The Juncture Between CSR and Employee Engagement

Building teams…

All businesses acknowledge the importance of strong teams. It is well documented that positive social connections are essential to high performance teams, promote wellbeing and boost individual performance.¹

It’s also clear that traditional team building days (think high ropes courses, fancy meals, or group challenges) don’t manage to achieve long-lasting change within teams. ²

The millennial generation of workers is looking for more than just social connection at work: they crave purpose. With 70% of employees saying that work defines their personal sense of purpose³, team building needs to be taken to a new level. As Georgina Reeves-Saad from the British Council puts it, “Employees want to work for more than money. Things like purpose, passion and making a meaningful social impact greatly contribute to employee happiness.”⁴

So how do you make this happen?

…that change the world.

Research consistently shows the importance of impactful Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies on consumer choices and building trust. However, it also shows how a business’s CSR is increasingly important to their employees too. Cone Communications’ CSR research in 2021 found that 83% of employees are more likely to stay with a company that demonstrates social responsibility.⁵ This isn’t about just saying the right things, but showing impact too.

Cone Communications’ 2016 study reflected on engaging millennial employees, who now make up a significant portion of the workforce – and, when it comes to CSR, 88% of them find more fulfilment through their work when they are provided with opportunities to make a positive impact on social and environmental issues.⁶ In other words, they don’t just want their company to have a strong, authentic CSR record: they want to take part in the CSR activities of their company.

Employee engagement with CSR is increasingly essential for retention and satisfaction at work. That’s why businesses are investing in employee volunteering opportunities. To attract new employees and retain existing ones, meaningful and impactful involvement in CSR is an increasingly important factor.⁷

So how do you make this happen, too?

Making your CSR initiatives work for your teams

It’s clear that smart CSR planning will draw on the need for teams to feel purposefully involved in impactful activities. That’s why partnerships with Feed The Hungry UK work for us and for you. 

For example…

When you fund a team rice pack, we start by telling your team about the people that will be fed through the meals they pack. We invite them into a shared purpose, through which the whole event fulfills all the key goals of team building: 

At the same time, you’re making a measurable difference that contributes to your CSR goals, in the two key ways that consumers most care about. Cone Communications’ 2017 CSR study focusing on consumers found that the top two issues they would like companies to address are economic development (34%) and hunger and poverty (19%).⁹

Packing rice meals tackles hunger head on, and by delivering meals through schools we’re undermining the poverty cycle too. As our projects develop from ensuring survival to providing stability, we drive forward sustainable development, ensuring the community has everything it needs to thrive economically.

How far can we go together?

The opportunities to work alongside your employees to change the world are endless. Just to get you started:

• Surplus stock donations contribute essential equipment and resources to enable thriving communities. 
• Sharing your employee skills with our international partners and directly with beneficiaries enables greater effectiveness and new avenues for development. 
• Staff representatives can even get on the ground with a project you invest in, seeing firsthand the tremendous difference you are making through effective, impactful CSR.

There are so many more opportunities. And they make sound business sense too. Pro Bono Economics examined the impact of enabling volunteering opportunities for employees, and it goes far beyond positive effects on wellbeing. Annual productivity gains from people in professional or managerial positions who were given opportunities to volunteer are estimated to be £4,551 per volunteer.¹⁰

Get Started

We’d love to get started with you. Let’s have a conversation about your company’s CSR goals and how we can partner with you to reach them – all the while benefiting your team and the productivity of your organisation.

1. For example, see this article from Lincoln University ↩︎
2. Stop Wasting Money on Team Building, Harvard Business Review ↩︎
3. Help Your Employees Find Purpose or Watch Them Leave, McKinsey ↩︎
4. Future Employee Engagement: Current Trends and Tomorrow’s Insights, British Council ↩︎
5. The Impact of Communicating Social Responsibility to your Brand’s Customers and Investors, Erik S ↩︎
6. Cone Communications Millenial Employee Engagement Study 2016, Engage for Good ↩︎
7. Volunteer Programs that Employees Can Get Excited About, Harvard Business Review ↩︎
8. 83% of millenials would be more loyal to a company that helps them contribute to social and environmental issues (vs 70% US average). Cone Communications Millenial Employee Engagement Study 2016, Engage for Good ↩︎
9. 2017 Cone Communications CSR Study ↩︎
10. A Pro Bono Bonus, Pro Bono Economics ↩︎