2007 Redwoods Audit FINAL-5-12-08

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The Redwoods Group: 2007 Social Audit Presented on May 2, 2008 David Beard and Caroline Whistler Table of Contents Page 2007 Social Audit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Appendix A: Redwoods Social Change Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Appendix B: Burt’s Bees Comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Appendix C: Annual and Quarterly Report Spreadsheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Appendix D: Employee Survey Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 2 2007 Social Audit Introduction Serve Others® is now not only the motto, but the singular mission of The Redwoods Group (TRG), integrating its employee, customer, and community aspects to achieve this purpose. In adopting one social mission as the core of its company ethos, Redwoods stands out as a unique insurance business and an innovative company in the corporate world. Through creating a company foundation funded through the donation of a subsidiary’s stock, Redwoods has shown an exceptional commitment to fulfilling its mission and becoming a leader in corporate giving. Serving Others is now the core of all activities at Redwood -- the new “bottom line” that makes the company great. In light of ...

Sujets

• management
• risk management
• managers

Informations

• Publié par: Nuzong
• Nombre de lectures: 12
• Langue: English

Extrait

 

       

 

The Redwoods Group: 2007 Social Audit         Presented on May 2, 2008                 David Beard and Caroline Whistler

 

 

Table of Contents  

  2007 Social Audit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Appendix A: Redwoods Social Change Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Appendix B: Burts Bees Comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Appendix C: Annual and Quarterly Report Spreadsheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Appendix D: Employee Survey Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  

 

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2007 Social Audit   Introduction   Serve Others® is now not only the motto, but the singular mission of The Redwoods Group (TRG), integrating its employee, customer, and community aspects to achieve this purpose. In adopting one social mission as the core of its company ethos, Redwoods stands out as a unique insurance business and an innovative company in the corporate world. Through creating a company foundation funded through the donation of a subsidiary’s stock, Redwoods has shown an exceptional commitment to fulfilling its mission and becoming a leader in corporate giving. Serving Others is now the core of all activities at Redwood -- the new “bottom line” that makes the company great.   In light of Redwoods’ mission to Serve Others®, the social audit is increasingly important. Redwoods values objective external evaluations of its social mission, which now encompasses all employees, customers and community activities.   The 2007 social audit endeavors to evaluate progress made in social programs over the past year and provide recommendations for the future. 2007 was a break-out year for Redwoods. The company implemented new social programs, such as The Redwoods Group Foundation and Serve Earth, created a public relations position for the first time, and improved in nearly every existing category of giving and service hours. Our recommendations for the future focus on developing consistent, long-term metrics to evaluate the program, increasing employee awareness of certain aspects of programs, and creating a replicable model to share with other socially-responsible companies. In the next year, Redwoods must move from being just a great company to a leader of comparably-sized, socially-responsible companies in the future.   Social Audits and Program Evaluation Methods   A social audit is an in-depth analysis of a company’s overall social model, its social programs, and how employees implement the model. “Social” is a broad term meant to encompass all activities that benefit a company’s employees, customers and community, whether that community be a city, or the entire globe. Social audits achieve their goal through analyzing current initiatives, studying how comparable company programs work, soliciting employee feedback, and compiling other relevant data. Using this information, a social audit can then create program benchmarks in order to measure company strengths, create future goals and provide recommendations. An annual social audit allows a company to assess its impact on customers, employees, and community.   Redwoods’ Social Audit Program Objectives   1) Provide sustainable, effective, and efficient evaluation tools to be used in future social audits   2) Provide feedback for senior management regarding positive results and opportunities for improvement   3) Serve as a basis for communicating Redwoods’ mission and accomplishments to external stakeholders—customers, community organizations, and industry associates.   4) Serve as the basis for communicating Redwoods’ most meaningful results and opportunities to employees, further inspiring their leadership and engagement.

