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International Corporate Volunteering
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Inspiring examples, thought provoking research and the latest thinking on International Corporate Volunteering (ICV) and International Service Learning (ISL). We want to help ensure that the design, implementation and evaluation of ICV programmes meet the needs of companies, employees and the communities they serve.
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Emerging World
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There’s been some huge changes in workplaces around the globe over the last couple of years. The way people work and interact with colleagues and leaders would be almost unrecognisable to previous generations of employees. Today employees are speaking out on political and social issues that matter to them. Rather than separating their work and personal lives; with so many people now working from home and so much work being conducted on devices that are on 24/7, employees expect their companies to inform policy on issues as diverse as wage inequality, climate change, prejudice and discrimination, immigration and its impact, and improving education and healthcare systems (including Covid vaccinations).
Sally Brownbill's insight:
This article takes a look at how employers are responding to the political and social things that matter to their employees. And it explores the possibilities that corporate volunteering offers as vehicle to address these needs. 
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I’ve been reflecting on my many recent conversations with people responsible for international corporate volunteering programmes. They’re all excited about the fact that their people are returning to in-person corporate volunteer assignments. They’re also mindful of their experiences over the last couple of not-so-normal years where a pandemic, the impact of climate change and wars – both close to home and far away – have resulted in employees seeking new and meaningful ways to make their difference in the world.
Sally Brownbill's insight:
Due to the pandemic there was a big and necessary shift towards running corporate volunteer programmes virtually. After a long wait, we are finally we are starting to see the return of in-person programmes.
In this blog, Amanda Bowman from Emerging World talks about the trends that she's seeing in corporate volunteer programmes as we move out of our locked down world.
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"In 2021, we conducted the Emerging World Corporate International Service Learning (CISL) Resilience Study. The Study has provided brilliant data that helps us further understand how the design of immersive learning experiences can impact participant outcomes."
Sally Brownbill's insight:
This blog takes a look at into the the data from the 2021 Emerging World Corporate International Service Learning Resilience Study. We used the data from the Study to understand how Corporate International Service Learning has helped participants navigate the pandemic, this blog illustrates some of the insights.
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The 2021 CISL Resilience Study builds on what we have already learnt from Emerging World’s CISL Long Term Impact Benchmark Study to provide insights relevant to the current context. The data gathered helps us to understand the value of these programmes, can influence how they are designed in the future and provides useful data for stakeholders.
The 2021 Study is unique. For the first time we have been able to take a look at how immersive experiences have been impacting participants throughout the pandemic and how changes to programme design are affecting participant outcomes, for those who have completed their experience since 2019.
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Emerging World publishes the first of a series of blogs that feature what companies with leading international corporate volunteering programs feel make their approaches unique and fit for the future.
amandabowman's insight:
A bit cheeky maybe, but this is a piece I wrote as part of the Emerging World series of articles on what companies need to do to ensure their international corporate volunteering programs are fit for the 2020s. Learning from GSK's ten years of experience; what's worked well and how the program has changed over the years was fascinating and this short blog I hope captures some useful tips for others
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With historically low unemployment levels, the days of hiring employees who are excited to just “have a job” may be a vestige of the past, and motivating and retaining the best talent has become as challenging today as it is important.
amandabowman's insight:
This useful piece by Dana Brownlee offers four employee engagement trends that are useful for companies with international corporate volunteering programs to note. When designed well, we've seen such programs delivering against all these measures: to provide a non-monetary benefit for employees; contribute to an agile working environment; support corporate culture and of course to provide opportunities for people to make a difference to global issues they care about.
Emerging World's research has data to back this up too.
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I had the great fortune to spend a couple of days earlier this year at the Global Pro Bono Summit. The Summit brought together over 150 people from 28 countries all of whom are committed to using skills based volunteering or pro bono to tackle some of the worlds most challenging problems. My particular interest, in international corporate volunteering was covered extensively and it was good to share experiences with people addressing this from many different industries, cultures and contexts.
