The Future of Employee Engagement and Social Good in Companies

BY Wanly Chen | October 10, 2023

Companies are expanding their social corporate responsibility (CSR) initiatives at rapid rates. An estimated 90% of companies on the S&P 500 index published a CSR report in 2019, compared to just 20% in 2011.

From increased employee engagement and retention rates to more loyal consumers, CSR programs and initiatives yield great benefits for companies internally and externally. In a recent From Day One webinar, David Grubman, VP of CSR sales at the CSR platform WizeHive. asked leaders their thoughts and predictions for the future of the rising field.

Increased Demand From Incoming Generations

A recent Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) survey indicated that 55% of millennials and 46% of Gen Z members believe that environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) initiatives are important in companies. With millennials and Gen Z employees making up the majority of the workforce in coming years, these employees will fuel the demand for ESG and CSR initiatives.

The demand for ESG and CSR initiatives, however, begins far before employment, says Alex Budak, a UC-Berkeley faculty member, social entrepreneur and author of Becoming a Changemaker. At Berkeley, Budak notices that the conversation about social change is a shared core value for his students, pointing to a key generation shift in how companies are being evaluated.

“[Social impact] is a huge determining factor for students. I remember when I was first entering the job field and social impact was something that mattered to me, but not to many of my peers,” Budak said. “Now, I can’t remember the last time someone didn't think about it. Now, they want companies that have that. It’s table stakes today in order to be a competitive company. Whereas maybe a few years ago, you didn’t have to.”

In 2022, a groundbreaking 14.3 million volunteer hours were recorded, a 61% increase from the previous year. The growth of CSR participation is already evident, with employees’ demands fueling the growth, says Ben Sampson, co-founder and CEO of WeHero, now part of WizeHive. “Employers are going to continue putting demand and pressure on programs like this and we know that is going to continue. We also know that there’s going to be increasing regulatory demand and pressure for companies to do this.”

Leveraging AI in CSR Initiatives

When AI emerged on university grounds at UC-Berkeley, Budak did not fret over students using it. Instead, he wanted students to embrace it.

The efficiency of AI not only allows students to have extra time to engage in social impact work but also develop deeper research into these programs, Budak said.

The full panel of speakers, clockwise from top left: Ben Sampson of WizeHive, Alex Budak of UC Berkeley, moderator David Grubman of WizeHive and Tessa Edwards of Edwards Social Impact Consulting (Image by From Day One)

“We use ChatGPT as a tool to help us source changemakers. It’s amazing what it comes out with,” Budak said. “There are opportunities to use artificial intelligence to conduct deeper research and find some of those hidden gems that are doing wonderful community-based work, but aren’t getting elevated to the same standard as the big name organizations.”

In companies, the use of AI is also becoming more common to help increase workflow efficiency. In a 2022 study on AI usage in global companies, 50% of respondents reported they had adopted AI in at least one business area.

Companies can also leverage AI in their CSR efforts to generate new opportunities for employees. With the integration of AI into employees’ location, interests, and calendars, the technology will soon be able to help identify better fit opportunities for employees in a fraction of the time, Tessa Edwards, consultant at Edwards Social Impact Consulting, predicts.

“The possibilities of the predictive tools of AI can help companies determine which volunteer program resonates best with their employees or what time of year would be best,” Edwards said. “On the individual level, AI may be able to look at employees’ calendars and say, “Here is an event, I see you're available on this day. Can you join it?” Even though those are little operational pieces, I do think that those nudges make an impact on an individual employee.”

Increase in Micro-Actions

Worldwide, work-life balance is a priority for Gen Z and millennials, with roughly 30% of Gen Z and millennials in full-or part-time work reporting they are very satisfied with their work-life balance, compared to 20% in 2019.

This, however, may pose a challenge when engaging these employees to volunteer. “They’re very protective of their time and they’re very mindful of that,” Sampson said.

“Volunteering used to be like a standard donation or working at your local food bank, but the ways that people are donating and giving back in those formats are changing dramatically,” Sampson said. “Today, instead of a full day of volunteering, people are doing micro-actions which are small acts of kindness. [We need] to be able to track and measure the impact of those in the number of ways that people can give back and volunteer.”

Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, WizeHive, for sponsoring this webinar.

Wanly Chen is a writer and poet based in New York City.

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