We hear a great deal about "engaging" millennials - they are the largest generation in the workforce after all! Most of what we hear relates to their reliance on technology, their dependence on social media and their demand for a balanced life. We also hear plenty about how they have less corporate loyalty than other generations and how their self-entitlement makes them difficult to manage. What we need to hear more about however, is how we can tap into their unique sense of self and community to foster the loyalty and engagement we are looking for in our employees.

The majority of millennials have been a ‘Google-search’ away from learning anything they need to know since they were born. This connectedness is what makes them special and is part of what makes them so keenly in-touch with their values and their desire to seek a higher purpose.

Millennials have been engaged with each other, with their community, and with the world in a much more profound way than previous generations. News and information has been coming to them for as long as they remember. Newsfeeds, twitter feeds, Facebook, Instagram and Reddit make staying in touch with what is happening around them second nature. The majority of millennials have been a ‘Google-search’ away from learning anything they need to know since they were born. And this connectedness is what makes them special and is part of what makes them so keenly in-touch with their values and their desire to seek a higher purpose.

They are concerned about social justice, they are passionate about environmental stewardship and they want a better world for themselves and future generations. They are also very ambitious, educated and looking to work for organizations that share their values. They desire a sense of belonging in the workplace and want to work for companies that they are proud of and whose mission aligns with their values.

So how are we doing with delivering this to them? Turns out not as well as we could be. Even at the Best Workplaces in Canada engaging millennials with a “higher purpose” is not as strongly developed as it is for previous generations.

The good news is this represents a great opportunity for improvement and reassessment of how you can leverage your mission and values to create a strong and unifying culture for your millennials specifically, and for your workforce in general.

ALIGN YOUR MISSION AND VALUES WITH YOUR CULTURE

When is the last time you took a look at how your mission, values and culture work together? There may be some areas of disconnect that can be addressed or opportunities for further reinforcement. Workplace demographics can change rapidly and you need to be responsive to this to ensure your cultural messages align with what your workers want and need. Here are some questions to ask as you get the process started:

• What is your purpose? What are you contributing to society?
• What do your people value, both generationally and in general?
• What shared values can you leverage?
• What makes your employees proud? What are you doing to promote and celebrate these elements?
• How do you support corporate stewardship?
• What are you doing in your community to build relationships?
• How innovative and responsive are you, both to community and global needs?
• How visible are your values? How can your workforce embrace them everyday and in everything they do?

The leaders at LoyaltyOne recognized that their workforce was changing. In response they created a Millennial Advisory Committee. The objective of the committee is to develop a dynamic, sustainable culture for the future workforce. The committee is comprised of high performing and diverse millennials who provide insights on programs and help champion LoyaltyOne's culture and values through a grassroots approach.

Similarly at Corby Spirit and Wine, they are committed to engaging young employees to embed social responsibility into their business. They created a nine person global team and attended the One Young World Summit last year. There they came up with 20 project ideas of which four are currently in development and receiving tremendous feedback and enthusiasm from not just their millennial employees but employees and leaders company-wide.

CONNECT DIRECTLY WITH MILLENNIALS

We have much to learn from each other and tapping into the creativity and stewardship of this youngest workforce generation is key to identifying opportunities as well as strengthening your culture.

It is also important to stay connected with millennials in your workplace. Gen X and Boomers likely hold many of the leadership and management roles in your organization so making a special effort to stay in touch with what millennials are thinking is critical. Beyond your efforts in communication and performance management, you need to create an avenue for millennials to express themselves and share their ideas with leaders and key stakeholders. We have much to learn from each other and tapping into the creativity and stewardship of this youngest workforce generation is key to identifying opportunities as well as strengthening your culture.

A great example of staying connected to millennials comes from ATB Financial. As part of a quarterly survey directed at its millennials, they asked for volunteers to form a team to represent their generation and share their insights through an Action Learning Team. This team provides millennials with an avenue to make a difference, voice their opinion and help make decisions that directly impact their day-to-day work environment.

RBC is doing something similar with its NextGen group. This group has eight chapters across Canada and enables RBC employees in their 20s and 30s to build connections with peers and leaders while creating a positive impact on the people they work with and the businesses and communities they work in.