The Upshot document here summarises all the work that was done to build the global movement, to explore what's coming next and to highlight new approaches.
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Your company's core business strategy and your corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives should be aligned. Find 6 tips to make that happen from leaders at Campbell's Soup, Aspire Coffee Works, and the Chicago White Sox.
Sally Brownbill's insight:
This is a quick read on developing CSR strategies that are good for business while also being good for the world.
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Employee turnover is bad for team morale and expensive for businesses, with the cost of losing an employee ranging from tens of thousands of dollars to two times the employee’s annual salary. Rapid job-hopping is most prevalent with millennials, though the pace has picked up with Generation Xers and Boomers as well, particularly in the Silicon Valley, where new research shows the average tenure for employees at ten major technology companies is just one to two years.
The good news is that there’s an easy way to hold onto people: get them involved in social causes.
Sally Brownbill's insight:
Having worked on the 2017 CISL Impact Benchmark Study published in September by Emerging World, I found this article interesting as it discusses the importance that millennials place on employers supporting social causes. On top of that, it looks at how successful organisations use creating social impact as a strategic development opportunity for employees.
The Emerging World Study, supports a number of the messages in this article. We found that Corporate International Service Learning programmes, not only impacted leadership development, employee engagement and help create more responsible leader. These programmes also increased employee loyalty and pride.
Mathew's curator insight,
October 21, 2019 1:26 AM
Is the lack of a sense of belonging within the organisation driving the staff turnover higher?
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A company with a strong corporate social responsibility has more engaged employees. Almost 60 percent of employees who are proud of their company’s CSR program are engaged at their jobs, according to Double the Donation.
amandabowman's insight:
Good piece bringing together some recent research on links between CSR and employee engagement.
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Prosocial behaviour or “voluntary behaviour intended to benefit another” is strongly motivated by empathy. And, next to growing empathy, increased prosocial behaviour is arguably one of the most important shifts that can occur in an individual as a result of employee volunteering.
Emerging World's insight:
This is an important piece of reading for anyone designing or implementing corporate volunteering programs. It looks at the broader benefits of offering these opportunities to employees and argues that it is a 'powerful opportunity for businesses around the world to give employees an avenue to fulfill what is an innately human desire for meaning' in their lives.
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Addressing economic and social inequality has traditionally been the domain of sovereign states and their governments. But trust in governments is low, and governments’ monetary and fiscal room for maneuver in times of high debt and low interest rates is severely constrained. Can corporations fill the void? Four out of five people now expect business to take the lead. Encouragingly, trust in business has substantially recovered since the financial crisis, not least because a growing number of corporations have embraced corporate citizenship and sustainability to better connect with stakeholders and communities.
Emerging World's insight:
Governments are no longer in a position to adequately address the social, economic and environmental challenges that are weighing heavily on national agendas. It is falling on the shoulders of global corporations, to fill the void, at least partially, as they are increasingly becoming better connected with the external stakeholders and the communities they serve. Kell and Reeves, as the role of the corporation is changing a leap needs to be made in the mind-set of corporate leaders from Corporate Citizen to Corporate Statemen. Not an easy feat, but one that has to be made for corporate leaders to take an activist position. For leaders not just to be a voice, but also shape the agenda and prioritize the allocation of hard resources to find solutions to the challenges that will ensure a sustainable globalisation track for future generations.
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Employees remains a cornerstone of CSR programs. Yet corporate volunteering programs often don’t achieve high levels of engagement.
Sally Brownbill's insight:
Corporate Volunteer programmes can provide such powerful learning, they can help to build the mindsets and leadership behaviours business need, and of course create great social impact. We do a lot of work to understand the impact that programmes have on participants, but this article suggests more needs to be done to create engagement at the offset.
For in-person International Corporate Volunteering, there may be barriers to engaging employees, such as commitment, time and travel needs. But as programmes embrace more virtual elements, we need to make sure that they are not just more accessible, but also attracting employees to participate in the first place.
