“Brand Response have brought great insight into providing O2 with an innovative way to engage our people.”

The challenge

Today companies are increasingly recognising the importance of employee engagement through volunteering: it impacts on workplace morale, employee retention and ultimately, the company’s bottom line. Engaged employees are happier, work harder and stay longer.

Evidence suggests that, especially younger employees, are seeking a greater sense of purpose and reward in their work.

Deloitte found that 70% of employees between the ages of 21 and 35 strongly favour companies that are committed to the community.

Volunteering allows employees to make a noticeable and measurable impact that the company can then communicate to stakeholders and the communities it serves.

With 300 million customers and 300,000 employees worldwide, O2 (Telefónica) is well placed to act as an engine for economic, technological and social progress wherever it operates. The Together for Good blueprint is O2's sustainability strategy for people and the planet.

The solution

Created by Brand Response with NationBuilder, OurBluePrint enables employees to share skills, volunteer and get more involved in  O2's sustainability strategy.

From small micro-volunteering tasks like recycling and reviewing CVs, to more involved activities like mentoring or skills sharing - OurBluePrint enables O2, Telefónica and Capita employees to share their talents with the broader community.

Sam and David from Brand Response have brought great insight into providing O2 with an innovative way to engage our people. Their design work has been received enthusiastically within the business, and accurately portrayed the spirit of O2. - Clair Bowman, O2

The results

We collaborated deeply with O2 and the National Youth Agency team to design an engaging and straightforward new menu of opportunities across four categories: Young People, Team, Digital and Planet.

11,000 UK employees have been given volunteering opportunities for social and environmental change -- donating tens of thousands of hours.

O2’s sustainability team needed to empower local employee leaders to create a different engagement model with an emphasis on grassroots participation. Local employee values, intentions, and personal stories would constitute the essential drivers of the movement.

We helped design a “snowflake” organising model, similar to the Obama for America model popularised by Marshall Ganz. Whereby each regional champion or Big Thinker would create and oversee an ever-expanding network of volunteers - a snowflake in their locality.

Part of this process has involved introducing a new relational strategy designed by Brand Response. Underpinned by a bespoke engagement ladder using NationBuilder’s point people, custom permission sets and paths features.

This ‘bottom-up’ approach means that local employees feel ownership over their new platform. It also creates a virtuous circle of action that drives ever deeper engagement within the wider employee community.