Corporate Social Responsibility: Pitney Bowes' Pride
July 07, 2008
At Pitney Bowes, pride is considered a strategic asset
By Leo Jakobson
When Amy Corn first accepted a job as an attorney at Pitney Bowes, then a Stamford, Conn.–based maker of postage machines, she didn't plan to have a long tenure at the company. "I thought I'd work here one year and then get the job I really wanted," she recalls. "I did not want to be the first woman in a department full of white guys." That was 25 years ago.
Today, she is vice president, secretary and chief governance officer of the firm, which, while still based in Stamford, has grown into a multinational specializing in document management systems, with annual revenues of $6.3 billion.
She's one of many employees who found themselves unexpectedly loyal to the company. Johnna Torsone, senior vice president and chief human resources officer, was a partner at a New York law firm before joining Pitney Bowes. "I had other options for more money. But when I met the CEO, he asked me what I would advise if something was legal but not right. That was a moment of clarity for me. That's part of why I came here and stayed."
Corporate social responsibility is a catchall phrase that brings together a wide variety of corporate practices like corporate volunteerism and philanthropy, wellness and work/life balance, corporate ethics and diversity. Which is to say, things that do not, at first glance, have anything to do with the bottom line. Except that they do.
While millennials are getting a reputation for putting more stock in prospective employers' ethics, along with issues like environmental standards and work/life balance, "people of all generations want to be associated with a company they can be proud of," says Torsone. "People like to work for a company they can trust and rely on. When that is absent is when it is most telling. Pay is important, but it is not right up there with what keeps [employees] bound to a company and willing to give their effort: Pride in that company, but also pride in what you do."
She points to a study by New York–based consulting firm Katzenbach Partners that argues that not only is pride more powerful than money, it is the motivational force that drives individuals and companies to excel. Indeed, the firm calls corporate pride "a strategic asset."
Pitney Bowes certainly pays attention to its engagement surveys and expects its managers to do the same, says Corn. "We ask our managers each year to get together with their employees to see how they can improve their [engagement] scores," she adds. "We want people to like to work here."
In fact the company puts a strong emphasis on training managers to focus on and improve engagement, and tracks the results. We have annual enterprise goals," says Torsone. These are in three areas: customer-focused, financial and employee-focused. The employee-focused goals include employee engagement scores. "These goals form the basis of the annual bonus pool."
Volunteerism and diversity and work/life balance are all very nice, and they are certainly good for morale and for engagement and even for the bottom line. But in some ways, the most important part of corporate social responsibility is running an ethical business—one that can be trusted by customers and investors and partners.
Trust in the Age of Enron
"You might think it's a given that people are honest, but investors want to hear it," says Amy Corn. "It's not just that corporate responsibility is right, our constituents expect and demand it. Not just our customers but our employees; not just our employees but our investors; and not just individual investors but institutional investors. Trust is vital to us."
Pointing to the corporate scandals of the past few years at companies such as Tyco and Enron, Corn adds, "There was so much outrage. If we can't earn [people's trust], our business will suffer."
That is not just rhetoric, or even keeping an eye on the long-term future. Pitney Bowes' original core business, dating back 88 years, is manufacturing postage meters. That makes it, essentially, a franchiser of the U.S. Postal Service. "We are trusted to be a revenue collector of billions of dollars annually," says Torsone. "That drove the [ethical] culture."
 Walking the Walk
One way Pitney Bowes addresses the issue of ethics is the makeup of its board of directors. Cozy, insider-laden boards were a component of many recent corporate scandals. So Corn, who is secretary to the board, notes that Pitney Bowes has only two insiders—corporate executives—on its board; the other 12 are independent. "We have published the e-mail addresses of the lead independent director and the chair of the audit committee," she says. "Anyone can send them an e-mail."
With Wall Street and the government increasingly focused on good governance, really highly qualified candidates for the board are in increasingly high demand. "We were competing for one candidate, and she said ethics won it for us," Corn says.
Another way Pitney Bowes addresses it is with an aggressive ethics policy. Aside from the written policy, the company has a global hotline, in local languages, available to any employee around the world with an ethical question.
Still, Corn admits that exporting its values to distribution partners in some parts of the world, where values and normal standards of conduct are different, can be a challenge. "This is a subject of conduct training all over the world," Corn says. "We get to local populations any way we have to. This is the most fundamental requirement."
It is an issue that "plays out differently in different cultures," Torsone says, "but we have core guidelines. These are non-negotiable, and we are very clear about that right up front."
Considering that Pitney Bowes has acquired 85 firms since 2008, at a cost of some $2.5 billion, the company has got some experience establishing ethical guidelines. But as we said earlier, there's a lot more to being a good corporate citizen than following the law, or even living up to its spirit. Here's a look at some endeavors.
Diversity from the Top
Corporate diversity is not just an altruistic policy, Corn says. "We want to attract the best talent and we want them to feel comfortable here, so we get the benefit of their talent." And corporate social responsibility plays a big part in that, says Corn. She points to the competition for independent board candidates as an example.
Pitney Bowes' 14-person board of directors includes three women and two African-American men, which puts it well above many other large companies. "Diversity in the board has always been very important," says Corn, noting that this means, "diversity of what they bring" and not just race or gender. "We have entrepreneurs, not just public company executives," she says. "Different directors bring something different to the board."
Health/Wellness
It's impossible to walk through the rambling, open and airy new headquarters building Pitney Bowes has built, with natural sunlight pouring in everywhere, and not conclude that this is a company that puts money into treating its employees well.