 

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2007 Social Audit   The 2007 Social Audit for The Redw oods Groups is comprised of three parts. The first part of the report provides key results from a company-wide employee survey and from interviews with a few employees who have made significant contributions to the Redwoods’ mission. The second part of the report is an evaluation of new initiatives and accomplishments in the 2007 calendar year. The third part of the report provides a basis for comparing Redwoods’ achievements with other exemplary socially-responsible companies and evaluates the company’s current strengths, with recommendations for the future. Assessment is provided in four specific areas: employee programs, customer programs, community programs, and contributions.   The conclusions included in the Strengths and Recommendations component of the 2007 Social Audit derive from our review of Redwoods and external sources. In addition to Redwoods’ internal data and the employee survey, we relied on data from the 2006 Social Audit for a year-to-year comparison and also data from Burt’s Bees social programs to provide an external comparison. (Appendix B)     Employee Survey Results and Profiles   April 2008 Redwoods’ Employee Survey Results   A survey was sent to all current Redwoods employees regarding the social audit and received a response rate of 64%, up from 56% a year ago. Selected key questions and responses appear below:   Q: Do you draw a connection between Redwoods’ overall mission of Serve Others® and your daily work responsibilities?    82% Yes  18% No   Q: My assessment of the impact of the Redwoods community investment programs on the change in my personal activities (volunteerism and/or contributions)...    40% Big Positive Impact (29% increase from previous year)  91% Big Positive Impact or Some Positive Impact   Selected representative responses to the open-ended sur vey questions include:   Q: My most positive experience or interaction with the Redwoods Community Investment Program in 2007 was ...    Allowing myself to dive into something where ordinarily I would feel that there wouldn't be enough time to do so. I have kids and there are only so many hours in a day. Feeling the support of Redwoods to get involved is very meaningful to me.    Making a difference on a work day and being in contact with real people instead of sitting in front of a computer.    Getting to know my coworkers better in a different environment    This is one of the most amazing corporate initiatives I have experienced in my career. I believe that Redwoods employees are the most engaged employees of any for-profit company in the world.    

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Q: My one most important recommendation, concern, or idea for the Redwoods Community Investment Program is...      I think we do a lot of good as individuals and as a company. A lot of the people in our company don't know the good that their coworkers and the RCO committee are doing. We need to get better at letting them know how and what we are doing.      Consolidating focus to involve more people in trying to accomplish our often "spread-   too-thin" initiatives.      I love this company; I love what we stand for. I hope we find a way to appreciate where each individual is in their giving path. I think we need to become more understanding of employees’ financial situations and judgment for not financially giving to the level that Redwoods might hope we would. We are all trying our best and we are learning, but the pressure to give more money can sometimes be overwhelming. I think the best way to do this is to continue to inspire not pressure   employees to get involved and give. These messages are much different and the response will be much different.   Serving Others: Employee Stories      Furonda Bannerman , an employee of Redwoods since May of 2004, is an example of employees moving from engagement to empowerment through leadership in social programs in TRG. Although she was unsure about the relevance of a 40 hour service requirement to her work when it began, she now believes it is a “good and positive thing” that has inspired her to lead the Redwoods backpack program with Communities in Schools, providing low-income families with food for the weekends. While she did not participate in many service initiatives before Redwoods, Furonda now believes that Serving Others is a key component of all of her work at the company, and has additionally participated in planning MLK events at the office as well.      Susan R. Kochik , a Risk Management Assistant who has been with Redwoods since July of 2006, has been in charge of the employee partnership with St. Baldrick’s for the past 2 years. With leadership from Redwoods employees, St. Baldrick’s has become a major fundraiser in North Carolina, raising nearly $150,000 this year. Susan had limited involvement in service before becoming an employee at Redwoods, and now serves and contributes to over 10 organizations; she is currently considering traveling abroad for the first time to do a service project with the support of Redwoods. Susan says that because of the Redwoods social program “I see lives’ changed, saved, blessed and a contagious attitude of others wanting to serve (now that they have been served),” a testament to the multiplier effect that Redwoods employees have on the places where they serve.      Dan Baum joined Redwoods as a Risk Manager during the 2007 year, and has since become a leader in social programming. He planned the first intern service day with TROSA in 2006 and was instrumental in setting up the first a nnual Corporate Social Responsibility panel at Duke this past fall. Dan also led the 2008 MLK week celebration based on his training with the Center for Race Relations at Duke, providing employees with a chance to visit the Civil Rights museum in Memphis and to share their own anxieties about racial tensions in a company-wide discussion. Dan is an example of organic employee leadership, and his contributions have enhanced Redwoods’ commitment to its own employees as well as their social programming.

