Listen to the Calling – For Community Service
1 Sep, 2003
By: Rhonda C. ProctorIt’s been almost two years since President Bush publicly encouraged every American to more actively participate in volunteerism. At Sprint, this proclamation simply reenergized the 100 year history of strong community outreach programs, including the CRT (Community Relations Team) Program – a unified approach to volunteerism that encourages employees to listen to their calling to help others enhance their quality of life.
In this Profile segment CP spoke with Julie Hershey, Senior Manager, Sprint Corporate Relations. We looked at the organization’s CRT Program, which has been implemented at six PCS call centers and other Sprint groups throughout the U.S. This program helps us all understand how groups of dedicated individuals really can make a difference in the communities they serve.
CP: Sprint has a corporate focus on philanthropy. Tell us a little about what drives that philosophy.
JH: Basically Sprint views its citizenship role as an integral part of its corporate responsibilities and is committed to enhancing its communities. In fact one of our core values is to “serve the civic and charitable needs of our communities.” That really drives what we do in the communities. The characteristics of Sprint’s founder, C.L. Brown -- his pioneering spirit, strong ethical values, commitment to straightforward solutions for the customer and clarity through technology -- are the core elements of today’s “brand spirit” and community commitment at Sprint.
CP: And what does your “brand spirit” embody?
JH: Well, for more than 100 years Sprint has really been an ally to our communities. We’re staffed with empowered, inspired employees that are in the community and carrying out the spirit of the founder and of the company. They demonstrate our commitment through long-term charitable and civic involvement.
CP: So the Community Relations Teams were a natural extension of your corporate brand, and core values?
JH: Oh absolutely. We’ve had CRTs for many years throughout the nation. We currently have 130 CRTs nationwide, including teams in six of our eight PCS call centers. Just to give you a little background, CRTs are a group of employees who volunteer in their community through organized projects, and they are chartered to encourage, motivate and assist other employees to get involved in projects that they’re organizing. The Corporate Relations Department oversees and administers the overall CRT program, and it’s through the program and the efforts of so many Community Relations Teams that we’ve been able to go into the communities and connect with our customers.
CP: How’s that accomplished?
JH: By running volunteer projects from grassroots to national initiatives such as our National Food Drive – where CRTs and the call centers helped raise more than 890,000 pounds of food across the country this year. They helped collect used wireless phones for Sprint Project Connect SM,which is a wireless phone donation and recycling program for people with disabilities, while providing an environmentally friendly way to dispose of used phones. The CRTs have been very engaged in supporting those phone drives. Another noteworthy cause is Rebuilding Together – where volunteers help rehab homes. The CRTs also do KaBOOM!, which is a national non-profit agency that coordinates individuals and organizations to build, much needed, safe and accessible playgrounds. And of course Easter Seals – our teams support that organization through Sprint Project Connect SM , where in just one drive they raised about $10,000 for local Easter Seals affiliates, National Organization on Disabilities (NOD) and the Wireless Foundation.
CP: So those begin at the national level and filter down -- what else happens at the local levels?
JH: At the PCS centers, they’ll work with their communities, to determine what projects they can support that make a big difference in their communities. Then the local CRT chooses those that make the most impact. So it’s real flexible. Just to give you an example, the Ft. Worth, Texas call center was recently recognized by the Ft. Worth Star Telegram for its 2002 efforts. This was lead by an all volunteer 15 member CRT, which implemented 18 community relations projects to serve more than 2400 hours of community service in the Ft. Worth area. In Bolingbrook, Illinois they were recognized for collecting more than 1,000 pounds of food for their food drive. The Nashville, Tennessee group volunteered time with Gilda’s Club. The Oklahoma City center donated 40 pints of blood… and shipped care packages recently to the Middle East. In 2002 the PCS call center CRTs reported about 5,000 hours of community service to their local areas, estimated as a value of volunteer time at about $82,000 in the local communities. This is based upon the value of volunteer time which is $16.54 per hour, as reported by the Independent Sector.
CP: And considering that the annual workload of one full time employee is 2000 hours – that’s a lot of time. How do you track the volunteer hours?
JH: Tracking CRT hours is important, and at Sprint, it’s linked to a new program that we instituted about a year ago called the CRT Spirit Program. In that program we decided to make a unified approach to volunteerism, and asked teams to engage in certain strategic corporate initiatives and to support the Sprint Foundation’s areas of focus – education, disability, arts and culture and youth development. Each of the projects is worth a certain number of points. When teams reach a certain level of points, they get recognition and a $250 grant to a nonprofit of their choice. So as a part of the CRT Spirit Program, CRTs have to track their projects and hours at least once per quarter. We actually created a database, and teams enter their hours, as well as the agencies they support, and we’re able to download, print them out and see exactly where our teams are making an impact.
CP: In some call centers, the idea of supporting volunteerism on the job might be viewed as counter-intuitive, given that agents are evaluated on schedule adherence. How is that managed?
JH: Well, we support our employees’ involvement in the community, but most of their commitments are made in their off time, and of course, community involvement is not linked to performance. If there was a charity that required involvement during scheduled time, it would be handled on an individual center basis with management support. As with any employee in any company, you have to meet your job responsibilities first - but at Sprint we think we’ve done a great job of getting out in the communities and representing the human face of Sprint while still doing business.
CP: Is community involvement one of your selection criteria for new hires?
JH: I think people that are attracted to volunteering do have that spirit – it’s innate and they want to give back to the community. It’s definitely not a requirement for us, but it’s possible that our core values attract that type of person. It’s nice when the employee can listen to their calling, and have it supported in the workplace.
