Executive Voices - An Op-Ed Column

Volunteerism
Corporations must be champions of social change

By Barry Eveland

Stepping outside the office and into the community is nothing new for employees in many North Carolina corporations. Literally hundreds of thousands of hard-working men and women in the business community unselfishly share their skills and expertise every day — in virtually every not-for-profit agency, in local schools and various other community endeavors.

Even with such contributions of time and energy, many issues in our communities still need attention. It’s up to us in the business community to do our part at solving these community needs. And, not solely through dollars.

Giving back to the community through employee volunteerism is something in which IBM feels strongly. In fact, our U.S.-based employees volunteered more than four million hours in 2002 — much of it related to information technology consulting.

Governments, educators and staffs of non-profits can’t possibly do all that’s needed of them. But through spending even an hour or two a week, volunteers can do wonders for the social good of our communities. Volunteerism can expand innovative thinking beyond the walls of our research and development labs and apply it to the problems people in our communities deal with every day.

As business people, why is this so important to us?

In survey after survey, Americans consistently show a distinct preference toward companies that demonstrate strong commitment to community service — particularly when employees are directly involved. Consider these findings:

In the Millennium Poll released by the Conference Board, 89 percent of people in this country agreed that corporations should do more than focus on achieving profitability.

Seventy-five percent of our nation’s citizens believe corporations now have a much greater responsibility to address the needs of society, according to a recent survey conducted for Hill and Knowlton by the research firm Yankelovich Partners. In the same study, three times as many respondents cited “volunteering employees” over “giving large sums of money” as the most impressive corporate philanthropic activity.

Although the data suggest that there is a link between corporate volunteerism and sales, research also shows that the actual performance of Corporate America in the area of volunteerism may not be apparent to some consumers. We need to work to change this perception.

I know there is already a tremendous amount of community service on the part of American corporations right now — even if its “awareness factor” is not that high among the public. Scores of companies have been recognized with civic honors for outstanding volunteer efforts, IBM among them. But we can never consider the job done. We must view corporate volunteerism with the same seriousness of purpose as a business strategy — because, as research shows, it could have significant impact on a corporation’s success. Just as we strive to be innovative in developing products, technologies and services to solve business problems for our customers, we can use the same kind of thinking to develop solutions to tough problems in the community.

But isn’t volunteerism expensive, or only for large corporations?

When 500 companies responded to the “State of Corporate Citizenship” survey conducted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Boston College’s Center for Corporate Citizenship in 2003, nearly half of them cited “lack of resources” as their biggest obstacle to good performance in volunteerism. And yet in truth, the resources that American industry have to offer are plentiful. More than just money, public programs need our knowledge, our expertise, our technology, our innovation — our people.

Last November, our company launched what we call IBM On Demand Community — a grassroots initiative to connect IBM employees and IBM innovation to local community projects that need the kind of specialized expertise our people possess. Our worldwide goal is to recruit 25,000 active IBM volunteers and retirees over the next two years.

What sets this program apart from what we’ve done in the past is that we have a much more formalized approach to volunteerism. Although our company has tried to foster a climate in which employee volunteerism could and has thrived for many, many years, we found that many more people would volunteer if they knew how to go about it. With our new program, we match employee interests with community organizations that need them, plus we provide specialized training and other support to help our employees succeed as volunteers. Yes, there will be grants of money and equipment, but the contribution with the biggest impact will be the talents, dedication and spirit of our employees.

Transforming communities takes time. It takes an investment of people, and a commitment on the part of businesses and industry to foster a climate of volunteerism, an environment in which employees go out into the community with the full backing of their employers. Certainly, ten hours spent on a client project may bring in ten hours worth of revenue for a company. But consider the intangible but very real value of ten hours spent solving a critical community need.

Imagine the long-term benefit of helping students achieve higher test scores by creating, for example, innovative approaches to tutoring.

Whether it be in sports, politics, the research lab or the factory, people like to be associated with champions. With very little effort, we can live up to the expectations consumers have of corporations being champions for positive social change. As you plan for 2004, consider how your company as a unit can contribute to local endeavors and factor employee volunteerism into your metrics.

Barry Eveland of Research Triangle Park is IBM’s senior state executive for North Carolina. He also is first vice chair of NCCBI.

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