It is said that charity begins at home, but companies can boost staff morale
with some high-profile giving.
According to research by Best Companies Ltd, which surveys employee attitudes
for our annual Sunday Times lists of the Best Companies To Work For,
organisations with a good track record for Giving Something Back (GSB) get
higher scores from staff for leadership, pride in their company and personal
wellbeing.
GSB, which covers what companies do for charity, the community and the
environment, has been the lowest-scoring of the eight areas that Best
Companies examines to determine an organisation’s overall ranking. Given
that success in this area can prove so beneficial in the wider survey, where
are companies going wrong?
The Best Companies survey, made up of 66 statements, asks staff to indicate
their level of agreement on a seven-point scale ranging from “strongly
disagree” to “strongly agree”. For GSB statements, 30% of responses were
non-committal (“neither agree nor disagree”) among employees who completed
the Best Companies process this year. This made the five GSB statements
twice as likely as any other to receive a non-committal response.
“It’s not that companies aren’t doing anything for GSB. It’s that they aren’t
communicating what they are doing,” said Pete Bradon, head of research at
Best Companies. “Firms tell staff if there is a change in another factor —
in the way they are paid, for example. But when the senior managers decide
they will support a new charity, often they don’t tell the workforce at all.”
This lack of communication starts at the top. Survey results show that 21% of
senior managers “neither agree nor disagree” with GSB statements, rising to
27% of managers and 32% of team members. If those running businesses are
unsure of the strategy on GSB, then junior staff will be even more vague.
Beaverbrooks the Jewellers topped the list of mid-sized Best Companies this
year, thanks in part to its efforts to give something back. The Lancashire
company states that its purpose is to enrich lives, and in 2008 it doubled
the amount raised by staff for charity from £31,648 to £63,296. The company
also gave 20% of its post-tax profits to charity, up from 10% in 2007.
Instead of deciding which charity to support and writing a cheque at head
office, Beaverbrooks staff are given a portion of the money — £100 each last
year — to donate to a charity of their choice.
“Different causes touch different people,” said Andy Williamson, manager of
the Watford store. “To be able to raise money and to know the company will
support us makes me very proud of the company.” Last year, the Watford team
pooled their money to donate £1,000 to a local hospice.
There is frequent communication about corporate social responsibility from
shop staff as well as senior managers. All staff can make suggestions for
new GSB ideas, and memos and a monthly newsletter focus on charitable
activities throughout the company.
Williamson and his team have even started to switch off the shopwindow display
lights overnight, to support the environmental measures Beaverbrooks is
taking to become greener — another area important to staff.
In 2008, the employees across all companies gave a 63.3% score for believing
their employer does its bit to protect the environment, and a 59.7% score
for making a positive difference to the world. These rose by 1% and 1.3% in
2009, to 64.3% and 61%, respectively.
Although the differences are small, these statements achieved the largest
improvements of all questions in the 2009 survey. The recession may mean
that staff are giving their employers even more credit for their
environmental efforts because anything that is being done is appreciated
more.
“My organisation makes a positive difference to the world we live in” has a
stronger link with overall engagement, suggesting that giving something back
in a wider sense is more important to staff than merely focusing on the
environment.
However, this doesn’t mean employers should ignore environmental issues. A
worrying 55% of employees who “strongly agree” that their organisation does
not do enough to protect the environment would leave tomorrow if they could
find another job, compared with only 9% of those who are happy with their
employer’s green credentials.
And barely half of employees (53%) are engaged by their work in firms where
there is a belief that companies are not doing enough to protect the
environment, compared with 93% engaged where the reverse is true.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) earns the highest GSB
score of all mid-sized companies. “The reason we score so highly is because
as a conservation charity, our whole reason for existence is to create a
better world,” said Anne Harley, humanresources director.
On average, charities score 7.4% higher than other organisations in this area.
So is it easier for charities to do well in the Best Companies competition
because of the GSB advantage?
“The 7.4% difference is offset by weaknesses in other areas,” said Bradon.
“Overall, it is no easier for charities to enter the list than for any other
type of organisation. The pattern of results across all factors is exactly
the same for charities as it is for other companies.”
Rather than giving them an edge over other firms, in reality an organisation’s
status as a charity can restrict how it can spend money, making initiatives
like matching employees’ charity fundraising difficult.
The RSPB finds other ways to make a difference to the world, including
allowing staff to volunteer during work hours, and encouraging them to get
involved in local communities.
