Overfed, but Undernourished: Generation Y’s hunger for CSR
October 11th, 2011 by 
Big bucks, big names, and big benefits are not the way to engage your Generation Y workforce in your corporate culture, brand or social responsibility. Gen Y has a real hunger for making a meaningful impact in the community as part of your organization. Don’t starve them of this opportunity, but involve them in your social purpose to keep them engaged and dedicated, says Victoria Williams, Researcher at Leap.
Ask a room of millennials who want to ‘make a difference’, and you’ll trigger a ginormous Mexican wave. An astonishing 70% surveyed by Deloitte’s Volunteer IMPACT Survey favor “companies committed to the community”. 61% reported that this commitment impacts their decision-making when choosing between two otherwise comparable jobs.
Feed up or pay up
That’s great news. But this ‘higher ambition’ is often stopped in its tracks. There’s often little opportunity to get involved. For Gen Y, ‘seeing is believing’. Only 58% of employees, surveyed by Leap earlier this year, were even aware of their organization’s commitment to CSR. That’s wasted nutrients for an engaged workforce!
If ways to engage with community and charity initiatives are not evident, companies risk losing their staff’s motivation, engagement and creative innovation that would otherwise spur loyalty, productivity and profitability.
Employers, who fail to feed this hunger, pay for it – literally! PriceWaterhouseCooper reports turnover expenses of £42 billion a year in the UK alone. And this doesn’t even account for the costs resulting from low levels of productivity and higher absenteeism.
How to cure the hunger?
Avoid losing your creative, tech-savvy and socially committed Gen Y workforce by delivering the promised goods. Companies with a strong corporate culture successfully communicate their programs clearly and effectively. They offer long- and short-term nonprofit partnerships and volunteering allowances for employees to share and develop their skills in meaningful and diverse ways.
Keep your workforce engaged and dedicated, so stop spoonfeeding them CSR information, and start nourishing their social passion!
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Tags:  csr engagement Generation Y productivity profitability social responsibility | [ Permalink ] |