 

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2007 Evaluation of Accomplishments   Redwoods instituted numerous programs in 2007, expanding its list of measurable accomplishments from 2006 and supporting its status as a great company. While several measurement tools were utilized from last year, a major component of this year’s social audit was to institute new metrics which could then be tracked yearly to show progress.   Redwoods succeeded in improving results in nearly every category from 2006. Employee Community Service Leave hours, contributions from employees and customer safety training programs have all increased, and customer usage of unsafe 15-passenger vans is down. These are just a few of the improvements in Redwoods social mission over 2007, highlighted in the chart below. The new metrics are especially impressive as they indicate the multiplier effect of Redwoods’ impact on social programs (such as new partnerships formed between two organizations that Redwoods serves). Our evaluation points to the outstanding performance of Redwoods’ social program over the past year, and we want to specifically highlight the following two initiatives as extraordinary accomplishments in 2007:   Focus on new TRG Foundation   One of the major accomplishments of the 2007 year was the formation of The Redw oods Group Foundation (“TRG Foundation”) in July 2007. The CEO and 15 other employee owners of the company decided to donate stock from a subsidiary as a means to fund the TRG Foundation, instead of keeping all of the subsidiary’s profits for themselves. The significance of the TRG Foundation is not just in its unique funding, representing a $3.7 million donation from Redwoods, but also in the fact that it multiplies the giving power of Redwoods by generating income tax-free and acting as a steady source for annual contributions. The TRG Foundation plans to spend approximately $400,000 annually supporting organizations that provide basic human needs to communities and that have a relationship with employees or the company. The TRG Foundation is a cornerstone on Redwoods’ path to fulfilling its mission of Serving Others.   New Public Relations Position   The biggest long-term multiplier effect that TRG could have would be to persuade other companies to adopt some of Redwoods’ groundbreaking social programs. Recognizing this goal, in 2007 TRG hired MJ Pearle for the newly created position of Community Outreach and Public Relations Manager. Since then, Pearle has helped Redwoods win four awards, including the 2007 Corporate Spirit Award from United Way of North Carolina and the 2007 Corporate Social Responsib ility Award from Sustainable North Carolina. Redwoods has also been profiled in both The Raleigh News and Observer and The Triangle Business Journal, and is now looked to as a innovator of social responsibility in the Triangle area.   This new position has no insurance-related responsibilities, working full-time on publicizing the company’s mission to Serve Others®. It is a testament of Redw oods’ commitment to social responsibility that it would create a position completely unrelated to the business service it provides. Redwoods does this in an attempt to share its expertise with the community and other companies of comparable size.    

 

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2007 Accomplishments Employee ENGAGE Programs    3116 Community Service Leave hours, up from 2740 hours in 2006    3822 total hours registered by employees    Employees averaged 30 hours of service time in 2007    91% Employee Volunteer Participation, down from 97% last year    Charitable Match participation: 24.7%    Dollars for Doers Participation: 9.4% Employee Volunteer Fair    Brought 16 non-profit organizations in to create awareness and opportunities     90% participation, and of those who pledged hours 93% followed through (2 nd part according to survey) EDUCATE Awareness Lunch and Learns    4 Sessions: Waterpartners International, “Making Your Philanthropy Matter”- by Brian Elliot, AIDS Awareness with Anita Isaacs, Introduction to Elon Periclean Scholars Program Veteran Service Week    Week of events held to honor veterans including Lunch and Learns and tour visit to American Soldier exhibit Serve Earth   Ran Lunch and Learn series on such issues as local foods,  commuting, and Terrapass from March 2007 through October 2007    Ran employee essay contest with winners published company- wide    Educated employees about benefits of local agriculture and facilitated purchasing food from local farmers Zapatista Awareness Day    Raised awareness of the Zapatista movement and raised money for the Periclean Scholars program and their work with the Zapatistas. EMPOWER Full Healthcare Costs Covered for Lower Paid Employees    Covered for all employees and their children who make $35,000 per year or less    90% of premiums covered for employees making $35,000 to $40,000    Approximately one-third of Redwoods employees fall into these categories    Redwoods will spend an additional $35, 000 in 2007-2008 plan year in covering the remaining premium for eligible employees in these categories   Serve Earth    Completely employee-driven initiative that resulted in Redwoods’ being named the third greenest company in the Triangle    Reimbursed employees for purchasing CFL lighting up to $50, 23 employees took advantage of the reimbursement      Invited wholesale distributor to come and sell bulbs   RCO Reorganization    The Redwoods Community Outreach Committee is reorganizing to move towards a more employee driven structure   7

