Episode notes:

• Follow Rich on LinkedIn

• Check out Rocket Social Impact 

• Dig into the survey by America’s Charities

• Get the story on the onslaught of email

• Look back at the General Mills Know Your Girls campaign 

• Read about the blowback from Target’s $1 billion pledge 

• Get the full story of Smokey the Bear

Transcript:

This transcript was automatically generated.

In the early 1900s, the US government was looking for a way to communicate to the public the danger of forest fires. They needed the right message, but they also needed the right messenger someone strong but approachable for kids and families.

In the 1940s, the Forest Service introduced Smokey the Bear and his catchphrase, Only you can prevent forest fires.

Since then, Smokey has become an American icon, and it's hard to overstate his effect on the public's awareness of fire prevention. The forest service credits Smoky's messaging with reducing wildfires from twenty two million acres annually to less than seven million.

There's a good lesson here for CSR professionals tasked with communicating both outwards and upwards about their programs.

You've got to nail the messaging.

Rich Maori helps companies do exactly that. He knows what it takes to craft the right message to resonate with employees and deliver it so it sticks.

Today, he walks through exactly what you need to get your CSR communications right, because your program's success hinges on telling the story in a way that people will actually hear it.

Welcome to Impact Audio. I'm Sam Caplan, Vice President of Social Impact at Submittable.

Joining me today is Rich Maori, CEO and founder of Rocket Social Impact.

Rich has nearly twenty years of experience in CSR communications.

He launched Rocket Social Impact in twenty eighteen, which in part helps companies tie their social impact efforts to tangible business outcomes.

We're really driven around the the mantra of kind of better business, greater good. So to us, it is all about the better business part. And, certainly, when you're in a room with some skeptical leadership of a company who thinks of social impact as more of a soft endeavor, meaning it's not tied to business objectives. It's not aligned with key metrics.

To come in and be able to show them we're able to move the needle on a business, imperative is really a powerful thing and certainly builds our case for why to do more. So for one client, you know, we've got brought in to see if we could better engage their employees around volunteerism.

We went beyond that to show them that those employees, many of them were worked at a call center, which is a huge gym gymnasium sized room with cubicles, and they're on the phone all day. So the turnover rate's quite high. So as is their training budget and their recruitment budget, but we're able to show through our social impact program that these employees are actually staying longer.

In some cases, years longer or certainly months longer. That had a direct impact on saving money for their recruiting and their training and their onboarding.

And suddenly, I was I looked a whole lot handsomer in that meeting because I was able to show kind of some of those business metrics tied to what they thought was really just an employee engagement activity.

To accurately capture the business value of social impact programs, you have to be operating on the right timeline. You can't be implementing programs and then trying to gauge success a month later.

This is where the the company took a little leap of faith saying, let us establish some benchmarks at the beginning and then, you know, eighteen months in. And we needed eighteen months to make sure we were really getting the program with some momentum. Six months in would have been too short. And, candidly, after eighteen months, we may have had a different type of leadership or or client there.

So because things move quickly in the in the business world. So eighteen months felt right to us, and we were able to go back. And after surveying the same employees the first time, went back the second time and showed ticks upward of this is a place I wanna work. This is a place I'd recommend.

This is, you know, the culture is something that, you know, appeals to me, and I'm more likely to stay here. And then using those, we have actually tracked employees who said these things so then we could show that they did actually stay longer.

To get your CSR communication right, you've got to identify the core audience you're trying to reach. Over the past few years, there's been a big shift in who companies see in that role.

Before COVID, when we asked clients who the stakeholders are, they would initially say consumers, our consumer. And, generally, that was women twenty four to forty four, and we would create programs tied to that. After COVID, it's employees. So across the board, when we talk to companies, they're like, we want our employees. That's the priority audience. So we shifted our communication to better, you know, align with that and and better hit those employees.

And what companies want is they want their employees to know what they're doing, how they can get involved, and and certainly the impacts of their involvement.

Once they zero in on employees, many companies don't stop to think about how to deliver CSR messaging in a unique way. Often, they communicate it how they would any other company update.

We call it a one and done, meaning they send out one email from the CEO and kinda go, alright. Well, it's from the CEO. Everyone must pay attention.

