CSR in talent strategy

“In a free enterprise, the community is not just another stakeholder in business but is in fact the very purpose of its existence.” – Jamsetji Tata

CSR0001-wThe next time your organization goes to the campus to hire summer interns, how about having a few interns (who the organization pays for) who work for an NGO that the organization supports. Having them leverage their skills in coding or finance or creating a process manual can be a great differentiator for your organization on campus. But why should the organization pay for someone whose work benefits an NGO? And would that option motivate the student?The for-profit businesses write cheques annually to support a charity of their choice. That alone is enough to have them feel that they have done what a busy enterprise possibly could. CSR is like a little village stream that loses its identity as it hesitatingly joins the river that is busy merging with the ocean.Organizations have often operated inside a bubble. This world celebrates the cognitive abilities and sniggers at the emotional. Yet, the ability to inspire and connect emotionally remains at the heart of every leader’s biggest challenge. But the work done by the vast majority does not seem to have a purpose beyond the routine transaction. Without that sense of purpose, employees cannot be engaged. That's why maybe we should make CSR  an integral part of your organization’s talent strategy?

Attracting Talent

CSR-color-wMillennials will make up half the workforce by 2020. A focus on purpose and people is, for many millennials, just as important as a company's ability to generate profit. They want to make a difference. CSR then becomes a valuable approach to attracting the top talent.Adam Grant’s research shows that even a small connection to the people who benefit from your work not only will improve productivity, it makes everyone happier. The single strongest predictor of meaningfulness is the belief that the job has a positive impact on others. Work must have a larger purpose beyond being means of providing us with a paycheck. In his book Give and Take, writes about this power.The study was done in a University’s fund raising call center. The employees had to make calls to potential donors and seek contributions. The control group did their job with no other information given to them. The second group read stories from other employees about the personal benefits of the job: learning and money. The third group read stories from scholarship beneficiaries about how the scholarship had changed their lives. The first two groups saw no change in performance. The last group that knew about how the scholarships changed the lives of beneficiaries increased their weekly pledges from nine per week to twenty three – an increase of almost 155%. Knowing that we make a difference to the lives of people can be a great motivator.When I speak to Wipro employees, they inevitably mention that one of the greatest sources of pride for them is to be associated with an organization that gives back to society. One such initiative is called Wipro Cares. It is Wipro’s community initiative focused on certain key developmental issues faced by under-served and underprivileged communities. It also provides a platform to employees to meaningfully engage with disadvantaged communities. More than five thousand employees are engaged across 14 projects. The other initiative, Mission10X has successfully empowered 10,000 professors in engineering colleges across 20 states to make them more effective. I have no doubt that these initiatives are the best talent attraction programs that we could have.

Developing Talent

CSR0001-wSeveral companies look at CSR as a core way of developing leadership skills. The Head of HR for EMC, Debashish Patnaik says categorically, “We use CSR for our leadership development. It teaches people to rely on themselves and their skills rather than organization provided leverage. This helps people to clearly see in which areas they fall short e.g. frustration tolerance, influence etc. They learn to make do with what is available rather than focus on asking for more or what’s not given and this is usually done in addition to their day job. leveler; it puts one in touch with reality outside and thus makes one more humane and builds the ability to empathize. We want our leaders to possess all of these.”The IBM Corporate Service Corps, deploys 500 young leaders a year on team assignments in more than 30 countries in the developing world. The employees spend a month in a team of 6-12 colleagues working on an issue that has social impact. Why do they do it?”The objective was threefold: to support IBMers in their service engagements, to invest the intellectual capital of IBMers in tackling social issues around the world, and to develop the expertise and leadership of IBMers through volunteer opportunities that leverage their skills and abilities.”

Beyond Profits

The organizations values are transmitted through the behaviors that leaders display. Values form the bedrock of culture in any organization. Nothing builds a better shared culture than living the values. CSR promotes the process of living the Values like no other intervention within the organization.The notion of a “career ladder” is becoming more archaic. The role of a leader is to help people find meaning in the workplace. Integrating CSR within the talent strategy makes an organization’s career offerings that much richer. It is a much richer view of career as one that seamlessly spans the organization and the world beyond. That would be truly enriching.-------------------------Join me on Twitter @AbhijitBhaduriPublished by Human Capital June 2015 <click here>

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