Bertrand Duperrin's Library tagged charity → View Popular, Search in Google

Dec

2009

Management- vs. employee-driven community involvement

"How do you decide what cause or causes to support? You have essentially two alternatives for this internal process: top-down or management-driven, and bottom-up or employee-driven. What are their pros and cons for you as a company? What’s the optimal way to decide on the direction of your strategic cause marketing?"

www.semiosiscommunications.com/e-driven-community-involvement

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communities topdown bottomup alignment charity nonprofits

Strategic alignment with a cause relevant to your business benefits your company, as it creates a consistent affiliation with the cause in the minds of your stakeholders, including your employees. A company-wide cause allows employees to feel a part of something bigger than themselves, and focuses everyone’s effort in a single direction
The top-down decision-making process comes with drawbacks. By default and most importantly, it excludes employees from having a say in your company’s community involvement.
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- It may also limit the pool of available talent for your company to people who support your cause.
- Giving your employees the power to decide what causes to support offers you a top-notch opportunity to make your employees feel they, their say, and their work matters. Rather than imposing the decision on them, it positions you and the company as the support platform for their decisions.
- Bottom-up decisions diffuse the focus of your overall strategic cause marketing.
- You can align your company with a strategically relevant cause and open the process of deciding which particular organization(s) to support to a cross-functional team of employees.
- Empowering employees to be engaged in the community can be a cause in itself. At the top you make the strategic decisions to 1) be involved in the community as a company, and to 2) align your company with your employees’ charitable or community interests.