Employee Pride: Corporate Responsibility's Greatest Reward

By now, we all know that consumers are influenced by more than just a company’s product – they also want to know that they’re making purchases from brands that are environmentally conscious or give back to the community too. Well, guess who else wants this? Employees.

When I was in search of a new career adventure three years ago, I didn’t just stop at the job description. I wanted to know what kind of culture the company had, how much value they placed on their associates’ contributions to the company and what kind of reputation the company had in their communities. Of course, I wanted a position that aligned with my career objectives, but more importantly, I wanted to work somewhere that I could be proud of and made me happy.

While I like to think I’m an original person, it’s clear that more and more job seekers want the same thing from their company. More and more emphasis is being placed on how an employee feels about the company they work for. After all, we spend the majority of our waking time at work. As a result, companies have more than the bottom line to worry about. According to the 2014 State of Corporate Citizenship survey from the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, more than 80 percent of executives report they’re focused more so than ever on their employees when planning and implementing their corporate citizenship efforts.

In our corporate headquarters’ neighborhood alone, more than 11,000 new jobs will be added to the mix, which means we can’t rest on our “we have great business results” laurels. With our second corporate responsibility report under our belt and plans for our third already on the way, we know this is an opportunity for Alliance Data to truly shape what we need to do to ensure the integrity and reputation of our company. Because there is a big difference between just knowing you’re proud to work somewhere, and having the tangible proof that demonstrates why you’re proud to work somewhere.

It’s not just enough to do great things however, you have to talk about them too. Share your successes and invite employees to be a part of the impact. And then let those employees be your voice and allow them to share their company pride.

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Danielle Ricketts is a Corporate Affairs Specialist at Alliance Data. Her role is the best in the biz, or so she says. Each day she has the opportunity to share with internal and external audiences the amazing efforts Alliance Data is taking to protect data, give back to the community, reward and engage associates, and lessen its impact on the environment.