Employee Engagement

Despite people giving $400 billion most Americans are only half as charitable as they intend. To help bridge that gap, progressive and purpose-driven brands are adopting new strategies to engage their people in more social impact.

Legg Mason and our affiliate colleagues in the US and UK are helping to ensure that students in our communities are starting the new school year off on the right foot – and have continued support throughout the academic year.

These efforts are aligned with our primary charitable/philanthropic focus, which is education, particularly in the area of underserved youth.

In my 35-plus years with our great company, I’ve had the chance to spend time with many of our 122,000 team members, from our facility in Pasco, Washington to the one in Jacksonville, Florida. We come from different backgrounds, different cultures and even different countries. We’re hard-working, well-intentioned people, and we want what’s best for our friends, families and communities.

With my new role comes a new opportunity to empower our outstanding people – to make sure we have the tools to live our best lives and contribute to the broader world. As a company, we’ve already been expanding our workforce education program, Upward Academy. And this week, we’re kicking off our participation in the non-partisan TIME TO VOTE CAMPAIGN alongside other 140 companies.

Xylem Watermark is proud to kick off our annual Global Month of Service in October - an entire month dedicated to volunteerism and raising awareness for the necessary improvements to clean water access around the world. Since 2016, Xylem employees have come together in October to participate in activities across the globe with one common mission – to provide and protect safe water resources for communities in need and to educate people about water issues.

The Global Engagement Forum: Live 2018 has reached full capacity. Hosted by PYXERA Global, the Forum will convene more than 300 leaders and innovators in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area October 10 & 11. Leaders and experts from business, government, and nonprofit organizations will come together for two days of collaboration around specific global challenges within the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The benefits of improved occupational health and safety are far-reaching. The new reporting standard from the Global Reporting Initiative puts the worker in the center, and can help companies drive improvements in the lives of millions of workers worldwide.

This summer, over 3,300 Shire colleagues formed teams, set goals and encouraged each other to make healthy choices as part of Shire’s inaugural pilot of the Virgin Pulse Global Challenge. Over the course of the 100-day challenge, Shire colleagues walked over 1.5 million miles collectively, and individually averaged over 14,100 steps daily. That’s the equivalent of walking around the world more than 60 times and burning more than 154 million calories, the equivalent of over 600,000 slices of cake.

Infographic: See how more companies are taking an employee-centric approach to their CSR programs with three key social impact trends in mind. Help engage more people, maximize their impact and foster compelling, purpose-driven workplace cultures this charitable season.

When a company asks employees to volunteer, there is a tendency to lean heavily on community impact as a benefit. Impact is certainly a benefit to the community, and a desired result. Yet, there are plenty of benefits to the individual volunteer that CSR practitioners can leverage to engage employees more effectively in volunteerism. One of the most significant benefits is the effect volunteering has on personal health and well-being.