How grew their toprogrammePurposeengage3xmorestaff and students in 1 year CASE STUDY
EHL Group ncompass s a portfolio of sp cializ d busin ss units that d liv r hospitality manag m nt ducation and innovation worldwid . H adquart r d in Lausann , witz rland, th Group includ s EHL Ecol h t lièr d Lausann EHL wiss chool of Tourism and Hospitality EHL Advisory rvic s Head of AboutbothinitiativfrommthatImplCaseEmployeeIndustrySustainabilityNoémiDanthinHighrducation&studentcount3,900inwitzrland&ingaporFocus mntingaprogrammngagsbothstaffmbrsandstudnts,movingon-offcntrally-ldstoyar-longactivitistop-downandbottom-up
Noémie Danthine, Associate Director & Head of Sustainability, designs and deploys EHL Group’s sustainability strategy, including environmental sustainability, skills-based sponsorship, and ethical and social responsibility. This also includes creating the strategy and implementing the volunteering and giving program in collaboration with Alaya. She shares how EHL Group came to implement their program and to encourage staff-led (or bottom-up) initiatives from 0 to over 30 in one year, while also 3x participation. Sustainability is an important part of EHL Group's 2025 Strategy. In developing their Sustainability strategy, it became clear that fostering a culture of giving back to communities was one of their objectives. This includes engaging both students and staff members in the Group’s CSR activities by providing them with opportunities to build this culture of giving back.
Noémie AssociateDanthine Director& Head of Sustainability,
The context
“Our giving-back program is completely tied into EHL’s Sustainability strategy as it contributes to one of our strategy’s 4 pillars, “Contribute to Our Communities”. We believe strongly that giving back to communities is not only the institution’s responsibility, but the responsibility of the individuals that make the EHL family. In that sense, Alaya partakes in building an EHL community with strong giveback values.”
EHL
EHL Group’s activities centered around 2 annual events: Solidarity Month and Sustainability Week to encourage the EHL community to give back and raise awareness about environmental causes. This took a lot of effort and coordination to propose a variety of activities, only for everything to be dropped until the next year.
Their mai challe e
Provide ways for their whole campus to participate in their sustainability initiatives, from Easily track and report on their initiatives and contributions to the community
The challenge
As of 2020, with the COVID pandemic and as their collaboration with Alaya became closer, this strategy has been strengthened to include year-round communication and initiatives.
Centralise and manage both centrally-led and staff-driven
Make it easy for staff members to find and participate in activities to support causes close to their hearts, in a variety of way
An all-in-one platform to manage centralised & staff-led initiatives Online activities to support engagement and community connection, from anywhere EHL Group implemented an easy-to-use online platform, enabling them to centrally manage their annual events, saving time while being able to scale the program to offer a wider choice of activities, manage registrations and ultimately, drive participation.
The
Just as EHL Group was preparing to launch their 2020 Sustainability Week, lockdowns were implemented around the world. Their community wanted to help, but weren’t sure how to do so safely. With a digital platform, they pivoted to offer EHL Group’s staff members and students internal initiatives to support each other with childcare or coursework, as solution
EHL
Thevolunteering+2.5x results hours from30+ 0to36 bottom-up activities participation+3x
Noémie AssociateDanthine Director& Head of Sustainability,
“Ever since the confinement in May 2020, participation on the Alaya platform has increased, with many members of our community wishing to help out where possible. We also added the Purpose Challenges feature for our 2020 Sustainability Week, along with extensive communication which allowed for increasing momentum around the platform.”
Involve influential personas from across the organisation to ch mpion the progr mme nd pl tform Allow room for students and staff to bring in their ideas and suggestions s they re the most likely to motiv te e ch other to join.“Benevity provides varied opportunities for staff members and students. It also allows us to redirect all volunteer and giving back initiatives in one same channel and to track participation. Our objective is to increase participation on Alaya by 50% and to encourage teambuilding activities through the platform. Building a culture for students, staff and faculty of giving-back both socially and environmentally, which will be an added-value for students and staff applicants.”
Internal communication is key - find the right b l nce to keep st ff members informed without overlo ding them is essenti l, get input from your communic tions te m on best pr ctices
Tips & Advice for other companies
Noémie Danthine Associ te Director & He d of Sust in bility, EHL
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