But then you start to see the walking paths laid out in the building and outside through the leafy campus, or stop into the employee cafeteria and see that the food is not only fresh and well-prepared, but that the already subsidized prices are lower for the many healthy items on offer than for the fatty or fried ones. This is a company where the chairman ordered candy bars taken away from the checkout line and put on the bottom rack of a shelf—available, but decidedly not in the impulse-purchase-friendly spot that supermarkets, delis and just about any retailer that sells food have found so lucrative over the years.
But that sort of thing only scratches the surface, argues Dr. Brent Pawlecki, the corporate medical director and an occupational medicine specialist. The company has built what it calls a "culture of health" that, he says, "helps employees live in a healthy way to maintain their health and prevent disease."
There are many aspects to this program, but at its core is a philosophy of using the carrot rather than the stick. Attitudes like presenteeism—coming in when you're sick, ineffective and contagious, to look as if you're a dedicated employee—are discouraged; Health Risk Assessment surveys and participation in healthy activities like an exercise program are backed by incentives in the form of dollars in a Health Savings Account; an on-site gym costs just enough to make employees feel that they're paying for it and should use it; an online Health Care University provides information on nearly any health care topic, and the doctors, nurses and nutritionists staffing on-site clinics at seven Pitney Bowes campuses do the same.
In 2002, Pitney Bowes decided to try cutting or eliminating the cost of managing its top-three drivers of health care costs: diabetes, asthma and cardiovascular disease, Pawlicki says. While some companies are firing smokers, Pitney Bowes made drug co-payments cheaper, offered free support programs like smoking cessation—complete with free Nicorette gum—and Weight Watchers. "Consultants said our costs would go through the roof," Dr. Pawlicki recalls. In fact, he says, "we cut our costs by eight percent for the treatment of employees living with diabetes, and saved sixteen percent for those with asthma. Additional benefits were realized when you factor in absenteeism, productivity and disability claims, as well as the overall health of our employees."
The driver of all this, says Torsone, is that Pitney Bowes "does not look at health care as a cost of administration but as an investment in employees."
That investment played a role in the construction of Pitney Bowes' new headquarters building, from the decision to pay a premium for environmentally-friendly materials like synthetic drywall, 100 percent recyclable carpeting and VOC-free paint, to recycling 570 tons of construction materials and donating 40,000 square feet of furniture to charity.
The environment is another area in which Pitney Bowes is ahead of the curve. Endeavors include buying carbon offsets, educating manufacturing employees to reduce energy use, recycling parts from the old postage machines it collects and many others.
 Volunteerism
Literacy is a key philanthropic area for Pitney Bowes, and the Power Lunch reading program that many employees participate in is a key part of that.
It matches Pitney Bowes employees with local schools, asking them to spend one lunch hour a week reading with a child who needs tutoring. Largely through volunteers like Paul Retter, a Pitney Bowes CRM administrator, the company provides organization assistance, such as gathering volunteers, coordinating with nonprofits and organizing transportation when necessary. Why is that worth an hour of his week, and significantly more during summer months, when he organizes carpooling and volunteers to bring 20 to 40 employees at a time to community centers to read one-on-one with children?
"When you read to those kids, you see the smile on their face," he says. They remember it, he adds, talking of the times he has been greeted on the street by a former student who's grown enough that it takes a few seconds to recognize them.
More broadly, he says, "I have been convinced over the years that it is in human nature to help other people. In big and little ways we are all looking for help, and when someone asks for help we are honored and want to give it. In little ways, it's easy for an individual to do it. In big ways, it's very helpful when a company like Pitney Bowes has programs that support volunteerism and organizes people to go out and do things in teams."
In fact, just having the table out signing up volunteers for events like the blood drive, reading to children, Habitat for Humanity and others often brings out people who sign up for one or more activities, saying they've been wanting to volunteer but just haven't gotten themselves organized.
Of course, from a human resources standpoint, company-sponsored volunteerism is great for recruitment and retention, "but it is also huge for career development," says Torsone. "I am on any number of nonprofit boards," ranging from a local hospital and theater group to her law school's board of trustees and Bridgeport, Conn.–based Caroline House, which helps single mothers learn life skills and English," and they offer incredible development for me."
Retter says "the contacts I make and people I meet [volunteering] help in my
personal life, in business, in my job. As a volunteer I am growing my own skills and capabilities." As examples, he points to public speaking that is useful in his career, and the do-it-yourself home renovation skills he has learned from Habitat for Humanity.
On the financial side, he says that Pitney Bowes will match employees' donations to any registered nonprofit dollar for dollar. "So I'm doubling my money, but I'm more than doubling it because I get to deduct [the personal donation] on my tax return."
Pitney Bowes does a lot on the corporate philanthropy side beyond just giving money to charities and nonprofits. For example, besides matching employees' donations, the company has a fund established to help employees who saw their homes damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 that is now a permanent relief fund for Pitney Bowes employees. And members of the senior management committee are required to be involved with at least one charity.
"Philanthropy is part of our business strategy," says Juanita James, Pitney Bowes' corporate communications officer, noting that the company works hard to measure the results of its employees' volunteering and donations. Documenting the impact of the annual fund-raising campaign, for example, can help get participants more excited and happier, she says.
Sidebar: Employee Company Community
A great example of how one person can do more with corporate support comes from Pitney Bowes CRM Administrator Paul Retter, whose primary focus as a volunteer is with Junior Achievement, which brings middle and high school students into companies to learn about the workplace.
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