By David Borrelli

In an increasingly competitive business landscape, Canadian organizations know their ability to attract top talent is often the difference between surging ahead of competitors and falling hopelessly behind.

But as more Millennials enter the workforce, attracting talent is no longer just about sky-high salaries and big benefit packages. As detailed in the 2015 Deloitte Millennial Survey, this new generation of workers is eager to make positive contributions to society and to work for ethical organizations. In fact, 77 per cent of Millennials say a “sense of purpose” is at least part of the reason why they chose to work for their current employer.

With Millennials set to comprise 75 per cent of the global workforce by 2025, it’s imperative that Canadian companies start building corporate social responsibility into their culture.

According to a new study by the CMO Council, which interviewed 230 senior marketing and HR leaders, 90 per cent of respondents believe having a brand persona is valuable in attracting new hires and building lasting relationships with customers. However, while organizational branding is viewed as critical, the same study found that only 37 per cent of companies actually have a well-defined corporate culture that is universally embraced by the organization.

This means there’s a huge opportunity for all those businesses to boost talent retention and recruitment by implementing a new brand persona and company culture based on the very ethics and values of the people who are just joining, or about to join, the workforce. The good news is that this doesn’t have to be a herculean effort.

Over the past 15 years, the Salesforce Foundation has become a vital part of creating a culture of social responsibility at Salesforce. Based on a simple idea, the 1-1-1 model of integrated philanthropy leverages one per cent of our company’s product, equity and time to improve the communities we live in. Globally, the Salesforce Foundation has logged a total of 920,000 volunteer hours, issuing $85 million in grants and working with 25,000 higher education and non-profit customers. And, in Toronto alone, the program has been hugely successful with our employees logging 4,846 volunteer hours to-date.

Perhaps the real beauty of the 1-1-1 model, however, is how easy it is for other organizations to implement it themselves. While many early-stage companies want to make civic engagement part of their business, it can often be challenging for them to establish a framework. But with the help of Canada’s Upside Foundation, Salesforce is now helping other private companies build an integrated philanthropy model into their business model in the early stages. Through Pledge 1%, Canadian companies like Candid, Organimi, Switch Video, Empty Cubicle, Funnelcake, Hubba, MeetVibe and Mindstack are all supporting charitable efforts in their respective communities by donating one per cent of their time, equity and product.

While organizations of any size can afford to donate one per cent of their product and equity, employees are also more than happy to donate one per cent of their time— which is about five minutes of an eight hour workday and 20 hours over a full year— especially once they see what can be accomplished.

In an age where people often struggle to find value and meaning in the work they do, helping renovate a teaching facility that serves 100 special needs students daily (like employees in Salesforce’s Fredericton office did in 2014) or banding together to build a community garden at a Cornwall public school (like Salesforce employees from Toronto and Montreal helped with in June) can be both incredibly motivating and satisfying for all employees involved.

When you build a culture of social responsibility, you’re not only improving the lives of others in your community, you’re creating a sense of purpose for your employees. And this is exactly what Canada’s next generation of workers is looking for.

By implementing new charitable programs that help others, your business can in turn help itself by creating a workplace culture that’s capable of not only attracting but also retaining today’s top talent. Corporate social responsibility isn’t just something the world needs more of— it’s exactly what your organization needs to stay competitive.

David Borrelli is Salesforce’s AVP of Commercial Sales for Canada.