Employee Ownership and Engagement Critical to Successful CSR

On a January morning, 90 groups of mothers and children gathered at the Fe y Alegria primary school in a neighborhood north of Lima, Peru. They were there at the invitation of the Peruvian distribution firm Comercia for a hot meal, classes on nutrition education, and for the presentation of Comercia food baskets. An initiative from a relatively small firm in a country not famous for a history of CSR, the initiative was especially impressive, since it was – and remains – an effort largely developed and run by company employees. 

While some sort of community engagement or CSR programming has become common for multinationals operating in the OECD, sustainable CSR programming is still far from common in most parts of the world. Even in the “global north,” most CSR programs still arrive at the shop floor as a C-level initiative – something hatched by senior executives or by a corporate foundation. 

However, this pattern overlooks a crucial asset: the excitement, commitment and advice of company employees. This employee engagement – not just in implementation, but in the design of effective CSR – is perhaps the missing piece for the next phase of sustainable community engagement around the world. 

Simply put, employee-centric CSR initiatives like Comercia’s Comedad program show just how far even smaller companies can go to create real, sustainable impact, improving labor-management relations, community visibility… and the bottom line. 

The Comedad program began in 2009 in Lima, Peru. Working closely with a team from across the company, AMGlobal used a detailed diagnostic process and online surveys to solicit employee ideas. The team looked at community needs and Comercia’s key strengths. Employees who themselves are community members settled on nutrition as a core community need, and worked to see what Comercia could do. The result was a nutrition awareness program aimed at mothers and children, one built around a core Comercia product – the protein-rich fish anchoveta – as vector for getting messaging out. 

The final result shows just how powerful this kind of employee-centric approach can be. By all accounts, participation in the Comedad program strengthened the relationships between employees and management. The program led to significantly increased visibility in the community for Comercia salespeople who were key speakers at each of the neighborhood Comedad meetings. And the program was sustainable in the most obvious way.  In areas where the project was launched, sales increased significantly. 

Finally, in 2010 the program hit an important milestone, as the initial management group was phased out, and more employees from more different parts of the company took over the leadership of the effort.

An employee-centric approach has many benefits:

• The approach can strengthen the bonds with employees, and community. 
• It gives junior staff and staff with less formal training opportunities to shine, helping identify new talents among team members.  
• It creates programs that are often more authentic and connected to the community, and ones that typically make for better press.  
• And finally, working with employees across a firm, CSR programs can keep in focus something that larger initiatives often lose sight of – the need to fit into the careers of participants and the financial success of the company. 

Simply put, a well-functioning employee-designed program doesn’t leave the chance for promotion – or the bottom line – off the table.

Making this kind of approach takes time, inspiration and a little bit of help.  But we believe that employees – as the best kind of self-interested designers of an initiative – can help the CSR “movement” create even more sustainable value.