Measuring impact

An audience member asked how companies quantify their engagement efforts.

While none of the panelists had a clear answer, Raymond acknowledged that it was hard to connect Life Technologies’ employee engagement “Do One Thing” program with tangible results.

"So we fall [back] on measures like our standing on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, our energy, waste and water metrics, etc.," she said.

For HP, Braunwalder said, measurement comes from impressions for webcasts, number of attendees at events, feedback and survey responses. Alexander said that the methods depends on what each company decides it wants to do.

“Once we are able to show that CSR is driving employee engagement, that was the solidifying moment in terms of measurement," he said.

The big picture

When does employee engagement fit in with regard to the big sustainability strategy? For Life Technologies, Raymond offered that while the company's sustainability efforts started in 2004, the engagement piece has constantly evolved through the years.

“As our strategy scaled up, so did the organization,” she said. “But then we hit a plateau. Our green teams across 52 facilities were celebrating Earth Day with local events and focusing too much on fun, light event-driven exercises. We needed more and realized that we needed to make these initiatives much more meaningful," she said.

So in 2009, Life partnered with Saatchi & Saatchi S to start the Do One Thing campaign. "Because we were leading with the environment, we were hitting only so many employees. With Do One Thing, that restriction lifted and suddenly sustainability became much more actionable," she said.

“The campaign was relatable and repeatable,” she said. The campaign is new and is still in a testing phase, she added.