Going Local — How employees can connect global companies to local issues.
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Globalisation — a term that has caused much contention in its relatively short life. While its development can be traced through the work of Adam Smith, all the way back to the early market integration of civilisations, for us non-scholars of economic history, it is very much a modern phenomenon, barely more than a few decades old. To talk about ‘going local’, therefore, can seem to be forgetting the recent past. For most of us, for most of history, ‘local’ was all there really was.
The fact that we now talk about ‘going local’ is testament to the enormous and transformative power of recent trends of globalisation. But what do we actually mean when we say ‘local’? With Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, a return to local — as these events are often seen — can be as big as returning from the global to the national stage; focusing on one’s own country rather than its relationship with the rest of the world. For most people, however, when asked to think about what is local, they think of their town, or village, or borough — the place where they do their shopping and their children go to school. With all the change that has occurred since globalisation first entered the popular imagination, people’s sense of what is local really hasn’t shifted.
For global corporations, the question of what is local — and how to connect with it — is a bit more complex. It is quite common for a company or brand to operate or market itself differently in different countries based on local traditions, customs or history. Opel vehicles driving around the streets of continental Europe, for example, sport a Vauxhall badge when in the UK, and you won’t find a bank closed on a Sunday in Dubai. These, however, are really decisions of practicality, or are based on what will appeal to local consumers. The challenge facing corporations is how to connect with what is local in the sense that ordinary people understand it.
A corporation’s best connection to what is truly local — the issues and institutions of individual communities — must be its employees. However large a corporation, at its core it is made up of individual people, each of whom have a local area in which they live, with schools, groups and charities that they care about and want to see succeed. In the UK, while the days of the local bobby, milkman, and British seaside holiday may be a thing of the past, people’s desire to see their communities thrive is most definitely not.
We can see evidence of this by examining volunteering activities in the UK. According to the UK Civil Society Almanac 2017, over 1 in 4 adults in the UK volunteer at least once a month. Out of these, sports organisations and social clubs and groups are the most popular — initiatives with a direct impact on the local community. Despite the seismic shifts in how we interact with the world outside our immediate surroundings, and what many see as a growing depersonalisation to life, it seems that many people do still very much care about what is ‘local’ to them.
So, what can corporations do to take advantage of this treasure trove of local fervour hidden within their ranks? One key way to leverage this enthusiasm is through employer-supported volunteering, where employees take time out during work hours — with the permission of their employer — to volunteer with community projects or charity organisations, often within their local area. While it is not a new phenomenon and is generally well known, participation, at least in the UK, remains relatively low, at about 8% of adults. So, what might be holding enthusiasm for corporate volunteering initiatives back?
In most companies, volunteering is split into two types, 1) strategic volunteering that is aligned with the company’s own targets, where volunteering opportunities are provided for staff, and 2) employee led volunteering, where the employee is responsible for identifying the opportunity themself. While strategic volunteering, when done right, can often have a greater impact on a particular charity, finding good opportunities beyond “painting a wall” isn’t easy. And finding good local opportunities can be even harder. Beyond this, the process of finding out about strategic volunteering opportunities can be arduous for employees, especially if there isn’t an effective solution in place. Often promotion is based on spreadsheets of people who have expressed an interest or offered to spread the word, so reaching and engaging new volunteers, especially for global corporations, is difficult.
While having an effective system for managing and promoting strategic volunteering is essential, it is often employee led volunteering that is most engaging for staff, and most effective at reaching truly local causes. As we have discussed, people’s interest in their local communities is strong, and empowering them to spend time out of work helping the causes and charities that matter to them is, naturally, exciting. While the challenges of employee led volunteering, including risk assessment, charity vetting, reputational management and general administration costs, are many, with an effective solution in place the benefits are well worth it.
At GivingForce, we have seen the best employee engagement in organisations where an employee has a range of volunteering opportunities to pick from, but also autonomy to find and suggest their own, as well as share them with colleagues and invite others to participate. Empowering employees to ‘go local’ and engage with charities, causes and colleagues in their community can increase participation and engage a workforce, but is also a corporation’s best connection to what is truly local in the areas in which they operate, and an opportunity to connect with communities on an entirely human level.
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