Using CSR to motivate and train staff at VocaLink

Citation

Lombard, D. (2012), "Using CSR to motivate and train staff at VocaLink", Strategic HR Review, Vol. 11 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr.2012.37211aaa.009

Using CSR to motivate and train staff at VocaLink

Article Type: Rewards From: Strategic HR Review, Volume 11, Issue 1

Short case studies and research papers that demonstrate best practice in rewards

HR and OD in today’s market require a strong focus on corporate social responsibility (CSR). As the employment market in Britain begins to stabilize and staff consider becoming more mobile again, it’s critical that organizations work hard to retain employees and demonstrate why their business is one that offers the best opportunities. This weighty task falls on the shoulders of the HR and OD team.

HR and OD leaders must take into account a number of factors that influence staff satisfaction and job fulfillment, from remuneration through to promotion prospects and a clear career path. HR and OD departments have to work closely with the organization’s senior management to ensure they can deliver a rounded package that encompasses all of these elements.

All too often, CSR is consigned to the sidelines when it comes to creating a competitive package and desirable workplace for staff. This is typically due to the misunderstanding that CSR is all about charitable giving and nothing more. In fact, CSR can play a critical role in business, ensuring that the organization is a responsible business to all of its stakeholders, not least its own staff.

Why CSR?

CSR is a priority at VocaLink, a specialist payments partner for banks, corporate customers and government departments. The company processes more than 500 million payments per month and manages a network of over 60,000 ATMs. It is not a multinational organization with a big global footprint. It employs approximately 750 staff across four offices in the UK and Amsterdam. However, VocaLink prides itself on investing in a sophisticated CSR program that has achieved a high level of staff endorsement and delivered tangible business benefits.

VocaLink defines CSR as being committed to managing its business responsibly and building mutually supportive relationships with its staff and the wider community. Its CSR strategy is focused on four key areas: people, marketplace, communities and the environment. At the heart of VocaLink’s culture is the belief that people are VocaLink’s greatest asset. To support this principle, the HR and OD team has a primary objective to “use CSR to nurture, engage and motivate staff.”

Recruiting, retaining and developing the best people are business priorities. As a result, the role of CSR is viewed by HR and OD as a critical factor in VocaLink’s success and the HR and OD department ensures that CSR has a positive effect that goes beyond the community and environment to impact staff professionally and personally.

The HR and OD team leads VocaLink’s drive to be a responsible organization in the eyes of its people. Indeed, CSR is a corporate objective at VocaLink and therefore has an impact on all staff bonus payments. VocaLink measures and communicates this success using the Business in the Community Index, embedding a sustainable way of working throughout the business, ultimately to improve company performance. For example, VocaLink was one of the first UK businesses to sign up to the carbon reduction commitment. This year VocaLink was awarded Bronze status in the Corporate Responsibility Index (Business in the Community, 2011).

The role of CSR in staff motivation and training

To cascade CSR throughout the organization and ensure it has an impact on staff motivation and training, a steering group was formed to create employee-related CSR schemes that map back to the business objectives. This group is supported by a network of CSR champions from across the organization.

To differentiate its approach, everyone at VocaLink has CSR incorporated into their role requirements. It is either related to their job or their personal development aspirations. The HR and OD team has designed and implemented a performance management system that records individuals’ objectives and measures them against the competencies required for their role. The HR team runs performance management training sessions with every staff member to ensure that among other things, employees understand how they can set CSR objectives that further their personal development and contribute to the success of VocaLink. This means that everyone is able to align CSR with the company’s business priorities.

Practical implementations of CSR

For some at VocaLink, their CSR responsibility is to represent their team via the Employees Forum. This forum is made up of people from across the business and provides a platform to review any employee issues, but it also gives the opportunity to suggest companywide initiatives to engage staff.

For example, during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the Employees Forum arranged for all communal areas to have televisions set up showing the games. VocaLink even set up televisions in the areas of the business that are unable to leave their desk duties so that no one missed out. Each department was given a team and staff encouraged to dress in the country colors. This initiative not only created a positive atmosphere and friendly rivalry across departments but, more importantly, it addressed the issue of potential absenteeism and contributed to raising funds for VocaLink’s chosen charities. In fact, VocaLink’s absenteeism is below the industry average.

In other areas, VocaLink is committed to increasing the availability of courses and learning opportunities for staff. The HR and OD department encourages employees to participate in a number of courses, from management training to Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). In 2010, staff participated in over 2,500 training days, an increase of 10 percent from 2009.

A company wide approach

VocaLink also launched a Recognition Portal on its intranet, encouraging staff to recognize colleagues who demonstrate that they uphold corporate values and provide exemplary customer service. Every month one person is selected for each corporate value and entered into the annual Champion of Champions competition with an opportunity to win a significant prize. To date, more than 400 of VocaLink’s 750 employees have been recognized for living the values.

By filtering the importance of CSR through the organization, from top to bottom, VocaLink creates a lot of support for its CSR schemes. Importantly, there is also a process that encourages individuals to feed ideas back up to senior management. The intranet site allows employees to make suggestions about the VocaLink CSR activity. For example, VocaLink publicizes how much it donates through its “fund match” promise for charitable donations and encouraged staff to suggest initiatives to raise money for the Japanese Earthquake fund and Red Nose Day.

Measuring the impact of CSR on the business

To ensure that it can measure the impact of CSR on staff development and workplace wellbeing, VocaLink publishes a CSR report annually. The company also conducts an annual staff survey to measure the impact of CSR on staff learning, development and motivation. Being accountable and achieving measureable business impact through CSR are core strengths to the strategy.

Eight-seven percent of staff felt inspired or motivated by CSR in 2009 and this rose to 94 per cent in 2010. This figure has grown steadily in recent years as VocaLink has strengthened the framework around its CSR activity. It has also been able to increase its overall staff satisfaction levels from 66 percent in 2010 to a half year result of 79 percent in 2011.

As a result of the work the HR and OD team do to support managers and individual employees, VocaLink has achieved the Investors in People (IiP) award. When VocaLink was re-accredited in 2010 it achieved silver status, putting it in the top 2 percent of participating UK organizations.

A continuous process

VocaLink is committed to continual improvement of its corporate social responsibility. For example, as part of its desire to engage and inspire young people, the company will be taking on seven industrial placement students. Part of their role will be a non-compulsory project working with Watford Mencap, a learning disability organization in the UK. It is also an aspiration to launch an apprenticeship program at VocaLink to encourage school leavers to consider their career opportunities.

Overall, the HR and OD department has worked with employees to deliver a CSR strategy that focuses on enabling professional and personal development. This has a proven impact on VocaLink’s business and its local communities.

VocaLink is proud to put CSR at the heart of its business and this is testament to the HR and OD team’s commitment to supporting all staff in realizing the benefits of CSR. Its focus on making sure that every staff member plays a role in CSR and can feed into the strategy that VocaLink takes is critical to the success to date and continuing this momentum through 2011 and beyond.

Debbie LombardBased at VocaLink.

About the author

Debbie Lombard is Director of HR and OD at VocaLink. She is executive sponsor of “Our People,” which demonstrates how VocaLink values the commitment and contribution of its people by promoting a stimulating and engaging workplace culture. Debbie Lombard can be contacted at: info@vocalink.com