Humana’s CSR Report Highlights Integrated Strategy and Volunteer Program

Volunteer programs are a key element of an integrated corporate social responsibility strategy.

They prove that a company is taking social responsibility seriously. Rather than treating CSR like an isolated sector, a for-profit with a volunteer program actively engages employees, consumers and stakeholders alike. It sees CSR as an essential strategy to be incorporated into every aspect of its business.

VolunteerMatch encourages our clients, partners and members of the community to view CSR in this light. So we’re really excited about the 2010 & 2011 CSR report that Humana, one of our clients, just released!

The health insurance company has recently released Well-Being Starts With Us, a summary of the company’s CSR efforts over the last two years.

By focusing on its comprehensive CSR policies, Humana is setting a great example for future social responsibility and volunteerism reporting. Well-Being Starts With Us provides a transparent outline of Humana’s CSR goals, initiatives and achievements, including its volunteerism efforts.

Humana’s three-pronged CSR platform of Healthy People, Healthy Planet, Healthy Performance aims to promote enterprise-wide healthy choices and well-being. We think it’s an excellent example of an integrated and successful CSR strategy with a volunteer component.

Check out these highlights from Humana’s CSR report:

• Between October 2007 and December 2011, the The Humana Volunteer Network has enabled employees to volunteer more than 214,000 hours at 3,500 nonprofits.

• Humana recognizes employee volunteers with the Spirit of Philanthropy Award, the Dollars 4 Doers Drawing, the Humana Day of Service Drawing and Humana Volunteer of the Year Award. In addition to personally acknowledging associates’  service, these awards also enable the winner to select a nonprofit for a Humana Foundation grant.

• The Humana Volunteer Fellowship allows five selected fellows to volunteer full-time, with pay and benefits, for four weeks at Home of the Innocents, a Louisville nonprofit benefiting vulnerable children and their families. The Volunteer Fellowship allows selected associates to exercise and develop their professional skills in a volunteer environment.

• Humana offers four network resource groups for employees with common interests, experiences or backgrounds. Recently, the African-American network resource group spent five months reading to students at Wellington Elementary School through the Every 1 Reads Program!

• Associates enrolled in a Humana health plans, as well as their families, are rewarded for healthy choices with awarded points redeemable for purchases. This program, called HumanaVitality, provides participants with resources and programs in health coaching, stress relief, quitting smoking and other efforts related to employee well-being.

• Through its partnership with national nonprofit KaBOOM!, Humana has helped build multigenerational playgrounds in eleven cities around the country, providing opportunities for play and exercise.

Well-Being Starts With Us proves why it’s important to include volunteerism when reporting your CSR efforts. Volunteer programs demonstrate your company’s commitment to a fully incorporated CSR strategy with engaged employees, consumers, stakeholders and communities.

Check out the report here, and read more about Humana’s efforts here.

Read more about VolunteerMatch clients and corporate tools here.