Among other generous gestures, employers are unfreezing their matched employee donation contributions to help heal the country of Haiti, finds a new Society for Human Resources poll.
This is especially promising considering many employers were forced to cut those matched contributions because of a sour economy.
Even though the poll was conducted in mid-February, before the recent earthquakes in Chile and Taiwan, results show U.S. companies are quick to mobilize aid and donation efforts. More than half (52%) of surveyed employers were currently providing assistance with relief efforts to aid victims of the Haiti earthquake disaster, and 7% said their organizations were planning on providing assistance, finds SHRM.
Despite depleted funds, 46% of companies were matching employee contributions via company organized donation programs. Forty-five percent of employers had organized an employee donation program with no company match. Also, 31% were donating supplies, such as food, medicine, and technology to the earthquake survivors.
Promoting goodwill among their employee population, 71% of employers were encouraging their workers to donate individually without company involvement. Sixty-two percent were guiding employees to various agencies that are receiving donations.
Employers stepped up last month, encouraging employees to take action to help the victims in Haiti. This instinctual response speaks volumes about the laudable desire of employers, caught in the mire of a destructive economy, to help those less fortunate than themselves.