This is an interesting article, that provides some great ideas for creating engagement with corporate volunteer programmes.
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There’s a revolution underway in corporate America. For decades, companies have prided themselves on giving back to their communities. Those charitable gifts often consist of cash, personnel or time — such as when firms organize volunteer days in underserved communities. But increasingly, companies are getting creative — and donating their expertise. This “skilled volunteering” enables companies to have a real impact on their communities while boosting employee morale and retention. It’s a powerful alternative to traditional charitable giving.
Maeve Spence's insight:
This article highlights what we have known to be true for some time - that skills-based volunteering is a powerful tool for community impact, and truly acts as a triple-win for companies, employees and non -profits.
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"In our recent CISL Builds Resilience Blog series, we’ve shared a lot of data about the impact of Corporate International Service Learning (CISL) experiences. This data is valuable and provides important insights, but amidst all the numbers it’s important not to lose sight of the human stories that underpin each experience.
With that in mind, we invite you to join us on a trip down memory lane as we re-visit some of the programmes and participant stories featured throughout our CISL Study History."
Sally Brownbill's insight:
Some CISL programme participant stories to remind us what CISL looks and feels like for participants.
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"The 2021 Emerging World Corporate International Service Learning (CISL) Resilience Study has provided an important opportunity for us to assess how these Immersive Learning experiences are impacting participants and develop the behaviours and mindsets needed to navigate times of uncertainty as well as gaining insights on what elements of CISL programme design have impact. The Study looks at survey responses from CISL programme participants of 5 programmes from 3 global organisations in different market sectors."
Sally Brownbill's insight:
This second blog in the series takes a deep dive into the the data from the 2021 Emerging World Corporate International Service Learning Resilience Study. The blog takes a look at how Immersive Experiences are developing resilience behaviours in participants.
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This insights report by Common Impact examines the role that Pro Bono service can play in supporting communities to prepare for and recover from large scale catastrophes. As the past several years have seen an unprecedented uptick in natural and man-made disasters globally, companies can expand their support to communities to not only make donations to meet the immediate needs but help them to anticipate, survive and bounce back from disaster.
Doreen Wanja Mutero's insight:
Companies can no longer remain on the side lines on important issues affecting our world. With the increase in natural catastrophes and man-made related emergencies, businesses and communities need to respond collaboratively and immediately by building communities that are better prepared to manage these kinds of situations in ways that enable them to bounce back quickly.
Corporate volunteering (also referred to as Pro Bono service) efforts can be helpful in building resilient communities. What’s more, Emerging World’s CISL Study (Corporate International Service Learning) on the long term impact of corporate volunteering has established the benefits to the business: It drives employee engagement, builds responsible leadership, contributes to loyalty and retention and improves a connection to the company’s purpose.
Doreen Mutero
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Here’s a question I love asking companies: Why is your employee volunteer program important?
amandabowman's insight:
This piece by Angela Parker of Realized Worth shows how companies can support their diversity and inclusion agendas by offering purposeful corporate volunteering programmes. It talks about providing opportunities to practice inclusion and when done well, how this helps employees to connect and empathise better with others as a result of encountering people and issues outside of their usual realms of experience, understanding, and (often) social and economic privilege. It helps them feel more engaged at work, aligning their personal purpose with professional goals and work experience and they become more inclusive, compassionate – and therefore more effective – people leaders.
I can see how Angela's insights are reinforced by the 2019 CISL Impact Benchmark Study which measures the long term impact of international corporate volunteering programmes. The Study will be launched soon in October 2019.
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Chris Farrell, MD of Impact Reporting, discusses the importance of reporting on social value in the financial sector and why it's led from the top
amandabowman's insight:
This is worth a quick read not least because it reinforces the need to measure the impact as much as the inputs and outcomes of corporate volunteering.
