Volunteerism in the Workplace: Beyond the Call of Duty
Volunteerism in the Workplace: Beyond the Call of Duty
By Jet Damazo - Newsbreak
Companies are increasingly getting their employees involved in their CSR programs. Find out why.
At the Intel factory in General Trias, Cavite, long weekends are the norm. With a compressed work-week system, most of Intel’s 4,000 employees spend longer hours on the factory floor, but go to work for only three or four days a week.
The rest of the days, though, are hardly spent lounging at home or vacationing in beaches; they’re usually spent teaching at local schools, conducting safety trainings, or doing any of Intel’s several other employee volunteer activities under its Intel Involved program.
“It’s a value at Intel,” says Chona Ignalaga, Intel's community relations and Intel Involved manager. Volunteerism has been so ingrained in the culture of Intel’s Philippine operations that about 80% of their employees—the highest participation rate among all Intel factories worldwide—do some form of volunteerism. In fact, one of the reasons for shifting to a compressed workweek in 2000 was the request of employees to spend more time with their families and for volunteering. Their volunteerism activities have become so massive that they now have their own “corporate structure” within the company.
That 80% of Intel’s employees spend most of their free time volunteering may be unusual, but among several large companies in the country, employee volunteerism is increasingly becoming a popular mode of corporate social responsibility (CSR).
With volunteerism as their form of CSR, Ignalaga says they establish a type of credibility within the community they operate in that cannot be achieved with the usual dole-outs. “Intel believes that it cannot exist without fostering positive relations with the community,” she says. It is a value—being an asset to their communities—that is printed at the back of their IDs.
“[Communities say], ’look at Intel’s employees, they are not even immediate residents of the community, but they are the ones helping.’ It softens the image of the company, especially as an American company operating in a Philippine setting,” Ignalaga explains.
“When we foster positive relations with the community, our operations run smoother. We can ask the barangay captain to help manage traffic in a certain area, so we get to deliver our chips for export on time. It goes back to a more efficient manufacturing process.”
Mark Watkinson, president and chief executive officer of HSBC Philippines, which is involved in education and environment issues, agrees that employee volunteerism makes for a more sincere CSR.
“As a potential customer, if I feel that one company is actually going a little bit further to really making a difference to the community in which they operate, then I might have a second thought about which company I put my business with,” he says. “It is very important that HSBC clearly shows that it is committed to change the world; that it is committed to change a particular area. So people can say that when it comes to environmental and education issues, HSBC is out there; it really believes in these areas. And it is not only putting money into these areas, but it is also encouraging its staff to get involved in its projects.”
Currently, about 150 HSBC employees take a paid half-day off each month to conduct reading programs in an elementary school in Pembo, Makati, and HSBC is looking for more partner schools to provide more volunteer opportunities for its people.
HSBC has partnered with the World Wildlife Fund to create environmental education packs, which will be used by HSBC employees to teach 12,000 students in 240 schools next year.
Impact on Bottom Line?
For Manila Water, though, the very nature of their business and CSR programs practically requires employee participation. “Our CSR programs are tied to our core business,” explains Lyn Almario, Manila Water’s sustainability manager.
As a water utility, community involvement is necessary for Manila Water to not only deliver safe water, but to ensure that their infrastructure is protected from water thieves and the like. As such, territory managers are tasked to educate their respective communities and inform them of initiatives, such as Manila Water’s new sanitation program that aims to help provide decent toilets to urban poor communities. Almario makes it clear, though, that their employees are not evaluated against their CSR-related tasks.
“It’s not included in their evaluation, so whether they do it or not won’t affect their performance appraisal,” she explains, but adds that the positive results of their CSR programs attest to their employees’ active participation.
Naysayers may say that these benefits—community support, image-building, sustainability of business—all eventually hark back to the same thing companies have been criticized for: concern for the bottom line. This, however, is what sets employee volunteerism apart from other modes of CSR; volunteerism is also a human resource strategy whose primary beneficiaries are the employees themselves.
Proof of this is how none of the companies interviewed by Newsbreak measures the impact of employee volunteerism on the company’s bottom line. They have no figures to show for improved productivity or lower turnover, or studies to determine the relationship of volunteer hours to the brand’s value, which would justify why company resources are spent for such programs.
Leadership Roles
On the contrary, they measure the impact of their programs on the communities and on the employees themselves. A survey conducted by Intel in 2004 showed that they had happier employees because the Intel Involved program allows them to interact with coworkers better, expand their network, use other skills, take on leadership roles, and even engage their spouses and children in productive activities.
Cye Digma, for example, works as administrative assistant in Intel; but in Intel Involved, she’s a community manager. Raquel Orellana, on the other hand, treats volunteerism opportunities as family outings to which she regularly brings her three young children. “This way, I get to teach my children about the problems of society and show them how fortunate they are,” Orellana says.
