Carmen Adamson, Content Marketing Manager
YourCause from Blackbaud®
As CSR professionals continue to focus on employee engagement and talent retention in a rapidly changing world, the metrics from the 10th Annual YourCause Industry Review provide learnings to inspire social impact programs for companies both large and small.
The experts at YourCause from Blackbaud evaluated a subset of clients, representing 385 companies and over 7.6 million employees. The report offers findings in several topic areas, but for the purpose of this post we will focus on two key insights to help drive CSR programs forward.
How do Employees Like to Volunteer?
In the report, it was found that 72% of the over 6 million volunteer hours were in-person. When looking at the percentage of virtual vs. in-person volunteer hours by employee type, enterprise size or industry, you can see a variation in how employees like to volunteer. For example, retirees only volunteer 8% of their hours virtually and technology companies had the highest percent virtual volunteer hours at 44%. For the second year in a row, employees continue to favor individual volunteer events over group events. We believe this points to the need for employees to get involved in a way they feel comfortable with and as they find time in their busy schedules. Consider creating a hybrid approach to your volunteering program by offering virtual and in-person.
When is Employee Engagement Higher?
When analyzing enterprise size or industry engagement we can see employee participation in volunteering has increased for some companies. For example, companies with less than 1,000 employees saw an increase in volunteer engagement from 19% to ~26%. Percentile rankings for the different engagement metrics by enterprise size are provided so companies can benchmark where their programs align with their peers. When looking at program trends we see higher engagement rates for companies that offer both giving and volunteering. For the last three years, the combined engagement rate has been higher for companies using Resource Groups in CSRconnect. This shows that groups drive engagement with giving and/or volunteering. Make sure to look through the program trends section for insights on pledge campaigns vs. year-round giving, charity preferences, disaster campaigns, use of engagement elements and corporate grantmaking programs.
For additional metrics on global employee engagement, enterprise engagement trends, donation method trends, and more – download the free industry report and share the learnings with your CSR team.
