As companies plan for the year ahead, HR teams are once again facing a familiar challenge: how to retain and grow top talent in a competitive landscape. Although compensation and flexibility still matter, an increasing number of employees, especially Gen Z and Millennials, are seeking purpose in their work and alignment with their employer’s values.
You know the drill. Retaining team members, keeping them happy, and equipping them to do their best work are essential. Fundamentally, we know there are different components to the recipe for success. Your people want to do meaningful work with and for others they respect and care about. The Edelman Trust Barometer reports that 71 percent of Gen Z and Millennial employees seek values alignment with their employers.
Corporate-nonprofit partnerships are a valuable tool for meeting all three of these expectations. Often thought of as brand or community initiatives, these partnerships provide opportunities for your people to apply their skills, independently or in teams, to support nonprofits in tangible ways.
This is where skills-based volunteerism (SBV) comes in. SBV initiatives offer employees a new perspective on the value of their professional skills in a different context, opportunities to learn new skills, opportunities to meet others across the company, and a better connection to mission-based causes that resonate with them. The results are profound, from building belonging and connection in an increasingly remote world to increasing pride in the places they work.
A survey of 1,200 corporate skills-based volunteers conducted by Common Impact found that 96 percent of SBV volunteers reported a more positive view of their employers after serving on a project and would recommend their companies as great places to work. The Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship goes even further, finding a 36 percent lower attrition rate over six years among employees who participated in SBV projects.
Looking to tap into corporate-nonprofit partnerships to engage and retain your people? Focus on three key steps.
1 – Identify and brainstorm with your partners
Identify the team members responsible for your company’s corporate-nonprofit partnerships. They could sit within a corporate social responsibility function, community relations, or even brand. Taking the time to bring together the people who work at the intersection of your company and nonprofits to understand their relationships and goals will pay dividends. Invest the time in speaking with the nonprofits themselves – either directly or with help from your colleagues in charge of employee volunteerism. Use these conversations to brainstorm how SBV could be added to your portfolio in a way that aligns with the company’s values. It’s important to understand that you don’t have to do it alone. Find allies both within the organization and among the nonprofits you work with, understand your partners’ needs, and identify opportunities to align those needs with your employees’ skills. It’s in that intersection of nonprofit need and employee skill, where the magic happens. When done well, SBV projects increase nonprofit capacity, keep your employees engaged and fulfilled, and provide your team with tangible examples of values-based impact that enhance your brand.
2 – Invest in internal promotion
Even the best program won’t gain traction if employees don’t feel they have permission to participate. Make sure you promote the offerings, leveraging popular internal communications channels to raise awareness. If possible, ask executives or key business-unit leaders to endorse the activity, either by sending messages themselves or by highlighting it at company gatherings. Your people want and need to see that leadership values the SBV offerings and encourages them to step away from their desks to get involved. Make sure you focus on middle managers. Even when an executive champions the project, employees will look to their direct managers to determine whether signing up is something they can and should do. Help your managers understand the connection between taking company time to volunteer and the valuable skills development and engagement their direct reports will bring back into their work.
3 – Celebrate shared success
Don’t let the impact go unnoticed. Take the time to celebrate what your employees accomplish through your SBV programs. Share how it’s making a difference for your people and your nonprofit partners. Invite your network to amplify the story. Company meetings are great places to hear from nonprofit partners who can discuss their missions and the direct impact your teams have had. Take the time to personally thank everyone who participated, both as a group and individually. An email to an employee, copied on to that person’s direct manager and others in the chain of command, goes a long way. Encourage both managers and individuals to include examples of service in performance evaluations that demonstrate community-mindedness, skill development, and a positive representation of the company’s brand. Acknowledgments go a long way in reinforcing that this work matters.
Many teams are using this time of year to plan next steps for their employee engagement and community involvement initiatives. The question of how to keep employees engaged and supported is front and center; SBV is one meaningful answer. When employees use their skills to help nonprofit partners, they gain new perspectives, build connections, and strengthen the sense of purpose they bring to their work.
Companies enter into nonprofit partnerships for many reasons, but brand and values alignment is high on the list. Leverage those existing partnerships – or encourage new ones – as a way to develop and retain your people.