Some of the site managers and wardens on the RSPB’s 200 nature reserves sit on
local committees, and RSPB buildings are used as polling stations and for
village events. “It’s giving something back in a very local way but it makes
a big difference to people,” said Harley.
Despite the fact that charities score better than other organisations for GSB,
it is perhaps surprising to find that on average their GSB scores are still
lower than their scores in other areas, including what staff think of the
leadership, the company, their managers, their immediate colleagues and
personal growth. It seems that charities are as bad as other organisations
when it comes to telling staff about their good deeds.
Overall, 22% of charity employees say they “neither agree nor disagree” with
the four GSB survey statements. While this compares with 30% in other firms,
it still means that more than one in five charity workers are unsure of
their employer’s GSB activities. The figure rises to closer to one in four
(24%) when the views of rank-and-file workers are considered in isolation.
“It may be that there is an assumption by senior management that people who
work in charities will automatically make the link between what they do and
charitable purposes,” said Harley. “You have to work hard to get the message
across. It’s hard work because it seems so obvious.”
It may seem like hard work, but clearly communicating and involving staff in a
company’s corporate social responsibility initiatives boosts overall staff
engagement, suggesting this would be a worthwhile — and low cost — area for
employers to look into to become a better company to work for.
What the experts say
Charitable work helps the whole business
Faye Bewley, chief operating officer at Best Companies Ltd
We have seen some huge improvements in the scores for the Giving Something
Back factor over the past few years. Employers have begun to recognise that
giving something back has an impact across the whole business. Employees
want to see that their organisation is serious about its responsibility to
the environment, charitable causes and the local community.
Our research demonstrates that if you focus on giving something back it can
unlock potential in other areas. If employees feel the organisation makes a
commitment to the wider world, then that reflects well on the leader of the
organisation. It also means that they can feel proud to be part of an
organisation that cares. Allowing time for employees to participate in
charitable activities is also a great way for them to learn new skills.
Organisations that have focused on this area have seen staff engagement rise,
showing it’s definitely worth the effort.
Volunteering helps to develop a range of new skills
Scott Keiller, head of corporate responsibility at Axa, the insurance giant
Volunteering provides an opportunity for team-building and for developing
leadership skills. Those skills are clearly of benefit to the individual as
well as the business. Although often people consider it an altruistic thing,
I think it’s more than that — it really is about being part of what’s going
on around you, as an individual and as a business.
Employees now expect to be given these opportunities, and rightly so. They
shouldn’t have to leave their passion for engaging in good deeds at the
office door.
Last year our employees spent 45,000 hours doing community volunteering in
company time, and hundreds of organisations around the country have
benefited. Staff come back to work with new skills and experiences that are
of benefit to the business.
At Axa, we know that providing our employees with the opportunity to be good
neighbours, to engage and add value, also helps to develop a connection with
the company.
Remind your staff that what they do is important
Martin Edwards, chief executive of Julia’s House, the Dorset children’s
hospice THE people who are best at what they do in any walk of life are
the people who love what they do. The most motivated staff in any workplace
are the ones who know that they are making a lasting difference to the
world.
Every business leader should say what I say to all my staff at induction,
which is, “What you do matters. Never forget that”. Keep on reminding people
of this because it’s very easy for staff to lose that message in the hurly
burly of everyday working life.
It is in the nature of our work, looking after terminally ill children, that
it’s going to be deeply upsetting, particularly for the frontline nurses and
carers. Every now and again you have to put an arm around their shoulder,
support them, cry with them even, because everybody is affected by the death
of a child. You have to show your feelings, make sure that people realise
that you are human. Above all, treat your people — your human resources — as
humans first and resources second.
Helping the community makes people proud
David Adair, head of community affairs at Price Waterhouse Coopers OUR
annual pantomime has been going for more than 20 years and has grown from a
small gathering of people in the canteen into a show at the Peacock Theatre
in London’s West End where it is performed to 5,000 inner-city children.
It is even televised in hospitals around Britain and our volunteers go in and
do activities with the kids. We linked the pantomime to our corporate
responsibility agenda so that the schools and charities we work with are
invited to see the pantomime, or can take part backstage.
It’s a great way to develop our people, because spending time in the community
broadens their perspectives and links people from different parts of the
firm who otherwise might never meet. From the 16,000 employees in the UK, we
even manage to get an orchestra.
It makes employees proud to be part of a firm that contributes like this to
the community — and gives them the time to do it.
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