Reward insight
The business case for payroll giving
How payroll giving can help companies thrive
T he ability to measure the value that an organisation’s corporate social responsibility policy delivers to the bottom line has been the quest of researchers for over three decades. However, Jon Savage, head of people management at leading toy retailer The Entertainer, says all the evidence points to the fact that engaging your employees, suppliers and even your customers in charitable giving creates a virtuous circle from which everyone benefits. The Entertainer launched a payroll giving scheme in 2011 when it had 800 staff; now it employs 1,250 across 107 stores. The company achieved a Payroll Giving Gold Quality Mark (10% minimum participation) in the first year, 30% in 2012/13 and 41% by 2014/15. (The current average uptake in any organisation that implements a scheme is 6%.) The Entertainer’s success has been due to total commitment from the business owner, a constant review of activity and the development of creative tactics to increase uptake including a rebranding of the scheme in 2015 with a new strapline ‘Join our community of workplace givers’. Jon says “The teams see payroll giving as a part of their benefits. The fact they can link work and supporting charity together creates a feel-good factor as does the common sense of purpose as the percentage of givers grows over time. It’s important to communicate that well so teams feel inspired. We have asked employees to put together testimonials and talk at conferences about their personal causes and it’s really clear that the link between work and giving creates a positive feeling and encourages staff to express and reflect something personal that’s really important to them in their
lives. We have also won awards for our payroll giving promotional activity which provides a great boost to everyone in the company. “The sign up process is simple, the payroll process is straight forward and once the payments are up and running the charities benefit immediately from a regular income stream and don’t have to worry about gift aid as the tax relief is all taken care of at source. We see a lot of smaller local charities being supported by employees and for them this is a fantastic and reliable way of fundraising to help them deliver their good work. “More and more employees want to see their employer doing something that supports the wider community. We have chosen to 100% match our employee donations so that creates a feeling of collaboration and engagement with our givers as well as a fantastic incentive to sign up. We make a point of shouting about our community work as we tithe 10% of our annual profit to good causes. Payroll giving and the charity whip around (which donates the pennies from monthly pay to charity) allow the team members, especially in our stores, to feel part of something bigger and that the company is doing everything it can to support charitable causes. It creates a sense of togetherness which benefits other parts of the business e.g. service and sales. “It’s hugely important in attracting the best staff. Increasingly candidates place importance on working for companies with the right ethos. Our retention of staff is also very high which in turn results in a more experienced team and consistency in store which helps build customer relationships, which is vital when your store is in the heart of the community.
It also saves money on recruitment and training – although we do give out a lot of long-service awards! “We make a real point of promoting our payroll giving scheme on our careers pages, in our recruitment documents and in our interviews. We get a great response and some really positive feedback from candidates about this. They like the idea that the company is committed to putting something back. It proves conclusively that candidates are making choices about who they want to work for with this in mind. “It goes without saying that if your teams feel good and feel positive that reflects in service. There are a number of different influences on customer service but having a compelling and engaging benefits offering makes staff feel good and behave differently. The togetherness piece absolutely drives good service and payroll giving is playing an important part in delivering that feeling. “We receive lots of emails about the company’s stance on giving and being generous. We use Pennies as a means of supporting charities via customer purchases, which allows customers to round up their purchases to the nearest pound and give the extra amount to charity and our customers have raised over £1 million this way. But it’s surprising how all of our other charitable activities are recognised by customers and helps to show that the business is ethical and wants to do business in the right way. “It’s no coincidence that the harder we work at our charitable giving the more the business thrives.” n The National Payroll Giving Excellence Awards are free to enter www.payrollgivingawards.co.uk .
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Issue 23 | September 2016
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
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