International Corporate Volunteerism Workshop

By CDS Board Member - Phil Mirvis

Up to forty Pfizer Global Health Fellows per year spend 3-6 months on volunteer assignments with nonprofit organizations to improve health care services in the developing world. One team is training research scientists in Uganda to use complex instruments to test the effectiveness of AIDS vaccines.

Accenture Development Partnerships has undertaken over 200 projects in 55 countries where its professionals, at 50% salary reduction, work in partnership for up to six months with Oxfam, UNICEF, Freedom from Hunger, and other nonprofits to bring business solutions to humanitarian problems.

IBM has sent 700 employees on 70 teams to 13 countries on one month assignments through its Corporate Service Corps. In Tanzania, IBM teams collaborated with KickStart, a nonprofit offering new technologies to fight poverty in Africa, to develop modular training courses in marketing, sales and supply chain management for local entrepreneurs.

These are three of a growing number of companies that send their most accomplished employees on volunteer initiatives around the world. What’s it all about?

1. Deploying corporate assets--knowledge and people—in service of global corporate citizenship;
2. Recruiting and retaining top talent who want to work for companies that care;
3. Developing a new generation of socially conscious and globally attuned leaders;
4. Gathering on-the-ground intelligence on how to do business in emerging markets;
5. Forging cross-border relationships inside and outside of a company;
6. All of the above.

I recently participated in Learning from the Practitioners, a day-long workshop in Washington, D.C. hosted by CDC Development Solutions, IBM, and DLA Piper (a law firm that sends its attorneys on global pro bono projects), and attended by over thirty companies, several outfits that place volunteers, select international development agencies, and the Peace Corps. The unanimous conclusion as to what this is about: All of the above!

A New Form of Corporate Volunteer Service

Most corporate volunteering is local, engages people in community service or environmental cleanup, and is seen by all as a “nice” thing to do. These programs, by contrast, are global, stretch the managerial, social, and technical skills of volunteers, and have strategic aims. No wonder then that the prime mover for many of these programs is the CEO and that it is harder to gain admittance to them than it is getting into the Harvard Business School (on the order of 15 applicants per assignment at IBM)!

While Pfizer and Accenture have been at this since 2003, IBM launched in 2008, and other companies at the global volunteering conference are just beginning their cross-border programs. It’s too early to call this a corporate trend but the experiences to date are promising—for the benefit of business and society. Here are some of the notable findings from the gathering.

1. Programs come in different sizes and shapes. IBM’s program, for example, is modeled on the Peace Corps, deploys over 400 people annually, and engages volunteers in three months of pre-work, one month in-country, and two months in post-service where they harvest insights for themselves and their business. Ernst & Young’s fellows program is much smaller and focused exclusively on improving small business in Latin America. But its volunteers spend three months in direct service—enough time to personally deliver tangible results. Accenture Development Partnerships operates as a nonprofit housed within a profit-making business. The parent company forgoes its margin and provides pro bono overhead, the client pays a small fee, and the employee takes a salary reduction.

2. Personal development is the #1 benefit cited by companies. My own studies find that global service learning projects can enhance employees’ self-awareness, interpersonal skills, and project management abilities. It can also raise their consciousness about social issues and understandings about how business can creatively contribute to equitable economic development. A study by Chris Marquis of the Harvard Business School found significant increases in the cultural intelligence and emotional resilience of IBMers who participated in global service assignments.

3. People and projects are keys to success. All agreed that selecting the right people and matching them with the right project were critical success factors. On the people side, the companies solicit applications directly from employees as well as nominations from their managers. Only top performers need apply. They then participate in a rigorous screening where social skills are deemed especially important. On the project end, the challenges are to scope the projects within the available time frames and resources and to build local capacity to supervise the work and deliver results. What is needed from volunteers? Not only their technical skills, but also teamwork and the entrepreneurship to make things happen.

4. Partners build bridges between companies and clients. Many of the companies work with nonprofit partners (Digital Opportunity Trust, Endeavor, Australian Business Volunteers, etc.) to identify clients, define projects, and handle placement logistics. According to Kate Ahern, of CDS, “partners like CDS, who have expertise in emerging markets and placing volunteers, can accelerate cross-cultural socialization and provide a ‘soft landing’ for a company in a region where it has a limited business presence.”  Advice to companies: Don’t simply outsource your volunteerism to a placement organization. The real benefit comes from working together with your partners to continuously improve the program, interpret market knowledge, and build local relationships.

5. Pro bono now; profits later. A key point stressed was that service to clients in need is what stirs volunteers and makes any sacrifices incurred all the more worthwhile. The many blog postings and videos produced by volunteers attest to how social service enriched their own identities as next generation leaders and enhanced their connections to their companies. Indeed, often volunteers stay in touch with their clients and continue to offer counsel via email and Skype chats. There can, of course, be real profits from these programs apart from reputational gains and the prospects of better future leadership. Kevin Thompson, who designed IBM’s program, tells of how relationships with a host government, developed over the course of a local service project, led to a million dollar business contract.

Getting Started

GSK, Mars, Dow Corning, and other newbies in attendance talked of trials and triumphs in the midst of launching their programs. Three subjects sparked considerable back-and-forth. First, there are issues with how executives initially perceive global volunteering programs. At one company, for instance, some complained about volunteers going “on vacation” and traveling to “exotic” lands while business was in decline. The counterpoints are that volunteers adopt a local not a tourist lifestyle (in food, housing, etc.) on assignment and work long and demanding hours in resource poor environments. At the same time, there were concerns about top performers being “out of the business” for months a time—a sore point for some operating managers and also a worry for some career-conscious volunteers.

Second, there was discussion of whether or not companies could accommodate working parents or those who did not have the flexibility for a global volunteer assignment. GSK, Accenture, and others offer home-country placements for those employees.

Finally, there were questions about the financial costs versus benefits of global volunteer service. Well compared with expense of sending a future leader to the executive development program of a business school, the costs of supporting a volunteer are modest. But what happens when a volunteer “goes native” and finds service to society preferable to returning a corporate cubicle? That point elicited some knowing glances and reminded all who want to serve society through volunteerism to also be mindful of how they serve society through their everyday business.

CDS Board Member Phil Mirvis is an organizational psychologist and senior research at the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship. His studies and private practice deal with large-scale organizational change, the character of the workforce and workplace, leadership development, and the role of business in society. An advisor to global businesses headquartered on five continents, he has authored nine books including, most recently, Beyond Good Company: Next Generation Corporate Citizenship (with Bradley Googins and Steve Rochlin).

For more information about the Learning from the Practitioners workshop, or to discuss how CDS can develop an International Volunteer/Global Leadership program for your company, please contact Kate Ahern at kahern@cdc.org.