And as we talk to employees in focus groups and we look at data from surveys, no slide to your CEO, but they're deleting it. They're just not paying attention to it. So, generally, it to do well with your internal communication, be it HR or what we're talking about today, social impact, there needs to be kinda consistency, and there needs to be a a variety of ways to reach them, different channels from, say, Slack to break room to managers talking about it to champions around social impact talking about kind of a a holistic approach versus, hey. We're gonna send out one email a month about volunteers and opportunities. It just doesn't, it doesn't have the traction that that I think most folks are looking for.

According to a recent survey from America's Charities, seventy one percent of employees say they want a work culture that's supportive of giving and volunteering.

It's easy to think that level of enthusiasm will automatically translate into engagement. But the truth is, even if people are primed for the message, CSR communications often don't cut through the noise.

They're getting bombarded with a lot of internal messages.

We did a quick survey with one client, of their employees. They were receiving a hundred and forty internal emails a day. So they're getting bombarded from their boss, from their department, from HR. And then here comes an email from the CSR team saying, hey.

Do you wanna volunteer? And it it's just not breaking through all that. So there really is a competition for mindshare, getting your employees to pay attention because they have so many other challenges. That's one reason.

The second is we have a more diverse workplace, so a lot more remote employees, and that presents a challenge. They are not seeing kind of the messages in the break room. They are not bumping into some of their colleagues in the in the hallway to learn more. So it is becoming they're harder to reach, and so that requires us to create more of a a different kind of communication toolbox, if you will.

The metaphorical toolbox Rich and his team have created is to help CSR professionals make sure their messaging has all the components it needs to be successful. The first tool in that toolbox is a box of crayons.

Here's a typical kind of email or phone call I'll get. Hey. We're giving away ten million dollars a year through our social impact endeavors around social causes or sustainability causes. And we just did our latest employee survey, and only twenty percent of employees know this. What do I do? So it's like, alright. The first thing we do is a quick, obviously, assessment of what are you saying and where is it what channels are you using.

Nine times out of ten, the messaging they're pushing out is a little bland.

And this is where I call, like, we have to kinda come in and tell them the baby's a little ugly in terms of what they think is really working might not be as as effective as they think it is. So that kind of truth to power moment where we come in and say, look.

The messaging's bland, and it's long.

You know, you've probably seen in press releases boilerplates of the company's philanthropic and the efforts that are, like, you know, this long.

We're trying to get to boilerplates that are a sentence, maybe two tops. It's almost communicating almost like a in a telegram type style. Very clear, very short. Short is powerful. Short does not mean, you know, you're cutting corners here. Short is actually harder, but shorter can be more memorable.

So first thing we do is really look at the messaging.

Every rocketeer on their deck desk has a box of twenty sixty four Crayolas with the cool sharpener in the back. You remember those?

What it's meant to signify is we need to communicate in bolder, newer colors, if you will. Black and white or just even the primary colors won't do it anymore. So, increasingly, it's shorter, more colorful, powerful sentences that strong string together creates a a narrative that really should stand out a bit more for your audiences, be it employees or a consumer, and leadership as well.

Once you have that box of colors to create something unique, you also need to make sure it resonates emotionally. That's where the second tool comes in, a box of tissues.

Yeah. The Kleenex for emotion.

People remember emotive stories sixty percent more than they do kind of data driven stories. So increasingly and there's plenty of emotion in the in the social impact work we do. It's a matter of pulling it out and really highlighting specific employees, specific beneficiaries or organizations, and really kinda telling their story around social impact. So it can be move you to tears. It could use humor. You know, General Mills launched a campaign called know your girls.

It's around breast cancer awareness.

Little tongue in cheek, but it got attention because, you know, it kinda touched on that that more humorous aspect of things. So increasingly adding some humor or excuse me, humor or some emotion to your messaging. And I just don't mean saying we're gonna put the word hope in here. You know, it's gotta be a little bit more than that. But really driving back to that emotion, ideally, we're trying to move people, and adding emotion to that obviously does that, and that's been proven time and time again. So having a box of Kleenex there is to remind you to add the emotion into not just your messaging, but the stories you wanna tell.

Powerful messaging has to be built on real outcomes where you run the risk of coming across as inauthentic. The next tool on the box is a tape measure, which represents impact measurement.

As folks get a little more cynical around social impact, you know, research shows that folks aren't really paying attention to your aspirational messages of here's what we we intend to do. They pay far more attention, I think sixty nine percent, to what your impacts are. And those impacts can be outcomes or outputs. And, generally, most companies are very good at outputs, number of employee hours, dollars donated, number of grantees.

