Giving Thoughts

Recipe for ROI: Four Ingredients to Organize Employee Volunteer Programs with SDG Impact

By Ahsiya Posner Mencin, Director, PULSE Volunteer Partnership, and Manu Juneja, Global Volunteering Manager, GSK

This is a new kind of year for GSK and the PULSE volunteering program. First, we’re creating different volunteering options for our employees worldwide to fit with the various interests and needs of all stakeholders across the globe. Second, we’re now applying a fresh lens to our work through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and specifically Global Goals 3 and 4 that focus on promoting health and education. The SDGs don’t change the focus of our volunteering work, but rather give us a common language and vocabulary to discuss our objectives and impact alongside others who are working in the global health and development space.

It’s been a seven-year journey to get us to where we are today—a point where the spirit of volunteering and service is intricately linked to GSK employees’ development as global leaders. Below are four ingredients that we think will help other companies organize impactful corporate volunteering that is aligned to the SDGs and leadership development:

1. Lower the threshold to entry When the SDGs were adopted last year, they ushered in a wave of positive momentum as businesses, governments, and NGOs explored new ways of working to improve health and wellness around the world. The Global Goals are ambitious and worthy, and they will require levels of collaboration and innovation like we’ve never seen before. But don’t forget that each collaborative effort will start with a single email or phone call. Don’t over-think or over-complicate it. If you have a positive intent and commitment to find opportunities to collaborate in a way where the sum will be greater than its parts, then all you need is to find one partner who might help get the ball rolling with you. Read here about an exciting partnership that we started with SAP, Partners in Health and the Rwandan Ministry of Health with a single phone call.

2. Find common interests When we launched PULSE in 2009, our formula for success was to find NGO partners that have needs that they can’t address through their own staff and fill their talent needs with experts from GSK who have these skills and are passionate about giving back. We then wanted to empower these employees to bring back their lessons to GSK. This formula worked and we found other NGOs and companies that had the same interest in working to it. Fast forward to 2013, when we forged one of our first cross-company partnership with Pfizer. We sent two employees to work together to address one of South Asia’s most deadly but infrequently discussed health challenges, visceral leishmaniasis or “black fever.” People asked us how we managed to forge a partnership with a competitive pharmaceutical company. The answer is simple: find common interests. Read more about the partnership here.

3. Define the outcomes and measure them We’re focused on a three-fold change mission: change communities, change employees and change GSK. For the purpose of this audience, let’s focus on “change employees.” We know that PULSE provides our employees with learning they can’t get by sitting at their desks. Working in a resource-constrained environment forces PULSE volunteers to think creatively to overcome new challenges. Employees gain confidence in their ability to solve problems, affect social change, and act as leaders. They have an accelerated development in several areas. For example, 92 percent of volunteers’ colleagues believe that the volunteers’ assignments helped them to develop their learning agility, resilience and networking. Read more about our impact on the PULSE Annual Impact Report.

4. Align HR and corporate strategy to help “bring the outside in” The PULSE volunteering program sits within the HR function, specifically within the global talent and leadership development team. However, there is close alignment between the HR function and the corporate strategy team to ensure the business makes the most of the insights gained from the program. This involves briefing volunteers before they go on assignment to ensure they understand both the company strategy and the business challenges we’re facing, all with the intention of ensuring they can use their time to identify opportunities to help us overcome these challenges or bring back innovative new ideas (it goes without saying that their primary objective is to support the not-for-profit). This is an increasingly important focus for the program, and HR plays a key role in ensuring these insights and ideas are captured, shared and, where appropriate, implemented. It is not surprising then to see that nine out of ten of our PULSE volunteers report that they are doing something differently at GSK after their return. This is the kind of return on investment that HR and leadership development managers need to demonstrate program value.

We hope you found our four ingredients helpful to creating your own recipe for successful and impactful corporate volunteering experiences to advance the Global Goals. We look forward to engaging with other corporate leaders on this topic further as part of The Conference Board’s annual conference on May 5-6 in New York.

About the authors:

Ahsiya Posner Mencin, Ph.D. has worked in corporate responsibility, human resources, international development, and change management for over 15 years in the public and private sectors, in the US and internationally, and at grassroots and policy levels. She leads all global volunteering efforts at GSK, including co-designing GSK’s flagship PULSE program that supports 80 – 100 employees to donate their professional skills to a non-profit organization for up to 6 months full-time, creating positive sustainable change in communities while promoting individual leadership development.

Manu Juneja is the Global Volunteering lead at GSK. She is responsible for the new build of skills-based micro volunteering opportunities for GSK employees. From 2010-15, Manu helped build engagement for GSK’s flagship PULSE program, and led the creation of the local hub offices in Latin America, India and Japan. Volunteering is her third career, having started out as a lawyer before moving to retail and consumer goods marketing.