The Use Of Cause Marketing To Boost Employee Commitment

By Sebastian Troup


Cause marketing is a strategy which is often used by companies to attract consumers to their products, and with good reason. According to a recent corporate social responsibility study by Cone Communications about 92 percent of consumers, if given the opportunity, would buy a product with social and/or environmental benefit and 84 percent of global consumers would tell friends and family about a company's CSR efforts

The results are data favoring the establishment of strategic corporate giving program and the use of cause marketing for this program to be brought to your customers. However, it's not just the customers that are affected by these types of efforts.

One recent study from Rutgers University, for example, showcased that 53 percent of employees that were interviewed and more than 70 percent of students that were interviewed want more than just a paycheck, they want to work for a company that supports important causes. For the students, working for this type of company was only slightly less important than getting married as a future goal. A Taleo Research analysis study also showcased the fact improving the engagement level of employees by a mere 5% in a large company with 10,000 or so employees could increase profits by more than $40 million.

Improving the engagement of your workers at every level of your organization should be one of the goals of the cause marketing campaign from its inception. This is done by discussing the business strategy and the range of potential causes that will come with this strategy, and from there, produce a decision making framework where everybody can participate and also support.

Of course, it is unlikely that 100 percent of your employees will wish to participate, but creative planning can make giving much easier for employees. There are many different options to consider that will keep the level of participation in your cause quite high.

For instance, perhaps you wish to support the local homeless shelter. Of course, the company can donate portion of its profits to help out, but you also can provide a payroll deduction option for employees to make monetary giving extremely easy. In addition, you can provide paid work time for employees to volunteer at the shelter. You might designate one half-day each week and send two or three employees to the shelter.

In addition these ideas, you could organize a company-sponsored 5K run to raise money for the shelter. Other options include donating company gift certificates as prizes for the shelter's annual silent auction or offering special prizes to employees who volunteer at the shelter on their own time.

It is said that an employee who is empowered is also a committed employee. When a cause excites somebody, it can also be said that they may want to share this with people. The social networks enhance this desire more times and this is observed more than before. You can make this work for you by having your employees do this and in the process make them share information about you and your cause marketing activities; share these with their friends on Facebook and their followers on Instagram or Twitter, and especially mentioning their part.

You can do this by making an example of your cause marketing campaign and giving this strong exposure on the social networks and your corporate channels, especially when including the giving of employee recognitions where they will get inspired to share on their own social networks.

Employee engagement can be quickly improved and results immediately acquired, but it can also be fast in disappearing. You have to make sure that your cause marketing and engagement plans for employees are not just a fad.

If you can have employee engagement in the long term, it can be more effective and it also encourages a loyal and long standing workforce that have increased productivity and effectiveness. Employees that are with the company for long have tendencies to be better in their relationships with their co-employees, work better as a team member, and also with good tendencies to bring others into this engaging and committed effort also.




About the Author:



No comments :

Post a Comment