Employer attitudes to CSR are crucial for employee engagement

Employer attitudes to CSR are crucial for employee engagement

Most employees want their employers to do more towards CSR (corporate social responsibility) and charitable giving, according to a survey conducted by LeapCR – and nearly two-thirds of them believe that having paid time off during working hours to commit to charitable initiatives would significantly improve employee engagement.

‘This correlation between employee engagement and CSR initiatives can’t be ignored by employers wanting to increase the productivity of their company’, said Malcolm Scovil, CEO of LeapCR. ‘If employers don’t get to grips with the expectations of employees then they face punitive recruitment costs and unsatisfactory levels of productivity from a workforce that feels its motivations are being ignored’.

Among the other key findings were that:

* 49% of employees said they were more likely to stay with an employer that encourages its workforce to donate time or raise money for charity within working hours
* 75% of employees want their employer to balance commercial success with good CSR strategies, including supporting charities
* 52% of employees believe that their employer should do more to encourage charitable giving during working hours
* 51% of employees felt that companies have a duty to commit to charitable acts and CSR
* 59% of employees of all ages said their ideal employer would consider allowing interested staff to take one (paid) day off every month to support charitable initiatives
* 15% of employees would take a significant pay cut to work for a company that has the right attitude towards charities/CSR
* 69% of Generation Y (aged 20-30) said that there were more engaged with their employer when they can undertake charitable initiatives within the workplace
* more than half (56%) of the Generation Y respondents said that senior management was ‘out of touch’ with their age group


It was also evident from the survey that UK employers are either not taking CSR seriously or failing effectively to communicate what they are doing to their staff. Just 58% of all employees know if their company has a commitment to CSR and a similar percentage (57%) felt their employer could do more in that area.

Malcolm Scovil said: “The reality is that the UK workforce passionately cares about CSR and expects their employer to share that commitment. If employers fail to meet these expectations, either through a lack of CSR initiatives or a failure to communicate what they are doing to their staff, then they will find themselves struggling to remain competitive’.

Published with kind permission of Craig Gordon, HR Bullets