The outcomes are harder, and they're more longitudinal, meaning that we're have we changed the literacy rate? Are people now through General Mills' program, are women now more aware of and and doing things like breast cancer screenings based on there? So we're trying to get to that.

But while this goes to it is stakeholders are a little more cynical of these declarations of how much money companies are giving and really wanna see the impact.

What are you doing to move the needle? How many people have you've reached and what's been the outcome? So when you're able to show that and so the the lowly infographic is is really taking, getting it it's it's due these days. We're using a lot more of those kind of as a easy way to show data and in an engaging way. And so that's really why we think the tape measure is important in your your communications toolbox so you can show folks what that looks like. And there's a variety of ways you can do it. It doesn't have to be an infographic, but, we have found that that's probably the easiest way of doing it.

In this day and age, it's easy for people to have tunnel vision when it comes to the mechanics of connecting with employees.

Their inbox isn't the only place to find it. That's what the final tool, a Swiss army knife, can help solve.

Swiss army knife. And you might consider why do you need that? Well, back to my point earlier, but there's numerous ways you can reach an employee or reach any stakeholder, actually. And it doesn't have to be a press release, and that's used to be what we do. We do a press release, send it out. No more press releases.

But so the the Swiss army knife is really emblematic of the different tools you can use to reach and engage your audiences. What we're talking about today is employees.

So what that means, like, is we've been creating a lot more quizzes and trivia and gaming, certificates.

For one client, we created a little emoji that you got to put on your email signature if you took a social impact quiz, that the company was doing internally. So it's a variety of different ways you can reach them, and that's what the the Swiss army knife is supposed to say. There's just not one tool you're gonna use, but several tools.

Before you break out the toolbox, it's worth taking a moment for some self reflection. Because to craft authentic resonant messaging, the first step is looking inward at what you've already built and being brutally honest about whether it's working.

I think first thing I would do is take them get that mirror out. Maybe that should be in the toolbox and and do a little self reflection. Is this are we hitting and reaching our audience, be it consumer or, in this case, employees?

And if not, why not? And getting a little curious and having even your comms team do a a quick assessment of your messaging, or an outside party like us come in, and and we do sometimes for free. We'll just take a look at it and go, it it's not bad. You don't need to blow it up.

Here's some small things. But that first thing of of checking in with yourself and seeing you know, is what we're saying clear and actionable? Are we using a variety of ways to do it, not just one? And are we trying to reach employees where they are?

So if they are on the plant floor, how do you reach them in a different way? And then showing up at the most relevant times. So those are the four things, and it starts with doing that quick assessment of, hey.

We could how could we improve this?

Employees who are not behind computers all day, the ones whose job take them out on the floor or into the field, can be notoriously difficult to reach. By self reflecting, then using Rich's toolbox, you can come up with some creative ways to reach out to these employees on their terms.

One of the number one things we get request wise is, hey. We have a manufacturing plant, thousands of employees on the plant floor. How do we engage them with volunteers? And they may have two jobs as well. So, you know, they're not potentially even looking to volunteer, but we need to reach and talk to them about what we're doing.

So we do have to get creative. For one client, we sent postcards to every employee's home. Old school postcards, they still exist, and that was quite effective.

Another one, we we trained managers because they are really the conduit to information for plant employees, and really train them, incentivize them, and rewarded them for their work in terms of communicating down social impact.

What we do know is posters in the break room, while nice, aren't the thing. It takes a combination of things. So, leadership, again, that middle manager is very important. We call them the Michael Scotts of the world. We're trying to reach those type of folks who can communicate our message down to those hard to reach employees.

Even messaging on in the on the paycheck, in the little line down there, is an opportunity.

Working with HR to figure out how are other ways that you're reaching those plant employees, off grid employees if you want to call them that. You know, how do HR how do you reach them, and how can we kind of piggyback on or leverage something similar? So that's another approach we've used is working with their HR team there.

Another client, we put little flyers under the windshields of all their employees sitting in the parking lot. And we had a poor intern run out there with, you know, like, a thousand things and put them in.

You know? And we found certainly some on the ground afterwards. I get it. But it was to try to break through a little, show a little different way of trying to reach folks versus, email, which they're they're not looking at because they're not on computers.

