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The engine behind employee communication success: CSR provides a valuable way to achieve your employee engagement goals.

Article Excerpt
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

If it's possible to engage employees by developing connections between personal, emotional interests and the company's brand values, and if it's possible to strengthen a company's brand reputation through being fiscally, environmentally and socially responsible, then corporate responsibility programs can be the engine that engages employees, because they provide a connection between a company's values and its employees' personal interests.

As communicators, we spend a lot of time trying to educate employees about our organization's core values--what the brand stands for. When CSR is integrated into communication at the planning phase, we have a huge opportunity to develop a stronger connection between employees and brand values, driving positive results toward the business strategy.

CSR minds the gaps

At the most basic level, CSR programs allow a corporation to invest in sustaining communities, thereby supporting its customers, engaging its employees and still creating revenue opportunities. Internally, these programs provide a platform for developing creative content that has a compelling message, addresses key engagement needs by evoking an emotional connection, and enhances companywide communication.

According to a 2007 Net Impact Member Survey, 90 percent of respondents would be somewhat or very likely to leave their current jobs to work for a company they believed to be more socially responsible, assuming compensation and benefits were the same. Despite the economic challenges companies are facing, there's a strong need to...