Taking the ‘learning from each other’ concept even further, Yum! Restaurants has a reverse mentoring program where they pair junior employees with senior leaders to educate them on the latest digital trends in social media. This reverse mentoring provides an excellent avenue to not only forge connections and stay in touch inter-generationally; it also ensures leaders to stay well informed on the latest trends.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

Another important piece of the engagement puzzle is to get involved in the community. This generation of workers is highly motivated to improve the world they live in and this starts in their own communities. From sponsoring a local charity to getting involved in community events that raise money for specific causes, millennials see these as opportunities to give back, connect with the community and develop a purpose.

At the Best Workplaces in Canada, 84% of the companies offer paid time off to volunteer for a charity or community project. The majority of the workplaces also use community events as a way to celebrate with their employees and build their cultural connectedness. You don’t have to be a large organization to give back to your community and you don’t have to spend a lot of money either. Giving time and talent is often more important to grassroots community organizations than anything and it provides a level of connection that millennials are actively seeking.

G Adventures uses civic engagement in its highly successful Me/We/G Days program. Through this program, G Adventures employees are empowered to change their own lives and create happiness for themselves. To support this they provide three days off per calendar year. They get at 'Me' Day for personal development, a 'We' Day to volunteer in the community, and a 'G' Day to embrace one of their core values. This is just one example of many in which companies are encouraging employees to give back and make a difference.

Ultimately, millennials are looking for a good match between their values and the values of their organization. So much so that they are often willing to switch jobs to find a good fit. This doesn’t make this generation hard to manage or difficult to please, it just makes them unique in what they need to feel committed, loyal, motivated and engaged. To create this strong sense of connection in your workplace, know your values, embrace them everyday and make them very visible in everything you do. This will help you find a meaningful way to create purpose for this younger generation and help create a strong a unified culture among all the generations in your workplace.

Further resources: 2020workplace.com/blog

When we think about corporate giving, the first thought typically goes to giving dollars. In reality though there are many different ways to give back to the community. The best workplaces are keenly aware that while giving money is appreciated, it doesn’t offer the same cultural impact that giving of time and talent can achieve. To help you take your corporate giving programs to the next level we have put together some ideas to inspire you.

WHY GIVE?

• 50% of corporations contribute because it builds healthy and strong communities and that is good for business.
• 48% of corporations are motivated to give because it fits with their values and culture.
• 45% give back because they believe it is the right thing to do.

The current trend is for corporate giving campaigns to move beyond a simple dedication of dollars per year to a charity of choice. Now, corporate giving provides a key opportunity to engage employees and further integrate your corporate values into your workplace culture.

Employees increasing want to feel part of something bigger than just the walls within which they work. They want to feel proud of their company and feel that the work they do contributes to the betterment of society. Corporate giving provides an effective means to create this connection and position your organization as one that people want to work for.

Beyond work-life balance, millenials aim for work-life integration where personal and professional life blends together. Corporate giving helps them meet this goal and engage further with the company they work for.

Peter Drucker famously said, “culture eats strategy for breakfast” and you can leverage the power of giving, volunteering and philanthropy to build and strengthen your culture. Corporate giving initiatives allow people to match their passions with their day-to-day work. Beyond work-life balance, millenials aim for work-life integration where personal and professional life blends together. Corporate giving helps them meet this goal and engage further with the company they work for.

HOW TO GIVE

There are a variety of ways that companies give back to their community, and while cash donations do still top the list; the push to engage more with employees has changed how giving programs are designed and implemented.

EMPOWER EMPLOYEE CHOICE

The top trend is to allow employees to take the lead in determining where the giving dollars go. This reinforces a personal connection between the employee and the company. When you support causes that your people are already passionate about, you send a clear message that their interests and ideas matter. And there are probably many places where your corporate causes overlap with your employees’ interests thus further establishing an engagement point.

When you support causes that your people are already passionate about, you send a clear message that their interests and ideas matter.

