CorpComms Magazine

When Beth Courtier, BT's head of charity programmes, polled employees about the company's charitable and community projects earlier this year, her questions threw up some startling results.

Asked whether knowing about BT's CSR drives made them feel differently about their jobs, a huge 66 percent of employees said they felt proud to work for the group as a result. Asked whether being able to get involved in these projects was a factor in their continuing to work for the company, 66 percent again said yes.

When we talk about CSR, we tend to think about firms that take measures to reduce emissions and invest in community projects. But there is a third element to CSR: improving the welfare of the workforce, which is often overlooked.

David Logan, joint chairman of Corporate Citizenship, part of the Bell Pottinger group, points out that most companies can no longer offer employees a job for life, or a gold-plated retirement. What they can offer instead are ways to enhance workers' employability skills, something that will benefit both employee and employer. Existing CSR programmes can act as a springboard to achieve this; although many companies have previously relied on 'chequebook charity' to garner approval within society, most are realising this is no longer enough, says Logan.

This has long been the case in the US. Jeans manufacturer Levi Strauss, for example, began racially integrating its factories in the 1950s, and in the 1980s was already supporting factory workers in the UK to work on community projects. 'This is about recognising that companies depend on communities and communities depend on companies,' says Logan. 'Workers are part of the company and the community. It is a symbiotic relationship.'

Now that businesses are reaching a more mature understanding of this, they have realised it makes good business sense to stand behind communities - because that, after all, is where their own employees are rooted.

Making up the numbers

This attitude is paying off. Research carried out last year by Gallup has shown that encouraging staff to develop their natural talents and get involved in CSR projects can have a direct impact on the company's earnings per share. Gallup studied 332 companies, covering more than 4.5 mn people, to assess the link between employee engagement - their involvement in and enthusiasm for their work - and earnings per share. It found that businesses in the top quartile for employee engagement also showed 12 percent higher customer advocacy, 18 percent higher productivity, and 12 percent higher profitability than organisations in the bottom quartile.

Companies in the bottom quartile also experienced up to 51 percent higher employee turnover, 51 percent more inventory shrinkage and 62 percent more accidents than those in the top quartile. Crucially, firms with more than four engaged employees for every one actively disengaged employee had 2.6 times more growth in earnings per share than groups with a ratio of just under one engaged worker for every one who was disengaged. Overall, earnings per share for organisations in the top quartile outpaced that of their competitors by 18 percent.

'Studies suggested - in line with common sense - a positive relationship between job satisfaction and achievement on the job,' says Peter Flade, managing partner at Gallup. 'A more 'satisfied' employee is likely to be more cooperative, more helpful to colleagues and more punctual. Satisfied employees make better use of their time, show up for more days of work, have longer tenures and earn higher performance ratings.'

Gallup has devised 12 points to developing a more engaged workforce and asserts that if they are applied as part of an integrated approach to improving workforce welfare, all of these things will improve as a result (see Twelve principles for employee engagement, page 39).

'Companies must try to focus on employees at the lowest level. Once engaged, employees will learn more team-building skills they can bring back to their jobs,' says Christian Hasenoehrl, partner at Gallup. 'Employee engagement has to be one of the pillars of a firm's employee strategy. Companies that don't engage their employees will tend to fail when they try to do CSR projects, because these people are going out to represent the firm in the community.'

Learning experience

Many companies are wising up to the benefits of improving workforce skills generally. The sorts of skills a company can help employees to develop might include working efficiently in an office, working as part of a team, managing people, basic accountancy skills, presenting yourself in a meeting, handling professional telephone calls, and using business-speak in writing.

'For example, when a utility group takes on an apprentice it makes sense to take a holistic approach,' explains James Wright, CSR director at communications agency Trimedia. 'This means adding business acumen to the apprentice's training - learning how the business operates, not just learning how to be an engineer. Consumers are more clued up these days and are more likely to ask business questions when an engineer comes through the door, so engineers have to be trained to be brand ambassadors for the company as well.'