 

Customer Programs

Community  Programs

 

Weight Watchers    Redwoods will pay for Weight Watchers for any employee and spouse/partner wishing to take advantage of the program    35 employees took advantage of this program and collectively lost 166 pounds in 2007 Employees Inspired to Pursue their Passions    One employee left Redwoods to pursue his passion with Teach for America full-time Camp Safety Training    306 sessions, up from 226 in 2006    20,430 counselors trained, up from 16, 466 in 2006 Camp Safety Training by Interns   Conducted 110 camp training sessions     4 Summer interns trained 5,000 camp c ounselors on safety and risk management Aquatic Safety  99 Sessions, up from 59 in 2006      Redwoods video presentation used in 375 Sessions, up from 54 in   2006    Zero deaths by drowning in TRG Insured Pools ADA Continuing Education    Trained 1,731 attendees during 22 Dental Risk Management Seminars  Donated Oral Cancer Screening Device to promote early   detection education    Redwoods Employee elected co-Chair of the new ADA National Oral Health Literacy Advisory Committee    Redwoods employee spoke at 2007 Sante Fe Group Conference on the dental need and the forecasted shortage of dentists over the next 20 years. JCOs    21 JCOs served in 2007, up from 8 in 2006 Liability    Redwoods customers experience on average a 18% reduction in claims after 2-3 years with a YMCA   Other    Only non-YMCA individual on YMCA USA Aquatics Task Force    Reduced 15-passenger van usage among customers to 9.24%    Began increasing safety of saunas at customer facilities through the addition of sprinklers    Added coverage to 150 new YMCAs    Sent Redwoods safety video to all YMCAs and JCOs, regardless of whether or not they were customers Partner Organizations    Strategic Partnerships- United Way, Interact, Johnson Internship Program, Elon Periclean Scholars Program, Camp Kesem.    Employee Partnerships - St. Baldricks, Frankie Lemmon, Raleigh Rescue Mission, Redwoods Renegade Support Mission, Nickelby Project    7 employees serve on boards of local organizations Interact Partnership   Provided loaned executive as part-time coordinator for first of two  years to help in marketing and business development.   8

 

Partnerships created between other groups through Redwoods    Nickelby Project and First Tee      Interact and Art Therapy Institute      St. Baldricks and Nickelby Project   Elon University’s Periclean Scholars Program    Partnered with students and faculty on global health initiatives    Endowed program through $125,000 commitment    Donated $8,650 to defray student travel costs to Chiapas to work on renovation project, and two computers Campaigns     70% employee participation in 2007 United Way Campaign, up 20% from 2006 and 35% from 2005    28 Employees in United Way and Redwoods Leadership Circles    Loaned staff member through loaned executive programs    Received Chairman’s Award of Excellence for Corporate Involvement & Support for 2006 Campaign Creation of New Public Relations position    MJ Pearle was hired to increase awareness of the Redwoods mission, encourage other businesses to change their business model, and position Redwoods among the targeted audiences as an innovative business leader    Redwoods received 4 awards, was the focus of 6 articles and had 3 speaking engagements News Media Coverage    Received prominent coverage from :    Triangle Business Journal on “the roots of our corporate giving”    Raleigh News and Observer on free health coverage from lower paid employees    Triangle Business Journal on CEO Kevin Trapani and Redwoods’ “engine for social change”    Raleigh News and Observer on the creation of TRG Foundation  Corporate Social Responsibility Seminar    CSR panel in November for 75 attendees with Redwoods, Burt’s Bees and Inspire Pharmaceuticals Operation Sharehouse    Redwoods Employees packaged over 6, 000 meals to be sent to a orphanage in Haiti Redwoods Renegade Support Mission    Adopted 35 soldiers currently serving in Iraq, 50 employees participated     Sent letters and care packages to troops monthly Oral Cancer Detection    Donated Oral Cancer Screening Device to Water Street Medical Dental Clinic in Lancaster, PA Redwoods Intern Service Projects    Interns did 4 service projects up from 2 in 2006, 60 employees involved    Projects- Stop Hunger Now, Make a Wish, Ronald McDonald House, Good Samaritan Inn

