Giving Something Back

Companies take corporate social responsibility (CSR) quite seriously these days, for a variety of reasons. It’s not uncommon to select a charity to support throughout the year or have a “day of service” where you send your employees out for some volunteer effort. Your employees or their families may be very passionate about certain causes, and they like to see that their employer supports that.

As one of the perks for working for your company, you CSR program might help your employees to give with a matching contribution program or you might provide other direct support for their own individual efforts. While it’s certainly ok to do both, if you have to choose between supporting your employees’ efforts or doing direct monetary support, consider focusing on supporting your employees. While money can certainly be useful, encouraging the growth of a “generation of givers” can go a long way toward supporting community efforts in the long run.

But why should companies worry about any of this at all?

First, it’s just a good thing to do. Let’s put that right up front. Having your business give back to your community is one part of your role as a member of the community. As much as we talk about how “the purpose of a business is to make money,” remember that your company takes resources out of the community (in particular, human capital that could be used for something other than making money to fill your pockets) and so you could easily argue that supporting charitable work and community development is a fair payback to the community for what you get.

But if you need to put it in terms of direct business results — and at the end of the day, as a business leader that’s what you need to do — consider how your support for your employees’ giving can be useful for recruiting and retention. Though it’s true that different countries see different drivers of both recruiting and retention, one common element is a link between the job and the employee’s interests. While linking job interests to professional interests is a key part of that, another way to create that link is to support employees’ charitable interests. Rather than having the company pick a charitable group to support through donations, volunteer work, and other direct support (though you can still do this), it may be better to let your employees pursue their own interests and simply provide support through matching gift programs, time off for volunteer work, or other support mechanisms. Anything that helps improve your employment value proposition to the point that you increase the labor force’s interest in working for you, or that improves your employees’ intent to stay, saves you money and effort in workforce planning.

Whether you encourage charitable giving through direct support or support for your employees (or both), there is a good business case for doing so. At the same time, there’s also a good moral case. Lots of folks might think that’s the lesser of the two, but in the end, don’t you think it might be the more important reason?