Wright says one benefit to the employer is development of a long-term strategy to improve customer satisfaction. 'The more an employee feels engaged with a company's message, the more likely he/she is to remain,' he adds. 'Then he/she becomes more motivated to work for the company, and the company develops an ability to attract better staff.'

Courtier can also attest to the benefits of improving workforce skills through CSR drives. BT has long been encouraging its employees to train as ChildLine counsellors as part of the company's ongoing commitment to help ChildLine answer all of its calls. The group also shares technology and engages in fundraising drives for the charity.

Courtier is keen to take a more integrated approach to training new ChildLine counsellors from among BT staff, as she is convinced of the benefits this will bring to the company in terms of employee engagement. At the moment, staff members who wish to get involved must train on their own time, and ChildLine provides the training. There is no way of tracking which employees are taking part.

'I feel we should make ChildLine training part of the BT training programme for apprentices - we are looking at doing this at the moment,' says Courtier. Employees who have completed the training say it has helped to grow and nurture their counselling skills. It provides an opportunity to help people turn their lives around and is very rewarding. You take on a different listening ear and it helps you deal better with customers. It helps develop empathy skills and gives people confidence, which is important; people often think they can't take on new responsibilities like this.'

The next step is to target specific groups of staff, Courtier says. 'We want to target call centre staff, where we have a lot of churn. I guarantee it will stop that churn,' she predicts. 'Developing confidence through training will see staff members go on to more supervisory roles. Without a doubt, it will motivate them and make them more loyal to BT. ChildLine training will help BT at a bottom-line level, in terms of productivity and skills development. These people will be ambassadors, not just for ChildLine, but also for BT.'

We are the Champions

The telecoms giant already knows that employees will bring the skills they learn from community projects back to the company. Its BT Community Champions programme allows employees who do voluntary work in the community on their own time to apply for funding from BT. So, for example, BT might provide football kits to a staff member who coaches a local team.

'People acquire new skills and bring them back to the company,' says Courtier. 'When we ask them, 98 percent of these people say they feel more positive and 90 percent say they use the skills they have gained at BT in their voluntary work in the community. When we ask, Have you brought the skills you have acquired in your voluntary work back to your job?, 86 percent say yes. This is a very cost-effective way of improving employees' skills. For example, they might be first-aid trained, or they might have developed coaching skills, so BT is directly exchanging skills with the community and employees are giving more back to BT.'

Andrew Marshall-Roberts, head of CSR at Standard Life, agrees. Standard Life engages with the community, primarily in Fife, the Lothians and Glasgow, by teaching employability skills to children in local schools via Standard Life employees.

Staff at the insurer can be trained to mentor children and young people, or provide workshops in skills such as writing a great CV or handling a job interview. The training is geared toward helping young people make the transition from school to workplace. Employees can take up to one hour a week off work to do this, provided they offer an hour out of their own time as well. Training for the work is provided within Standard Life.

'The staff members do benefit - we know this from the feedback we get,' says Marshall-Roberts. 'It is a great development for them. There is also a huge reward: you have contributed to the youth of tomorrow, you have made a difference to someone's life. There is a huge sense of personal achievement and a sense that 'my employer has allowed and encouraged me to do this'. We are helping our staff members to develop their natural talents, which might not otherwise come to the fore.

'We are often amazed by the number of new people coming forward. Then we run workshops to help them find out what the training is about and whether it would suit them. Sometimes people are just not right for doing this - it does take a certain personality. But people are often amazed that they can do it and are good at it. You might have people who do a quiet job on their own, even if they are part of a team, and suddenly you find a new side to their personality.

'Standard Life benefits on a practical level, too. We are growing more rounded individuals and they are adding to their skills and giving a new level of contribution to the company. There is a payback to Standard Life both skills-wise and reputation-wise.'

Logan says allowing employees to be involved in CSR is becoming more and more necessary for UK organisations. 'When you are talking about direct responsibility toward employees, in a modern world you have people giving their time and effort to an organisation,' he notes. 'They want to know that what they are doing is not pillaging the world. A good company will behave well toward its employees and help them to be good citizens.

'The behaviour of the corporate entity toward its employees is critical; if you can show a responsibility toward your employees, you will win the emotional support and commitment of your staff.' l

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