However, I think it's fair to say that measuring the impact of volunteering takes time and so the Emerging World CISL Long Term Impact Study is worth considering because it's a proven way to measure those impacts for employees and for the business
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Corporate Volunteering programmes (CV) have become an important part of any progressive company’s corporate citizenship/CSR approach. As companies become more global, they often seek ways for their corporate volunteering efforts to match their international presence and interests in society. Experience shows that there are some dos and don'ts if you want to scale a corporate volunteering programme and this short blog aims to share some of that experience.
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"Volunteering opens one up to multiple skill-sets of experience and exposure. It gives an advantage to working with people from different background for different reasons."
Sally Brownbill's insight:
The Emerging World 2017 CISL Impact Benchmark Study looks at the impact of Corporate International Service Learning (CISL), also known as Corporate Volunteering and Global Pro bono. It clearly shows how, not only these types of programs develop global leadership skills, but also impact career mobility.
On a personal level, this blog discusses how volunteering has great possibilities in terms of developing skills and opportunity, while doing good.
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Doing good is good business. In this world where the bottom line matters, hitting KPIs and meeting shareholders’ expectations trumps goodness, we’re always quick to dismiss this over-idealistic thought. But this idealism when backed by strategy, culture building, passion and talent development can, in fact, benefit the corporate individual, the business and community. It can be the paradigm shift in what leads a business to flourish – transforming ordinary employees to committed outstanding leaders.
Sally Brownbill's insight:
This article looks at employees increasing desire for meaningful work with companies that act ethically and how CSR programmes can provide that while equipping employees with skills and experience mindset shifts to help navigate the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world of today.
The article is interesting as it discusses how CSR programmes can educate future corporate leaders while addressing needs and challenges of the community and society that they serve or sit within, which aligns with elements of Corporate International Service Learning (CISL) programmes.
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Gennie Dearman of Engineering Development Trust (EDT) talks about her experiences of a skills-based volunteering initiative undertaken in partnership with Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and Emerging World.
"I have been lucky recently, to be involved representing EDT along with our Projects Director Penny Tysoe, at some training Emerging World had been running for some of the most senior employees of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC). We had the opportunity to work over two days with a team of five employees, which we nicknamed the A Team, introducing them to the work we do in the UK and presenting them with a challenge that our charity is currently facing for guidance."
Emerging World's insight:
We are more used to the idea of sending people to support communities in developing countries as part of International Corporate Volunteering (ICV) or CISL (Corporate International Service Learning) initiatives.
This program takes a different approach by challenging executives from the Gulf region to use their skills and experiences to support UK charities. We all have skills and perspectives that can add value and these kinds of experiences also build cultural understanding and empathy at a time when we seem to need it more than ever.
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In this webinar, Matthew Farmer of Emerging World shares perspectives, techniques and frameworks for creating powerful impact assessment frameworks that measure the business impact of corporate volunteering programs. Jennifer Farrington, Global Social Investing Director at BD, who work with Emerging World on their impact assessment, provides examples of how assessing the impact of BD’s pioneering Volunteer Service Trip program and benchmarking it with other companies has led to insights and strengthened the program.
Emerging World's insight:
Employee Volunteering programs can provide transformational development opportunities and make a significant and lasting difference to ways of thinking and acting, to team dynamics and to collaboration. This webinar provides insight on measuring the business impact of corporate volunteering to achieve the greatest benefits. The examples in the webinar are drawn from Emerging World’s CISL Impact Benchmark study, which is the most robust piece of research of its kind, completed in collaboration with leading global organizations BD, Credit Suisse, EY, GSK and Microsoft.
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In this article, the impassioned author highlights the many merits of implementing corporate employee volunteering programs.
We couldn't agree more -- corporations have an invaluable resource in their employees that can and should be leveraged to support efforts to overcome social challenges. Doing good for society through corporate volunteering also contributes to employee wellbeing, leadership development, higher engagement and creates environments people want to work in.