Employees and the community: how successful companies meet human resource needs through community involvement

This year‐long study has collected such evidence as is available from companies that there is a positive link between corporate community involvement and human resource issues; and devised new ways to manage, monitor and evaluate community involvement so as to identify and then quantify its impact. The study concentrated on skills development and staff motivation, while also addressing recruitment. It has found firm evidence from both companies and individual employees that community involvement can impact these business issues; however, many of the current evaluation techniques lack rigour and the data are often empirical, not confirmed objectively. Techniques to monitor and evaluate include: a competence matrix to identify specific competences which can be developed and a scoring system to measure the development gain; structured questions for staff attitude surveys, which can contribute to a morale index; various methodologies for cost comparison and cost/benefit analysis to evaluate alternatives; a matrix and scoring system to identify and evaluate the contribution to addressing strategic human resource objectives. Concludes that the contribution from community involvement can be best quantified through balanced business performance measurements that go beyond the bottom line.