Structure:
Executive Summary
1.Introduction:
Scope of the problem
Workplaces today are witnessing changes at unparalleled rates. Employee engagement, is like any other complex issue faced by businesses today. Worldwide, only 15% of adults who work full time are engaged and enthusiastic about their work and workplace (Gallup, 2017). When workers become disengaged, the company’s resources are exhausted, growth is slowed and efforts of everyone in the company are undermined. Such low levels of engaged employees also signify a huge amount of wasted potential and are a barrier to creating highly profitable businesses and cultures around the world.
Also, another problem is that there is lack of reliable data as to what these initiatives and programs can contribute on a business level and its profitability and this is why the engagement level in these programs is so low. So, we believe that organizations should definitely get involved in these programs and then see the representative data and plethora of benefits they will gain with increased engagement.
Like any other intricate issue faced by businesses today, employee engagement comprises many variables that are hard to identify and address. It is believed that the ultimate goal of employee engagement is increased levels of employee well-being and happiness (Gallup, 2017). Today, millennials are the bulk of the workforce across the world and their well-being needs differ significantly from those of the previous generation. Research from Gallup also suggests that millennials today seek “growth”, “purpose” and “self-development” in their work and therefore employers should focus on other well-being practices like non-financial perks and more frequent performance reviews to make them satisfied.
Purpose of the study
The main motivation behind this research is to create a tailored CSR program for well-being and happiness to be “implemented by the Government of Dubai, inside public and private organizations across the U.A.E.”
Due to the favorable geographical location and business conditions, Dubai has become one of the most successful Gulf cities and financial centers in the Middle East (International Electrotechnical Commission, 2017). In order to reinforce Dubai’s regional and global position, the government has launched a variety of initiatives and programs, including winning the right to host Expo 2020, and launching of the Dubai Smart City strategy (Government of Dubai Media Office, 2018). In 2015, the UAE government launched Dubai Plan 2021, which aims to promote the business and living environment in Dubai as well as improve levels of happiness and creativity which leads to empowering people as well as attracting and retaining talent in the workplace. (Investment Corporation of Dubai, 2017).
The UAE also encourages all organizations to incorporate mandatory CSR programs and allows them to test and roll out these programs to increase employee well-being which makes it the ideal place to launch and test these programs.
Methodology:
In our research, we used both primary and secondary sources. Secondary research provided us with valuable insights regarding the top factors of happiness for employees in the workplace and deep knowledge of current CSR programs in different companies in addition to their Pros and Cons. As for the primary research, we started by selecting large multi-national companies with the top CSR programs (as per ranking) and then we targeted employees and employers (Directors/HR) from those companies using our own personal networks as well as LinkedIn and Imperial College Alumni network (Appendix A). We have interviewed 23 individuals and sent out surveys for those who were not available for an interview where we received 9 survey responses (Appendix B) (Appendix C). We mainly focused on targeting individuals from the UK since it is one of the leading countries in the area of CSR activities and from the Middle East to better understand the region’s challenges. Moreover, demographics
We collected valuable input from them regarding their well-being in the workplace, views on the current CSR practices at their firms as well as their suggestions for better programs. Furthermore, we interviewed Academics and Career Coaches from Imperial College London to get a better view on our topic from their perspective as scholars and experienced HR individuals that have extensively worked on CSR programs and understand the barriers against implementing more efficient programs, the challenges faced by employees as well as suggestions to improve the wellbeing in the workplace.
New CSR program:
The new CSR program is tailored based on our research findings and on initiatives and programs that have proved to be successful in the EU and the US as well as the responses of the individuals we interviewed and our own input. However, the program is created with the challenges and opportunities of the UAE in mind and is split into two main areas which are Charity Work and Internal Initiatives.
Charity Work:
Charity programs and activities is one of the main pillars of our new CSR program since it addresses some of the main factors of happiness in the workplace, drives employee engagement and motivation as well as contributes to the greater good of the society.
The new program will be focused on employees’ engagement in those initiatives and on social bonding activities between employees in different positions and departments within the organization rather than focusing solely on financial donation to charity which is traditionally being done by companies. It will also be held more frequently depending on the size of the company and number of employees. Organizations can create social days which constitutes of a full day of giving back to society and participating in activities done several times per year. In case the organization has a low season month, then they can make use of this time to heavily focus on charity work.
Furthermore, in order to motivate the employees to participate in charitable activities we have included an incentive of financial donation by the firm to the charities based on each employee’s contribution. For instance, if an employee is volunteering by training disadvantaged children on using computer software, then the organization will have to donate a certain amount of money for each hour of training done by the employee.
