A Culture that Spreads Outside Company Walls

(From the blog of Dan Cathy, President & COO of Chick-fil-A)

A March 2014 article from FastCompany.com describes a group of CEOs called CECP (Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy) that commission an annual survey of the philanthropic activity of 240 Fortune 500 companies. What their latest surveys confirm is that companies who encourage workers to volunteer in their communities report higher engagement, lower turnover, and more consistent output throughout their workforce. It's important to point out that of the companies surveyed, 70 percent offer paid-release programs for their employees to spend a certain number of workdays serving in their local community. 

The links between happier, more productive workers and the philanthropic record of their companies are not all obvious either. According to UnitedHealth Group who performs the CECP survey each year, outside of the high rate (between 81-87 percent) of workers who say volunteering improved their people skills and relationships, 4 out of 5 workers admit they have a higher opinion of their companies simply because of the high priority they place on community involvement. 

The important lesson for leaders is that we cannot let ourselves be a corporate island. While company culture is critical to every aspect of our business; our business is ultimately about serving those outside of our company walls. In other words, let's always make sure company culture is about creating and improving a community much larger than ourselves.