Question

The case

Promoting Social Change and Responsibility at Corporate Level

Suppose you work in a large corporation (over 5,000 employees) as Head of Marketing Initiatives. You need to direct your superior’s attention to becoming a more socially conscious corporation. The concept you desire is somewhat similar to HP’s entrepreneurial attempt toward employees’ volunteerism; “HP’s generous volunteer policy allows and encourages employees to leverage their 4 hours of paid volunteer time per month to give back to causes and charities that they are passionate about” (HP Website, 2020).

Managing Change Challenges

Bear in mind that many employees and even managers may be against the change and are resisting any additional work out of their comfort zone. You have to make the case for managers in the proposal about how the benefits will outcome the monetary loss from the 4 paid volunteering hours including the company’s reputation, PR positive impact,measuring ROI if applicable, etc.).

Requirements :

Please answer all.

1. Develop a project proposal (directed to senior managers) : - the proposal must be convincing, presenting the highlight of your research in an executive summary, an implementation plan and an assessment of the benefits and ROI.

B. Develop an internal marketing campaign (directed to employees) : briefly explain the implementation plan and present the personal and overall benefits from this CSR attempt (how pros will outweigh cons, etc.)

Answer 1

A.

Project Proposal report:

To: The senior manager

Title: To be more socially conscious by encouraging employee volunteerism.

Executive summary:

With the growing concern for environment and society increasing and the consumers becoming more and more aware, it has become utmost crucial to be a little more socially conscious and give back a little to the society and the environment. Our present CSR policy does not address this concern adequately. Lately many companies have adopted unique methods apart from direct donations. One such example is employee volunteerism. Here every month employees could use 4 hours of the company time to do something productive for the society. It can be anything like helping them with education or building technologically advanced products for their betterment or providing mentoring services or helping them learn technology. This will not just utilize our employees potentials but also make them feel good for being use to others. This would also benefit the company as more and more people come to know about our employees potential and our work. It is a simple win win for all.

Implementation plan:

To implement this plan, it is essential to first have clear management committment towards the goal. Once the committment is developed a clear strategy could be built. This strategy shall highlight the activities which our companies can engage in. Since our company is a technology company (assumed), we can focus on activities such as educating youth on cybercrime activties, organizing hackathons, building privacy protection measures and educating youth about it. These activities would interest our employees to work on and simultaneously build our reputation in tech market. Once the activities are identified, the stakeholders involved should be identified.

Once the activities are identified, it is essential to regularly educate the employees by communication about the activities and explain them how they can be a great asset to the society. There can also be some awards given of best employee for social responsibility category to attract more employees. The communication shall always be two ways to identify any lacuane in the strategy and eliminate any barriers. The employees should be actively engaged by rewarding them timely or by including these social activities in theri job descriptions etc.

Cost benefit analysis and ROI:

The benefits are:

a. Increased market branding

b. More awareness about our company through our employees work

c. Being able to give back to society

d. Increased employee satisfaction

e. Better image helps in easier access to financial resources.

Costs:

a. Employee time which could have been devoted to company's works would go to social activities.

b. There can be additional costs of organizing the seminars or areas where the activities shall be conducted.

c. Training the employees

Based on research of various companies and past trends, it can be clearly said that the benefits resulting in long term would overcome the costs. The return on this investment should be 12 to 15% depending upon the activities conducted, employee participation and market conditions.

B.

Internal Marketing campaign

To: Employees of XYZ Ltd

From: Ken, Head of Marketing

Subject: Path towards employee volunteerism.

This message is to highlight how important it has become for our company to be more socially responsible. It is not a luxury anymore but a necessity. This is not merely legal compliane but more of moral compliance.

In order to do this, we look for your support. Since we are all not just employees but partners together.

Implementation plan:

Our corporate social responsibility strategy lists down several activities which the employees can undertake. These activities are chosen as they are more aligned towards our mission and values. The strategy lists down how each activity progress could be monitored.

Top management including the CEO of the company is engaged in several of the activities and expects the same from the employees.

Every employee is allowed to volunteer their 4 hours of company time per month to devote towards these chosen activities. The time can be chosen by employee per their own wish but have to co-ordinate with the team before.

Employees who excel their activities would be rewarded appropriately and would also feature in our company magazines and websites.

Each activity will have its own timeline and scope which will be monitored by the project head. The entire activities and their status shall be frequently updated to CSR committee.

Any grievances or questions could be raised to respective members of the committee.

Costs and benefits:  

Costs:

a. Time spent doing additional/unknown work

b. Dealing with different people and new environment

Benefits:

a. Increased personal satisfaction

b. Increased rewards.

c. Ability to be of use to the underprivileged.

We can see how the benefits weigh the costs. We look forward for all the employees support towards this initiative.