Work worth doing
You hear a lot about marketing to consumers and marketing to other businesses, but you don’t hear nearly as much about internal marketing – engaging employees in the company’s mission, goals and culture – until recently. As it turns, out the millennials, who will make up more than 50 percent of the workforce by 2020, are awfully concerned about making a difference in the world, and they bring that concern to work with them every day.
The connection between job satisfaction and corporate causes is nothing new. Study after study shows that employees are happier, more productive and more loyal when they work for a company whose culture includes a commitment to the community, a cause that will make an impact on the world at large.
Creating a corporate culture that encourages community action and collaborates around a cause is not only good for your people; it’s good for business. This initiative becomes even more beneficial when it’s based right in the community.
The best news, it’s not hard. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
- Choose a cause and sponsor an annual fundraising event to support it.
- Choose one day a month in which employees can do volunteer work that builds community i.e. in the schools, parks, animal shelters.
- Create and lead a citywide initiative to ease hunger or to reclaim a part of the city that needs some care.
- Capitalize on your employees’ skills. If you are a plumbing company, set aside a certain amount of money and a number of hours to donate services to the less fortunate. If you’re a restaurant, take healthy food to a homeless shelter. If you’re an accounting firm, do pro bono work one day a month at the VA.
- Hold a coat or food drive and watch it grow each year.
- Ask the millennials; they’ll have great ideas.
At HenkinSchultz, it’s easy to find causes. Sometimes they look like regular clients, for instance the American Cancer Society. Working together on their important projects makes us feel like we’re making a difference in the world. It’s the same way we feel about the Parent’s Matter Campaign against teen drinking.
Much of the time, the work we do is to help our clients build their brands. Here’s a secret…happy employees help you build your brand from the inside out. Creating a corporate culture with a dedication to a cause or commitment to community is one of the easy first steps to keeping employees happy.
