The award winning CSR program at BMC Software thoughtfully integrates DEI, social impact, learning and development and sustainability initiatives all while engaging 95% of their workforce. Their philanthropic work and volunteer program is known as BMC Cares and the company had the highest combined engagement rate among companies with 5,000-10,000 employees in the 2023 CSR Industry Report. We interviewed Wendy Rentschler, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, DEI, Belonging and ESG Impact, at BMC to get a glimpse of the BMC playbook for how they engage a global workforce.
Program Highlights
95%
Combined employee engagement rate
50,000 hours
Employee hours from their 2022 International Day of Service
430+
Nonprofits served from their 2022 International Day of Service
We hear a lot about how corporate purpose has to start at the top. Talk a little bit about the mission of BMC and how that feeds into the employee engagement experience.
As a global software solutions provider, we recognize the critical role that technology plays in shaping our world, and we are dedicated to using our expertise to address some of the most pressing social and environmental challenges of our time. Being a purpose-driven business is central to being impactful and our people are integral to actualizing our purpose. Through Our BMC cares program we are able to curate give back opportunities for our employees that provide a direct correlation of their support, to the values and purpose behind BMC
An example of this is our partnership with the Tarjimly app whose mission is to connect refugees, humanitarian workers and translators within 90 seconds, anywhere in the world. We not only support this app through funding but also encourage our bilingual employees to become translators for the app. This strategic partnership allows us to support technology, that is solving challenges, bring our employees along with us through skills-based volunteering, and reduce inequality through language access. That is a powerful employee experience and societal impact.
BMC Cares’ mission is to inspire & empower BMC’s ecosystem to invest in people and enrich communities across the Globe through digital literacy, digital accessibility and technological interventions to create An Autonomous Digital Enterprise that Includes Everyone, advancing a more equitable world.
We take the ADE lens throughout our entire internal tech stack of solutions we procure. That ADE lens includes looking at experience tools to make sure we are meeting our people where they are. We use the YourCause platform to inclusively create access through technology for our employmee engagement experiences.
Intertwining your DEI programs, sustainability efforts, and BMC Cares is a unique CSR strategy that permeates throughout BMCs overall global corporate strategy. Can you share some of the why behind that, and how it has made a difference in your organization culture?
The Why: On average across all industries, 70% of investment to run a business is the cost of human capital, salary (pay equity) – benefits (inclusive) – training (DEI). In tech, one of the largest ESG materiality risks is human capital. The talent market has clearly signaled that they prefer to work for purpose-driven businesses. I get feedback weekly that candidates are asking about how BMC is supporting DEI, sustainability and volunteering. Purpose-driven business elevates employee engagement, which reduces turnover and that makes your people & purpose programs become “value centers” instead of “cost centers”. Effective Corporate Social Responsibility strategies are truly becoming the business imperative of our time.
The Difference: Investing and intertwining everything mentioned in the question has helped us retain our employees, attract incredible talent and evolve our customer and partner relationships that brings so much value to our ecosystem. The connection between DEI, ESG and CSR has become a loop of impact. We’ve seen a shift in our culture to where our employees are coming to work with more empathy, listening, and a greater sense of community after using their skills to volunteer with nonprofits or mentor future tech leaders in historically excluded communities across the globe.
One specific example of this combination of DEI and CSR is through our investment in employee resource groups. BMCers in employee resource groups participate in consensus micro-lending to support entrepreneurs through Kiva.org.
In addition to the impact to our culture, the majority of our current clients, prospects and partners have clearly demonstrated and told us that they want to expand their relationships with us because we are driving purpose throughout our business. We can show how purpose shines through the business decisions being made as we design our products to be more accessible, implement eco-design to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and curate design experiences that help our clients with their own ESG reporting journeys. These elements of purpose in our business decisions come from our leaders and employees wanting to be a part of something bigger.
This image shows a collage of campaign graphics the BMC team creates to promote various employee engagement activities and events throughout the year that align with cause awareness days and months like Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Pride Month, Juneteenth, Mental Health Awareness Month, etc.
Learn more about their programs throughout the year from their blog!
How can companies work towards developing a robust program that shows the return on investment?
Connect how you invest with what your company is good at.
We are a technology company, so our corporate support and funding to nonprofit projects ties in an element of technology. You can see that show up in our commitment to expanding digital access and supporting technological advancements that increase literacy, reduce inequalities.
Work with nonprofits that are financially responsible.
At BMC this means:
- doing research,
- demonstrating business acumen,
- and having a threshold.
BMC Cares only considers charities for grant awards when at least 80% of the funds go towards impact programs. This policy keeps our company and employee efforts safe from any charities that misuse donations. It takes time to do the research, but it is worth the effort. Don’t hesitate to ask for impact reports with line items for where the funding goes. Collecting this data sets you up for success in being able to share with your stakeholders how those dollars have made an impact towards outcomes like number of meals served, hygiene kits donated, books put in the hands of children. This level of impact reporting is something that elevates engagement and experience
Support Native-led Charities
Native can be interpreted in different ways across the world but the point I want to resonate is, understanding who the leaders and founders are behind the charities being considered for funding. Start by asking questions about the connection the leaders and founders have to the beneficiary community, do they have lived experiences of the challenges trying to be addressed? When it comes to social justice and equity work, this is an essential part of our journey towards being more impactful and less performative.
Drive purpose across your business.
This takes time, but it is worth the effort to pay attention to weave purpose into all the details within your business from investing in sustainable procurement to making an impact on the communities where we do business. This includes finding opportunities to partner with our clients. When we work with our events marketing team we look to center customer events around social impact work. This allows us to bring more to the customer relationship then the service we provide. Some examples of projects at customer events include planting trees, building food kits, sponsoring events with high impact charities and many more projects we’ve done over the years.
For internal events like our annual sales kick off we incorporate a BMC Cares activity. This year since the event is in Las Vegas, that includes building backpacks for the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth.