Jewelry maker steps up communication to convince employees to donate time

Many organizations provide employees with time they can donate to charitable causes. ALEX AND ANI, which makes jewelry and accessories, tracks that time through the same system its uses to track regular paid time off (PTO). Its commitment to employee volunteerism has made ALEX AND ANI the winner in the “Stakeholder-Employee Engagement” category of PR Daily’s 2017 Corporate Social Responsibility Awards.

Giving back has always been at the core of ALEX AND ANI’s culture. “Charity By Design” is the organization’s CSR platform, which among other things enlists employees as ambassadors to the community. 

To further engage employees in its CSR mission, the organization launched “Give Back Time” in 2015,  giving fulltime employees eight paid hours each quarter to volunteer during work hours. 

During the first year, the program logged 179 business days of volunteer time. That wasn’t enough by the organization’s standards, so strategies were developed to encourage employees to take full advantage of the program. 

The effort, which included face-to-face events in the cafeteria and a raffle for employees who used their volunteer time, paid off. In 2016, employees logged 293 working days volunteering, a 61 percent increase over the previous year. ALEX AND ANI plans to improve those numbers in 2017. 

Congratulations to ALEX AND ANI’s Kate Gwiazdowski and Kara Turenne for their work.