The prospect of measuring to what degree product is “responsibly” produced or “ethically” traded, for example, can throw many into despair.

There is no need to suffer over the impossibility of measuring corporate citizenship. Sure, ethics and responsibility cannot be measured with a physical gadget the way temperature can with a thermometer. But this does not mean lofty abstract goals cannot be measured. They can. The corporate sector successfully measures thousands of intangible items everyday with great care and precision including one of the most abstract concepts of all: individual happiness or “well-being.” Do we really think that measuring corporate citizenship is beyond our ability? Of course not.

The linchpin to measuring abstract outcomes is the “indicator,” defined as a measurable gauge of something not directly measurable. The way Gallup, a research organization, and Healthway Inc., a health care company, track “well-being” is through a survey. If using self-reported questions as indicators of happiness sounds too simple to be a genuine solution, you might be expecting measurement to be harder than it needs to be. Gallup’s measure has been hailed for its precision and validity by Daniel Kahneman, a Princeton University Nobel laureate economist, and by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of course, survey questions are still just one type of indicator. Mercedes Benz measures the joy of driving different car models by tracking miniscule movements in facial muscles, for example.

We might think we are uncomfortable having indicators reflect the state of progress on a cherished ideal but we live quite happily awash in indicators. We take “the stock market dropped below 900″ to mean that the financial markets are weaker, yet we are referring to the stock price of a small percentage of companies: the S&P 500. Our medical education system counts on straight-A students being the best qualified to become physicians. Yet A’s are mere indicators of material learned. We tax ourselves according to indicators of the worth of our homes. Our lives would be hard to manage without indicators. Corporate citizenship is hard to manage without indicators.

My answer to “how do I start to measure my corporate citizenship program?” is “meet the indicator.” The indicator opens up great possibilities in the world of measurement. Suddenly measuring the “responsibility” of our products and “ethics” of our trading, for example, is no longer daunting. It is a matter of finding the right indicators, as Starbucks did with its Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) Practices.

Next month, I will say to participants in my Measuring and Managing Corporate Citizenship Performance course “whatever you fear can’t be measured, bring it up. We will find a way.” Now, that’s an indicator of my faith in the indicator.

Learn more about Measuring and Managing Corporate Citizenship Performance.

A new Boston College Center report sponsored by Bank of America answers the call for evidence-based guidance on generating high-impact employee volunteering. “Mapping Success in Employee Volunteering: The Drivers of Effectiveness for Employee Volunteering and Giving Programs and Fortune 500 Performance” presents two benchmarks to guide community involvement professionals on achieving high impact through employee volunteering:

• An absolute benchmark corresponding to the “ideal” program: The Drivers of Effectiveness for Employee Volunteering and Giving Programs are composed of the six practices that, according to research, generate community and company impact.
• A relative benchmark corresponding to peer programs: A survey of more than 200 Fortune 500 companies reports collective compliance with the drivers and identifies best practices from high-performing companies such as Aetna, Deloitte, Disney, Eli Lilly, IBM, Kraft, Lockheed Martin, Marriott, McKesson, Symantec, The Estée Lauder Companies and many others.

The report, authored by Center faculty member Bea Boccalandro, finds that the potential of employee volunteers to transform our social and corporate sectors remains largely untapped. Fortune 500 respondent compliance on the drivers, for example, is only 26 percent. The typical employee volunteer program, then, appears to be only a quarter as effective as it could be.

However, said Boccalandro, she is inspired by the constructive response to what could have been taken as sobering news in an already sobering era. “Community involvement managers are so professional that they welcomed the findings – even the parts that did not reflect positively on them.”

According to Boccalandro, as soon as the report became public at the Boston College Center’s conference in San Francisco last March, “My email and voicemail filled with messages from companies around the world on what the drivers taught them about their employee volunteer programs, and how they were putting the new knowledge to use.”

One community involvement manager proudly showed Boccalandro the dozens of sticky notes fanning out of her report, saying “oranges are ‘aha’s,’ greens are next steps, and yellow are food for thought.”

“With responses like this,” says Boccalandro, “the future of employee volunteering indeed looks bright.”

Thanks to the generosity of Bank of America, “Mapping Success in Employee Volunteering” is free to all. 

» Download Mapping Success in Employee Volunteering (pdf; free registration and/or login required)

The Drivers of Effectiveness for Employee Volunteering and Giving Programs Fortune 500 survey, which was commissioned by Bank of America, is being conducted under the auspices of the Boston College Center by Bea Boccalandro, a Center faculty member. The Points of Light Institute and HandsOn Network are also supporting the study.

Center members and others are being asked to participate in the survey. Those who participate will receive, free of charge:

• A confidential benchmarking report of their program relative to the newly developed Drivers of Effectiveness for Employee Volunteering and Giving Programs (an absolute benchmark) as soon as they complete the survey. In late August they will also receive a confidential benchmarking report of their program relative to the Fortune 500 (a relative benchmark).

• The listing of their company in the published report as a supporter of this effort (if desired).
  It takes most people between 30 and 60 minutes to complete the survey. (Participants can start the survey and return at any time; the system will provide a pin for this purpose.)

Company data are strictly confidential. Individual responses will not be shared with anybody outside the core Center research team without a company’s prior permission. Not even the study’s sponsor, Bank of America, will have access to individual company data. Only aggregate figures will be made public.

How to Participate

To participate in the survey, go to www.volunteerbenchmark.com before August 22.  Any questions or concerns can be sent to Bea Boccalandro at bea@veraworks.com, 717.762.9865.

We encourage you to participate in generating the most rigorous benchmark ever produced of employee volunteering and giving programs!