challenges of engaging staff - and how to overcome them.
Engaging employees in a hybrid working environment
Pre-covid, real-life volunteering opportunities were easier to come by as employees were quick to jump on a volunteering day out with teammates. But as a distributed workforce in a hybrid environment means less time in-person, volunteering in-field has also become a challenge.
Eva Harput, Global Head of CSR at Euromonitor International, explains how they accommodate a hybrid workforce across 16 locations by communicating it differently.
We had to change the approach and really focus on promoting volunteering as a team-building activity. So, really working with those middle management levels and promoting bringing employees back to the office.Eva Harput, CSR Program Leader at Euromonitor International
Jessica White, Linkedin’s Head of Social Impact, EMEA & LatAm, touched upon LinkedIn’s main programme for employee volunteering: LinkedIn Coaches. Within it, they speak to professionals overcoming barriers to employment about how to get on LinkedIn to network and find jobs.
Prior to the pandemic, their employees would meet face-to-face to deliver those sessions, which was an engaging way to connect with beneficiaries. But post-lockdown, a lot more of this was happening virtually.
Jessica said, "What it means for us is that we can reach lots more people through our employee programmes. We can have one volunteer delivering a session virtually to 500 people at one time, which is fantastic for our volunteering numbers...my leadership absolutely loves the scale."
But they do find that the way they’re supporting those individuals in a virtual environment is less meaningful and thus less impactful.
She added, “I'm always kind of struggling with the thing that makes my leadership happy, which is the big glossy shiny numbers and actually knowing that I'm delivering impact for the people that we're trying to support. So, I think going to a hybrid working environment and seeing how that's changing things means that we can offer people both opportunities.”
For Visa, they also find that their employees are volunteering in a hybrid environment – but the challenge comes in making sure those hours are tracked.
Tribeni Chougule, Director of Inclusive Impact & Sustainability, Europe at Visa explains they incentivise employees with Dollars for Doers, where staff earns around $10 for every hour of volunteering that they record in their corporate purpose platform. They can direct these funds to a charity of their own choice.
We also started having a quarterly draw where two additional employees from every region get £1,000 into their account to direct towards a charity or multiple charities of their choice. Tribeni Chougule, Director of Inclusive Impact and Sustainability, Europe at Visa
This approach helps spread the word through their workforce by getting people onto their giving and volunteering platform, whether based in the office or not.
Getting buy-in from execs and middle management
Another big topic of conversation was focused on getting not just executive leadership backing your programme – but also how to leverage relationships with middle management to excite and inspire participation in your programme.
It's clear how useful it can be to get leadership buy-in. But how can you take this concept to the next level and establish strong, symbiotic relationships with people leaders?
Buy-in from the top is super important as it makes it much easier to get things done when there is common purpose and alignment of interest. Having the support of the leadership team has greatly helped me work with the charity committee to approve the platform for our community outreach programme.
Claudia Buffini, Corporate Sustainability Advisor at Schroders
Visa has launched an initiative called The VP Pledge, which has proved highly successful across the board. Tribeni explains: “It was an optional programme rolled out to all of our VPs and above. They pledged that they would volunteer at least twice a year with teams. And their pledge is only complete when they ensure that they have locked in their volunteering hours.”
Having execs serve the role as volunteering ambassadors gave their programme the extra power and motivation to increase engagement.
Middle managers, however, pose another challenge. Jessica explained that they are more likely to have their heads down, focused on the job and hitting targets. Her answer to this common problem was LinkedIn’s Impact Club, a club for those who log 10 hours of volunteering time on a core programme.
For the first hundred people that log those 10 hours of volunteering time, they also get $1,000 added to their Benevity account to donate to a charity of their choice. We have people joining in a week. Jessica White, Head of Social Impact, EMEA & LatAm at LinkedIn
They take this concept one step further by reconising members of the Impact Club company-wide.
She continued, “Every week we have an all-company meeting and the faces of the new joiners to the Impact Club appear at that meeting. So they get a mention in front of the whole organisation, including our executive staff and direct managers. That kind of recognition shows middle managers that this work is important.”
Giving employees co-ownership of social impact programming
A social impact programme does not belong to one team. It's something that should feel co-owned by all employees, creating a more democratised framework for giving and volunteering. Eva leads the way on how you can build a programme in partnership with your workforce.
She explained, "One of the most rewarding and complex programmes that we have at Euromonitor is our regional giving programme which is where twice a year we open a window of nominations to all of our employees and they are able to tell us about the wonderful regional local charities community centres that they know are doing the wonderful work in their own communities, close to their homes, not necessarily close to the office.”
This is where most of our giving is really determined by our own employees, which is really engaging.Eva Harput, CSR Programe Leader at Euromonitor International
Another powerful tool for giving your employees co-ownership of your programme is by leaning on employee resource groups (ERGs) or affinity groups.
The presence and support of ERGs demonstrates an employer’s commitment to supporting topics that matter to the individual. This is an effective way to give employees a voice when it comes to social impact.
By empowering employee-led networks to propose ideas, share perspectives and help shape your programming, you can build a culture of belonging at your company that’s based on employee choice. This strategy has helped a number of our speakers in making employees feel a part of the programme in an authentic way.
Breaking through the noise by capturing employee attention
Engagement is earned. So as CSR leaders, we need to implement strategies that bring the programme to the top of people’s minds right from the start.
Mia Scott, Global Social Impact Specialist at Stuart, explained some of their strategies for capturing the attention of employees with an engaging programme launch.
I was advertising in local and global Slack channels, newsletters and emails, well in advance, building excitement and a little bit of secrecy as well.Mia Scott, Global Social Impact Specialist at Stuart
She continued, “We organised a launch day with pizza, which always goes down very well, just a bit of light bribery to get everyone to come and join. We also had a lunch and learn session which informed everyone how to use [our giving and volunteering] platform, and how to sign up.”
She also suggested printing out posters with QR codes that people can scan to sign up easily to give or volunteer. Small tactics like this can make all of the difference when it comes to keeping up participation over time.
Keeping a pulse on future CSR and ESG trends
Our Benevity Forum events play a pivotal role in revealing regional trends that we know will impact the future of doing good. Keep an eye out for future learnings coming from upcoming forums in London, Paris, Frankfurt and Zurich, and of course our annual Benevity Live! event. You won’t want to miss these insights from the world’s most purpose-driven brands!