SEEK: Double Donations in a Year

From the judges, “SEEK has a great overall program; it’s achieved a very strong increase in average donation.”

The SEEK team is justifiably proud of the positive impact it is having on their charity partners, with its Workplace Giving program receiving almost double the donation value in the last 12 months.

This comes just two years after the online employment marketplace relaunched its Workplace Giving program, Small Change, to revive a waning participation rate.  Key to the refresh was gathering employee feedback about the types of charities the program should support. Staff’s donations are made direct from their pay to their choice of ten charities. The company matches all donations dollar for dollar and Small Change now has an impressive 57% of staff signed up.

SEEK’s broader Social Investment strategy includes Small Change as well as staff volunteering, fundraising and SEEK Volunteer – an online hub that has helped 120,000 potential volunteers connect with community organisations. A key focus of the strategy is finding interesting ways to drive employee engagement through Workplace Giving and charity partners.

SEEK’s leaders are active in championing the program – speaking about it at staff meetings, participating in Small Change related sports events and even selling The Big Issue magazine alongside a vendor outside SEEK headquarters.

Involvement in Small Change is further encouraged through consistent messaging interwoven throughout the entire career of an employee – beginning with recruitment and on-boarding, then into daily working life around the office.

Charity partner events are effective in showcasing the impact donations make in the community, such as experiences with the animals from the Lort Smith Animal Hospital through to empowerment sessions with female charity leaders, such as STREAT founder Rebecca Scott and former Alannah & Madeline Foundation CEO, Dr Judith Slocombe.

The SEEK team is clearly motivated by the results being achieved – their payroll donations increased by an additional $60,000 in the last year (while participation rates have stayed relatively stable). The effectiveness of the program was recently highlighted in an employee engagement survey, which revealed 94% of employees believing SEEK’s commitment to social responsibility (Community Support, Volunteering and Small Change) is genuine, and 94% also believing SEEK is making a positive impact on society. (Source, SEEK Insight Employee Engagement Survey October 2016).