Some companies do text to their own employees. Some do not. So there's always kind of an issue there. So I know these are kind of maybe off the wall ideas, but they actually are effective. They're very cost effective as well.

And that's that's ultimately what we're looking for. We're not saying you have to go create a ten thousand dollar widget to communicate with your planned employees. There are some low hanging ways to do it that don't cost you anything.

There's an impulse sometimes in CSR to tell a polished story, to gloss over the complexities and difficulties of social impact. But people know better. They don't want to be pandered to. They want real, authentic stories. It's important to keep in mind that the point of the toolbox is to build a message that's meaningful and that people can believe in.

We get brought in a lot to complement the corporate communications team for that very reason. Sometimes they're like, hey. We don't know how to talk about social impact in the in the the appropriate authentic way. Sometimes they don't have bandwidth, as well. When they do have bandwidth and they do show interest and we get brought in to kinda say, teach them, it really does boil down to some things of being authentic. You know, not making claims you can't back up.

There is research showing and consumers are and we'll throw employees in there. They wanna know where you are in the journey. They don't expect you to have it all solved. But if you're kind of transparent of where you are on this journey and what what have been challenges, they find that far more authentic.

Now when we share that with corporate communications teams, they're like, no. We don't wanna talk about bad news. They're like, it's not bad news, but you're bringing them along on the journey. So transparency, authenticity, meaning telling the story from the lens of the participant, be it employee or even the beneficiary who's receiving, you know, the support from the company.

Those are really what stick in terms of a memorable message and story that sticks with the, employee or the consumer, kinda whoever you're telling the story to.

It's a little bit of an, not how corp comm folks are trained, and I I was one. So I I know that. And you're trying to kinda spin things and make it look the best. And for social impact, it's okay not, you know, to show some of the warts regarding what you're doing and some of the challenges we're doing.

It makes it more authentic. And through all our research, anecdotally, as well as quantitatively, that works better than kinda slickness. What I mean by that is sharing out kind of here's our big goal, but there's no details behind it. Or we've given a billion dollars, but there's not a whole lot behind it.

One of my favorite, stories is the target announced you know, I think it was a billion dollar endeavor around education.

And one of the first headlines was in the Chronicle Philanthropy saying, they've given a billion dollars, but so what? Kind of where's the impact? Where's the plan to do this? And, I think that speaks to not getting caught up in a philanthropic arms race of who's giving the most, but really talking about what's your plan, where are you on that journey, what have you learned, and and what are you kind of doing to improve?

Letting people see behind the scenes is so important, and it highlights the reality of social impact work. It's a journey, and it's only ever one piece of the broader company story.

No. This is hard, and I think we recognize this. A lot of frustration for our clients is they have to, quote, unquote, wait in line in terms of, hey. We'd like to be on our social media feed, but the company's trying to do business and promote business related posts.

And what we try to say is this is business related posts. This is not soft stuff. So that's a frustration, and we try to we increasingly brought in to kinda make the case why this aligns with the overall narrative that the company is trying to push out, be it its reputation or its products or what have you. But the so I I just wanna acknowledge it's I said here are the five things to throw in your toolbox and and problem solve, and it's not.

It takes some change, internally. Certainly, if you have a comms team that is shorthanded or doesn't have a lot of prioritization for this work, is certainly trying to find a champion at the leadership level who can be a champion for you to communicate this internally.

Employee engagement and CSR has a huge impact on whether programs are effective, so it's worth taking the extra time to get your messaging strategy dialed in. If you're trying to craft or retool your CSR communications based on Rich's advice, I'd start with these steps.

Reflect on what you have in place now.

Identify your core audience and how you can better reach them. Use the toolbox to craft messaging that will resonate.

And find the larger story that your CSR program sits within.

And of course, there's always room to evolve.

Look at Smokey the Bear. Over the years, he's transformed to reflect a deeper, more complex understanding of fire's environmental impact.

His slogan was updated in two thousand and one, shifting from forest fire to wildfire as a nod to the ways fire can be, under the right circumstances, an ecologically positive force.

Getting your message right doesn't mean you'll be saying the same thing forever. It means you'll have the lines of communication open. So when you need to shift your message, people will actually be listening.

That's all from me today. Thanks for tuning in to Impact Audio, produced by your friends at Submittable. Until next time.