The activities to be pursued by the firm should primarily focus on the employees’ hobbies and preferences where the most prevalent activities will be chosen depending on the size of the firm, such as, cooking, sports, technology, etc. Employees can then voluntarily pick which activity suits them the most from the array of available activities. It also represents a social bonding opportunity where employees with similar interest will be working together in doing what they love as well as giving back to the society.
Organizations should partner with local and regional NGOs in the Middle East because employees can relate to the most and have the experience and capability of running these activities. For example, the nearby war in Syria have had a great impact on the region with more than 5 Million refugees in the Middle East alone and less than 50% of children having access to primary school education (UNHCR, 2017). This represents an opportunity to encourage employees to engage in these activities. For instance, a company trip to a neighboring country with a big number of refugees dedicated for charity work can provide the employees with a sense of purpose and an opportunity to have a greater impact on the lives of many people, all while practicing their hobbies.
Internal Initiatives:
Disconnect Initiative:
More than 80% of our interviewees identified work life balance as a major driver for happiness in the work place. It is apparent that a permanent initiative should be put in place to have a more consistent work-life balance at work. The Disconnect Initiative is aimed at disconnecting employees from work after working hours and on holidays, through banning work phone calls and emails in order to promote a healthier and a more balanced lifestyle. According to a recent Gallup poll done by Witters and Liu (2014), employees who spend more time working outside the office and after office hours are more likely to have high levels of stress than those who don’t. Moreover, Daimler in Germany have even gone further by automatically deleting any emails received to their personnel after working hours and the company thinks that is action is essential for its employees’ work-life balance and productivity (Kellaway, 2014).
Internal Clubs and Societies:
According to The World Bank (2017), more 88% of the population in the UAE are expatriates who come from all corners of the world. The fact that most of the workforce in the UAE are foreigners, it is important to have an internal initiative within the organizations for making it easier for new expats to integrate in the society. Companies should form Internal Clubs and Societies, similar to University Clubs, but based on employees’ preferences which can run in parallel with our proposed Charity Work programs and utilize the same system of choosing hobbies (such as cooking, coding, sports, music, etc.) depending on the size of the organization. Employees can participate in these activities in the weekend and after working hours which eventually leads to greater social bonding and team building with different people who share the same interests and is especially important for expatriates to form friendships and feel welcomed early on in their careers in the UAE.
According to an interview we conducted with the Global Talent Director at AstraZeneca, one additional weekend of social bonding activities at their firm led to a 10% increase in employee referrals which shows the effectiveness of these activities in improving happiness levels of employees which in turn helps the company to retain and attract talents. Apart from the benefits of this initiative, there is a minimal cost on the company side since they are taking place outside of working hours and do not require company funding as they can be operated based on a small membership fee.
Better Communication Channels:
One of the most common suggestions received by our interviewees was to increase communication channels within the organization. Most of our proposed activities improves communication between employees from different departments and positions however we established channels that will be used on a day to day basis.
First, there should be more communication channels with the HR and employees such as informational sessions and regular email updates to keep employees informed of the impact of CSR programs and the impact of their contributions.
Second, the importance of communication in the workplace is more than ever since there are 3 generations currently in the work force including Baby Boomers, Gen-X and Millennials which require better and more efficient communication channels such as internal social networks, chat support, and blogs to reduce the barriers between those parties and improve conflict resolution.
Third, more than 75% of the people we surveyed indicated that they don’t have a clear view of their career path. It is then apparent that an increase number of work-related trainings and skills-based workshops is needed as means of keeping employees updated with the developments in the industry and improving their knowledge and productivity. The new workshops can be implemented as per the table below, where the skills-based workshops are based on the employee’s weaknesses and areas of interest.
The most important aspect about these workshops is to give employees a better direction of their career paths at the firm.
Furthermore, as part of our new program, continuous input and feedback from the employees is required to take significant decisions such as associating their hobbies and interests with activities that they can pursue. According to Lee, Willis and Tian (2018), continuously asking for employees’ feedback and participation in the decisions of the firm is a way of empowering employees and is essential for their development and leads to a stronger trust relationship between both parties.
Implementation of the new CSR program:
The current approach to implementing CSR programs in most companies is Top-Down, where the senior managers and HR decide on which initiatives and activities to pursue without taking into consideration the participation of employees in taking these decisions, who play an essential role in the success of CSR (Naccache, Leca and Ali Kazmi, 2017).
The other approach is a Bottom-Up approach which focuses on the inclusion of employees in the decision-making process, for example having the opportunity to express their opinion about which activity in particular interests them the most and being able to choose the charities that they would like to participate in. This approach is ideal in a perfect world since every opinion will be heard and each employee will be able to pursue his/her own interest. However, given the complexity of businesses and the diverse sizes of companies that can have up to thousands of employees, it is impossible to cater to each employees’ needs.
