Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee Volunteerism: What Do the Best Companies Do

Abstract

Employee volunteerism as a practice of corporate social responsibility aids corporations by strengthening employee satisfaction and retention internally and by strengthening corporate reputations and connections with stakeholders externally. Of particular interest are the specific practices and procedures used by companies to encourage and support volunteer activities of employees. We reviewed publicly available documents of Fortune's 100 'Best Companies to Work For' ranking to gain insight into how these best companies practice employee volunteerism and whether they link employee volunteerism to their corporate social responsibility strategy. We propose a connection of the position and importance of employee volunteerism in the corporate practices of social responsibility. Our findings suggest that many highly regarded companies specifically linked employee volunteerism to their corporate social responsibility strategy. These companies also utilized similar practices to encourage and support employee volunteerism. We highlight the practices that managers may consider to support their corporate social responsibility efforts offer several suggestions for future consideration.