At Softchoice they take employee empowerment to the next level. A board of 14 employee volunteers leads their corporate philanthropic initiatives. The board members change every 18 months encouraging people from across the country to get involved. Following an intensive two-day training course, they guide the company's philanthropic activities. In the middle of the board’s term, all members are sent on a two-week volunteer project abroad funded completely by Softchoice.

Remember too, to survey your employees regularly to determine their interest areas and availability. When you receive requests from charities for donations of time or money you can use the results to create a match.

MAKE IT EASY

Payroll deductions are a simple and effective way to encourage regular giving at your organization. You can choose to match donations on a percentage or annual maximum basis. These programs allow you to reach a broad base of employees and it reinforces employee choice.

You may also want to send regular communications listing opportunities for your staff to give back and sharing metrics on the charitable activity that has taken place during the period. This helps keep people connected and understand how their efforts fit into the big picture.

Support Issues versus Charitable Organizations
Increasingly people are interested in supporting an issue over a specific charity. This is a great way to unify employees across geographic locations as they can support local charities that share a common objective.

ENCOURAGE VOLUNTEERING

Volunteerism is a key means of engaging people with a cause. In fact, 84% of the Best Workplaces© allow employees to take paid time to volunteer for a community project or charitable cause. Of these, the average yearly allotment is 18 hours with a handful of organizations offering an unlimited amount of time to volunteer. Discover and celebrate what employees are already doing as volunteers. Offer to do pro-bono work for charities of their choice. Establish company-wide volunteer days as another great way to give back and engage your people. Here again the message is that you care about what your employees care about.

As part of their citizenship program, Edelman sponsors a program they call Community Investment Grants. The program provides employees an opportunity to apply for a $500-$2,500 grant to organizations with which they are involved as a regular volunteer. In its inaugural year, Edelman awarded more than 60 organizations grant money worldwide, totaling approximately $150,000.

SHARE YOUR EXPERTISE

Sharing corporate goods, talent and expertise is a great way for companies to give back to their community and directly engage employees. When considering volunteer opportunities, think about how your company can lend its expertise to help a charity run more efficiently. Hold an employee-led training event in marketing or human resources to as a way to make a difference. You may also be able to help a not-for-profit set their strategic goals or work on their vision and values statement. Support-programs like this allow nonprofit organizations to benefit from free services and they create a direct link between an employee’s work and their ability to make a difference in their community.

This year Autodesk Canada piloted a pro bono volunteering program where employees used their professional skills, such as technical design and marketing communications to benefit non-profit organizations. 14 projects involving 45 employees were undertaken with great success. Partner companies received pro bono help with high-impact projects and employees witness firsthand how they can help create a better world.

Similarly, employees at Fuller Landau give back to their community through volunteer tax clinics. Team members volunteer each year to go out to different clinics and provide face-to-face interaction while completing personal tax returns.

PROVIDE INCENTIVES

As a way to kickstart your giving program you can provide an upfront dollar amount for employees to donate to a charity of their choice. This quickly reinforces how important giving back is to your organization and culture. This initial amount is typically in addition to any annual or matching program you establish.

Another popular program is called “Dollars for Doers” where employees are given a dollar amount to donate based on the amount of hours of volunteerism they contribute. For example, for every 10 hours of volunteering an employee does at non-profit that non-profit receives a $200 donation. You may consider extending this program to retirees as a way to increase your community outreach.

Rewarding volunteerism is another way to incentivize your giving program. At 3M they present an Employee Volunteer award to honor 10 outstanding employees or retirees who volunteer in their communities. Winners receive a $1,000.00 gift donation from the company for the not-for-profit organization of their choice.

These are just a few ideas to help you establish a strong link between corporate giving and employee engagement. The key is to stay connected with what your people are interested in, and then find ways to support and encourage their individual charitable efforts with those of the broader organization. Today more than ever, people are interested in creating strong and healthy communities as well as looking for meaning in their work. Corporate giving programs can provide the link employees are looking for to more fully integrate their values with those of the organization they work for.

Modern giving and volunteering programs recognize this and are leveraging it to shape their culture and create a more engaged workforce. From providing personalized charitable giving options to incentivizing your corporate giving program there are many ways you can take your giving to the next level while at the same time creating a strong win for your people and your business.