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Contributions

Awards

The Redwoods Group Foundation    Donated stock of Dental Insurance subsidiary valued at $3.7 million to endow The Redwoods Group Foundation    Mission: To ensure safe, adequate access to shelter, nutrition, healthcare, education, economic opportunity and a sustainable environment for all God’s children.    Will give out $400,000 per year both locally and globally    First rounds of applications were due by April 15, 2008    Awards to be granted quarterly Total Contributions    $538,835 contributed overall, up from $499,732 in 2006 Dollar 4 Doers    $2,740 dollars given through 274 hours, up from $2,415 given in 2006 Charitable Match Programs    Gave $22,057, down from $25,342 given in 2006 United Way    $1,300 contributed per employee, up 136% from 2006  70% Employee Participation, up 20% from 2006      28 Leadership donors, up 154% from 2006 RCO Contributions    RCO contributed $24,725 to 13 organizations.  48% contributed was local and 52% was global.   Creative Contributions    History of creative contributions from employees in the company      2007 Corporate Spirit Award from United Way of North Carolina    2007 Corporate Social Responsib ility Award from Sustainable North Carolina    3 rd  Most Philanthropic Organization in the Triangle (1 st in size range) from Triangle Business Journal    2007 Chairman’s Award of Excellence for Corporate Involvement and Support from Triangle United Way (2 nd Consecutive Year)    Name Third Greenest Company in the Triangle by Raleigh News and Observer    Officially Certified Carbon Neutral for first time in 2007

    Strengths and Recommendations   In addition to numerous accomplishments in the 2007 year, Redw oods has increased the strengths of its overall social program. Evidence of this is seen through the high employee acceptance of the Serve Others® mission, a very high customer retention rate, and increased employee contributions and volunteer hours. Redwoods has also continued to create a positive employee environment and has many intangible benefits from their 2007 accomplishments, which are outlined in the table below.   We have few recommendations to make for the Redwoods social programs at this point, but do believe that the company should enhance the integration of its social programs, create consistent evaluation metrics and increase employee awareness and leadership in programs. Redwoods should also strive to create a rep licable model for its social programs that can be shared with other for-profit companies of comparable size. This latter recommendation is especially important in light of the performance of social  10

programs and overall giving of the corporate sector. Highlighted below is a brief comparison of how Redwoods’ innovative programs measure up to to those in the insurance and corporate sector, as well as how they compare to more socially responsible companies such as Burt’s Bees.   External Comparison   Comparing Redwoods to other insurance companies is no comparison. For the past two years, Redwoods has given approximately 50% of pretax income (before contributions), while others in the Insurance sector donate approximately .2%. The unoff icial policy of insurance companies is to moderate volatility through diversification, while Redwoods pursues a moderation of volatility through specialization. This is a critical difference in policy because instead of just managing risk as standard insurance companies do, Redwoods seeks to change the behavior of its customers, further serving others through helping its customers’ improve their operating practices.   Redwoods also measures up extremely well against larger corporations in its commitment to Serving Others. Last year, Fortune 500 companies gave away approximately .88% of pre-tax income to social causes, better than the insurance sector, but still much further below Redwoods’ contributions. We cannot emphasize enough how extraordinary Redwoods is to donate one-half of its pre-tax income to social programs, but also how disappointing the numbers are for other companies, considering the income of for-profit businesses. Equally unfortunate is the fact that many of the social and employee programs that Redwoods has implemented would not be considered at another company, highlighting the greater importance of Redwoods’ efforts for changing the ethos of corporate culture.   Comparison to Burt’s Bees   Because of the dearth of social programs at most for-profit businesses, it is more insightful to compare Redwoods with other socially-responsible companies. Please see Appendix B for our external comparison of TRG with another Triangle business, Burt’s Bees   Strengths and Recommendations Table Program Type Strengths Recommendations Employee 2007 KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS    Increase awareness and Programs     82% agree that the company  education of all social has one mission: Serve Others® programs, especially the    Implemented Serve Earth and  charitable match program and became Carbon Neutral in  the Serve Earth program 2007    Increase Community Support     Full Health Care costs covered  Leave opportunities for for lower-paid employees  employees to make a year-long    Increased engagement of  commitment to service employees with volunteer fair   ONGOING STRENGTHS  Increased support for   employee-driven initiatives    Continued to promote a safe office culture through supportive programs and honest dialogue     Investment in employees’ work experience and well-being   11