Why Can Cause Marketing Improve Employee Morale?

Tuesday evening, Paul Nelson, a local radio reporter called to ask about how to keep up employee morale during the downturn.

(Here's his finished story.)

He'd seen on Slideshare a presentation on the topic I'd given in September to the Utah state convention of the Society for Human Resource Management.

Between the presentation and my comments, I'll bet I gave him a half-dozen studies demonstrating that cause marketing can help companies improve employee morale, loyalty, profitability. skills, teamwork, etc.

And then he asked me the most natural, obvious question imaginable. Why?

Why would working with a charity help a company improve morale?

I almost choked. No one has ever asked my why that would be.

I'm a pundit so of course I had an answer for him... it's the quote he used in the story... but it wasn't based on any study I could name or even think of.

So here's my question to you my faithful readers.

Why can cause marketing help with employee morale?

Feel free to state your opinion. But if you can cite a source or a study, all the better.

Comments

Jon K, said…

When we go to work we are sacrificing a large part of our day such that we can afford to do the things we derive pleasure from during our time off.
Increasingly we work more and more, and receive less and less. Yes it's important to enjoy your job, yes there are many ways to compensate employees for their time (think of how cold, and lifeless the term "compensation", and "remuneration" are, and think of how thinly veiled the term "benefits" is for what it boils down to: bribing!

When your place of work engages in some "good", however broadly defined, and employees feel that their efforts aren't simply contributing to a corporate ethos of bottom-line-at-all-costs, than it allows them an outlet to project the innate human desire for community and contribution back to that community. It helps employees see their presence at work not just as cogs, but as change-agents who are at least in some way contributing to the rising trend of participatory politics where we no longer assume that all good work must be done in government and charitable silos.

The elevator summary:
It brings us together at work because it reminds us that we're all part of a larger society, with more complex and intertwined interests than pumping out 15% more widgets for Acme corp next quarter.

12/04/2009 5:08 AM

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