What Ignalaga can say, though, in terms of volunteerism’s relationship with productivity is that, each year, about two to three volunteer leaders are named outstanding employees as well.
HSBC’s president gives an explanation for this. “If you provide people an opportunity to give back and to change the world, it leads to a much more fulfilled employee; somehow a much more fulfilled person,” Watkinson says. “It’s about individual growth. If you are living in a very comfortable world, and you never actually get close to some of the challenges it faces, then I think you lead quite a closeted existence. Whereas if we give the young people—remember our whole organization is pretty young—an opportunity to go and get involved, I think it really helps them grow as individuals.”
HSBC puts its money where its mouth is. A $10 million global HSBC project called Future First recently gave $75,000 to three local non-government organizations working for street children in the Philippines, and one of the main criteria for deciding who gets the grant was the opportunity for staff involvement. Intel has a Volunteer Matching Grant program, which donates $80 for every 20 hours an employee spends in volunteer work. In its recently completed third academic year, the program raised P37 million for 33 schools in Cavite.
Winners All
If you look at how these volunteer programs began, it would even seem that they were instituted primarily for the employees, and not for the benefit of the company.
The 10-year old Intel Involved program, for instance, is a formalized version of the culture of volunteerism already existing in the company for several years. “It used to be just managed by different employee groups. They gather themselves, pool money together, and go to orphanages and volunteer. Since we had nurses and doctors on-site because we’re a 24-hour manufacturing facility, they help out in medical missions. In 1997, the [Philippine] site manager realized that we already had a lot of community activities, and there was a clamor from employees to have opportunities for community service. So Intel organized a public affairs department and hired me,” recounts Ignalaga.
The same problem Intel faced in the late 1990s is true now for HSBC. “We don’t have a shortage of volunteers; the problem is finding good quality opportunities for them to volunteer for. So it is not a question of trying to find people; it is trying to find good quality, high impact projects for them to get involved in,” says Watkinson.
Of course, a natural consequence of all this are employees more satisfied with and loyal to their employers. “They also see that HSBC, as an employer and as member of the community, is serious about giving back to the community,” Watkinson adds. “It really helps if people feel that they are working with an employer who is not just there to maximize profit, but who actually gives something back to the community.”
So while critics call most other forms of CSR as superficial, with volunteerism, everybody wins—communities, employees, and, of course, the companies themselves.
By Jet Damazo - Newsbreak
Companies are increasingly getting their employees involved in their CSR programs. Find out why.
At the Intel factory in General Trias, Cavite, long weekends are the norm. With a compressed work-week system, most of Intel’s 4,000 employees spend longer hours on the factory floor, but go to work for only three or four days a week.
The rest of the days, though, are hardly spent lounging at home or vacationing in beaches; they’re usually spent teaching at local schools, conducting safety trainings, or doing any of Intel’s several other employee volunteer activities under its Intel Involved program.
“It’s a value at Intel,” says Chona Ignalaga, Intel's community relations and Intel Involved manager. Volunteerism has been so ingrained in the culture of Intel’s Philippine operations that about 80% of their employees—the highest participation rate among all Intel factories worldwide—do some form of volunteerism. In fact, one of the reasons for shifting to a compressed workweek in 2000 was the request of employees to spend more time with their families and for volunteering. Their volunteerism activities have become so massive that they now have their own “corporate structure” within the company.
That 80% of Intel’s employees spend most of their free time volunteering may be unusual, but among several large companies in the country, employee volunteerism is increasingly becoming a popular mode of corporate social responsibility (CSR).
With volunteerism as their form of CSR, Ignalaga says they establish a type of credibility within the community they operate in that cannot be achieved with the usual dole-outs. “Intel believes that it cannot exist without fostering positive relations with the community,” she says. It is a value—being an asset to their communities—that is printed at the back of their IDs.
“[Communities say], ’look at Intel’s employees, they are not even immediate residents of the community, but they are the ones helping.’ It softens the image of the company, especially as an American company operating in a Philippine setting,” Ignalaga explains.
“When we foster positive relations with the community, our operations run smoother. We can ask the barangay captain to help manage traffic in a certain area, so we get to deliver our chips for export on time. It goes back to a more efficient manufacturing process.”
Mark Watkinson, president and chief executive officer of HSBC Philippines, which is involved in education and environment issues, agrees that employee volunteerism makes for a more sincere CSR.
“As a potential customer, if I feel that one company is actually going a little bit further to really making a difference to the community in which they operate, then I might have a second thought about which company I put my business with,” he says. “It is very important that HSBC clearly shows that it is committed to change the world; that it is committed to change a particular area. So people can say that when it comes to environmental and education issues, HSBC is out there; it really believes in these areas. And it is not only putting money into these areas, but it is also encouraging its staff to get involved in its projects.”
