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by Ryan Scott

You want your company culture to be one of giving back – and it would be nice if you could get back as much as you give back. ��That is to say, engagement in your employee giving and volunteer programs is just a starting point: you’d also like to see your employees engaged on the clock. You keep hearing that corporate volunteering and giving creates engagement at work, but you remain skeptical.

Well, skeptic be gone. ����presents a test case for how you can have a workforce of engaged employees on and off the clock.

As one of the nation’s largest retailers, ���dz��’s is in a powerful position to leverage its size to create��. The company has sought to engage employees, whom it calls “associates,” while also coordinating volunteer initiatives company wide. ��Coordinating these efforts is just what the organization hopes to do with its��������Dz�������.

Engagement is difficult in any business, but in the world of retail – where employees tend to be more casual and on the lookout for their next gig – it’s a particularly thorny challenge. ��But ���dz��’s has been able to see noticeable results when it comes to both helping out and keeping employees engaged. ��And this has been accomplished primarily through encouraging and trusting the initiative of managers and associates.

“There is a direct correlation on engaged associates,” notes Jon Grosso, EVP and Director of Store Operations. ��“Engaged associates deliver better customer service, we retain them longer, and they drive better sales.” �����dz��’s knows this for a fact because they track their����every year, putting to rest any questions about how engaged employees benefit the organization. “Once you participate and get that feeling of satisfaction, you don’t go back,” says Grosso. ��And this satisfaction doesn’t just end with the completion of a donation drive or a volunteer event. ��“You just forward it and you get involved even more.”

���dz��’s started the program in 2001 and has seen impressive participation, with nearly 700,000 employees volunteering their time at over 100,000 different events. ��That’s more than two million hours of time donated and over $63 million raised for local nonprofits. Still, Grosso��thinks that while the numbers are important, “We also want to humanize what we’re doing.”