Therefore, the most optimal and practical approach to implementing CSR programs in organizations is to combine both Top-Down and Bottom-Up approaches. A mixture of both these approaches is essential to strike a balance between the employees’ preferences as well as the management’s vision of the company. To be able to achieve this, the employees need to be periodically surveyed on their interests and hobbies since it is directly related to the type of activity that they will be performing, whether participating in charity work or joining an internal company club. Post the survey, senior managers will go through the most popular employee choices and ensure that the selection of activities is in line with the values of the form to avoid unnecessary risks to the company. These steps are summarized below.
An interesting insight by the Digital and Media Advisor at Shell that can be very effective in multi-national companies, is that installing an IT system and utilizing AI would be beneficial in identifying the causes the company should associate with in every region of its operations, since the needs of the community differ in every country. Technology could be used to assess these as well as the preferences of the employee as to which cause they most identify with, which would in turn make the CSR program more effective and efficient.
Additionally, in order to implement our proposed CSR program effectively, we decided to include a mandatory 15-hour per year of CSR activity by each employee. On average, most companies set aside 10 hours for employees to engage in CSR and we believe that doubling it would burden the employees and defeat our purpose of engagement as well as exhaust the company’s resources and time significantly. (Feldmann et al., 2017)
Therefore, a combination of top down and bottom up approaches, with a 15-hour mandatory of charity work by every employee in the organization would be the most suitable way in which our proposed CSR program can be implemented across organizations.
Questionnaire for hobbies in Appendix??
Monitoring CSR program Impact and Employee Satisfaction
Participation Rates in CSR activities
Measuring Participation rates in CSR activities is one of the most representative indicators of the program’s success and a high rate is key for the program to have a big impact on levels of happiness in the workplace. Employees’ participation in CSR activities is one of the essential factors to improve employees’ engagement, however he/she should not attend those activities just for the sake of fulfilling the company’s mandatory CSR hours. (Rustad and Skar, 2015)
Furthermore, in order to better understand the success of the new CSR program, we should look at two main factors. First, the number of CSR activities attended by employees which is measured by how many activities, such as charity work, internal club events that each employee attend in a specific time (ex. quarter, year). Second, it is important to quantify how many extra hours did each employee spend exceeding the yearly mandatory 15-hour charity work contribution.
Psychological Health of Employees
Factors including stress and high workload are very common in the workplace and directly linked to unhappiness which may even lead to depression and various psychological and health issues (Mckee, 2017). This means that measuring the levels of stress at work is vital for the company to measure the impact of the program in making employees happier. According to the American Institute of Stress (2012), there is a direct relation between high stress levels and absenteeism.
Monitoring absenteeism of employees is one method of measuring employees’ stress levels and thus happiness levels. Companies should utilize exit interviews for employees leaving the firm as a way to identify major health factors, such as high levels of stress or depression, that affected their decision to leave the organization. Also, sudden dips in an employee’s productivity can indicate a possible health related hazard that should be further investigated with the employee in question. Therefore, a low number of employees showing signs of stress based on findings using the tools stated above is a good indicator about the happiness of employees and the success of the program.
Number of Employee Referrals
One of the biggest indicators of the employees’ satisfaction in the workplace is when they refer their friends or people from their social network to work for the same company since they will only recommend it if they are satisfied with their careers. The rate of employee referrals is a powerful tool to be used by management to analyze its patterns and fluctuations at different points in time: before and after implementing the new program, after a big event as well as during relatively inactive CSR activities periods. Higher employees’ referral numbers means that there is an overall higher employee satisfaction and in turn indicates the effectiveness of the new program.
Feedback on CSR Activities
It is necessary to continuously and regularly ask for feedback from employees through the form of surveys after they have engaged in a CSR activity. Employees should be encouraged to submit their feedback about what they like and not like in each activity. Moreover, the management should ensure that the input of employees is taken into consideration to further improve the activities to make them more aligned with employees’ views and opinions. These surveys will serve as another tool for measuring the success and impact of the CSR program.
Sample Model to Monitor Employee Happiness
Guideline to Find the Total Happiness Score/employee:
Step 1: Identify Company Criteria and Extra Points to be given for each additional activity/hour,etc.. done by an employee.
Step 2: Identify a Baseline which represents the minimum amount of activity that the employee has to do to achieve an average score(50/100).
Step 3: Fill the form for each employee and multiply each factor with its correspondent Extra Points and their sum in addition to 50% (in case he/she has done the minimum required activity) represents the Total Score/employee which can then be compared to the proposed Scale.