Currently, about 150 HSBC employees take a paid half-day off each month to conduct reading programs in an elementary school in Pembo, Makati, and HSBC is looking for more partner schools to provide more volunteer opportunities for its people.
HSBC has partnered with the World Wildlife Fund to create environmental education packs, which will be used by HSBC employees to teach 12,000 students in 240 schools next year.
Impact on Bottom Line?
For Manila Water, though, the very nature of their business and CSR programs practically requires employee participation. “Our CSR programs are tied to our core business,” explains Lyn Almario, Manila Water’s sustainability manager.
As a water utility, community involvement is necessary for Manila Water to not only deliver safe water, but to ensure that their infrastructure is protected from water thieves and the like. As such, territory managers are tasked to educate their respective communities and inform them of initiatives, such as Manila Water’s new sanitation program that aims to help provide decent toilets to urban poor communities. Almario makes it clear, though, that their employees are not evaluated against their CSR-related tasks.
“It’s not included in their evaluation, so whether they do it or not won’t affect their performance appraisal,” she explains, but adds that the positive results of their CSR programs attest to their employees’ active participation.
Naysayers may say that these benefits—community support, image-building, sustainability of business—all eventually hark back to the same thing companies have been criticized for: concern for the bottom line. This, however, is what sets employee volunteerism apart from other modes of CSR; volunteerism is also a human resource strategy whose primary beneficiaries are the employees themselves.
Proof of this is how none of the companies interviewed by Newsbreak measures the impact of employee volunteerism on the company’s bottom line. They have no figures to show for improved productivity or lower turnover, or studies to determine the relationship of volunteer hours to the brand’s value, which would justify why company resources are spent for such programs.
Leadership Roles
On the contrary, they measure the impact of their programs on the communities and on the employees themselves. A survey conducted by Intel in 2004 showed that they had happier employees because the Intel Involved program allows them to interact with coworkers better, expand their network, use other skills, take on leadership roles, and even engage their spouses and children in productive activities.
Cye Digma, for example, works as administrative assistant in Intel; but in Intel Involved, she’s a community manager. Raquel Orellana, on the other hand, treats volunteerism opportunities as family outings to which she regularly brings her three young children. “This way, I get to teach my children about the problems of society and show them how fortunate they are,” Orellana says.
What Ignalaga can say, though, in terms of volunteerism’s relationship with productivity is that, each year, about two to three volunteer leaders are named outstanding employees as well.
HSBC’s president gives an explanation for this. “If you provide people an opportunity to give back and to change the world, it leads to a much more fulfilled employee; somehow a much more fulfilled person,” Watkinson says. “It’s about individual growth. If you are living in a very comfortable world, and you never actually get close to some of the challenges it faces, then I think you lead quite a closeted existence. Whereas if we give the young people—remember our whole organization is pretty young—an opportunity to go and get involved, I think it really helps them grow as individuals.”
HSBC puts its money where its mouth is. A $10 million global HSBC project called Future First recently gave $75,000 to three local non-government organizations working for street children in the Philippines, and one of the main criteria for deciding who gets the grant was the opportunity for staff involvement. Intel has a Volunteer Matching Grant program, which donates $80 for every 20 hours an employee spends in volunteer work. In its recently completed third academic year, the program raised P37 million for 33 schools in Cavite.
Winners All
If you look at how these volunteer programs began, it would even seem that they were instituted primarily for the employees, and not for the benefit of the company.
The 10-year old Intel Involved program, for instance, is a formalized version of the culture of volunteerism already existing in the company for several years. “It used to be just managed by different employee groups. They gather themselves, pool money together, and go to orphanages and volunteer. Since we had nurses and doctors on-site because we’re a 24-hour manufacturing facility, they help out in medical missions. In 1997, the [Philippine] site manager realized that we already had a lot of community activities, and there was a clamor from employees to have opportunities for community service. So Intel organized a public affairs department and hired me,” recounts Ignalaga.
The same problem Intel faced in the late 1990s is true now for HSBC. “We don’t have a shortage of volunteers; the problem is finding good quality opportunities for them to volunteer for. So it is not a question of trying to find people; it is trying to find good quality, high impact projects for them to get involved in,” says Watkinson.
Of course, a natural consequence of all this are employees more satisfied with and loyal to their employers. “They also see that HSBC, as an employer and as member of the community, is serious about giving back to the community,” Watkinson adds. “It really helps if people feel that they are working with an employer who is not just there to maximize profit, but who actually gives something back to the community.”
So while critics call most other forms of CSR as superficial, with volunteerism, everybody wins—communities, employees, and, of course, the companies themselves.
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