Today’s workforce, especially millennials and Gen Zers, expect more than competitive compensation and benefits. According to Deloitte's 2025 survey, 44% of Gen Zers and 45% of millennials have left a role because they felt a lack of purpose. Employees want meaning, alignment and confidence that their work contributes to something larger than profits.
Purpose has shifted from an optional layer of corporate citizenship to a strategic imperative with measurable business impact. Purpose-driven programs, including volunteering, workplace giving and community impact initiatives, are no longer “nice-to-have” — they are foundational to a thriving employer brand and a stable, engaged workforce.
In this blog, we explore how leading companies like Cisco, Principal Financial Group and Guardian are leveraging purpose-driven programs to strengthen culture, boost employee engagement and achieve measurable results in talent retention.
Measurable talent retention as enterprise value
High employee turnover can act as a silent tax on business growth, draining resources through recruitment and onboarding. But its impact goes beyond numbers: team cohesion, morale and productivity suffer as remaining employees scramble to fill gaps.
Purpose-driven programs offer a solution. When employees feel connected to a meaningful mission, they stay — and the effect on a company’s bottom line is significant. Companies see a 52% reduction in turnover among new hires who participate in purpose programs, demonstrating that investing in purpose not only engages employees but reduces costly churn.
Managing culture and purpose programs at RTX, the world’s largest aerospace and defense company, is no small task. With 185,000 employees across 300+ sites, their CSR efforts had long been seen as a “company side hustle” without data to justify continued investment.
By integrating participation data from the Benevity Enterprise Impact Platform with internal HR systems, the team discovered that employees who engaged in volunteering programs were three times more likely to stay.
This data transformed their narrative, proving that purpose-driven programs are a vital strategy for employee retention and workforce stability.
For Cisco, a global technology leader, connecting people to purpose is more than a cultural aspiration, it's a validated business strategy. To quantify this impact, the company’s Research and Intelligence teams conducted a three-year longitudinal study that analyzed the behaviors of their distributed workforce, such as who gave back, what they did and how frequently. They also measured this against additional employee data like attrition, promotion, bonuses and recognition.
The data revealed the return on investment (ROI) of their corporate purpose programs: employees who engaged in social impact programs realized greater benefits for themselves and the business, compared to those who didn’t. Specifically, new hires who engaged in these programs had a 29% lower attrition rate.
Boosting employee engagement and participation
Strong employee engagement and participation is a leading indicator of a thriving culture, and the business case for it is clear. Gallup reports that companies with highly engaged teams outperform their peers, delivering 23% higher profitability, 18% greater productivity and 10% more customer loyalty. The link to well-being is equally strong, with engaged workforces reporting 78% less absenteeism.
Purpose-driven programs act as a catalyst for this engagement. When employees are empowered to participate in ways that matter to them — whether through volunteering, giving or leading local initiatives — they move from passive observers to active stakeholders.
Restrictive social impact models can limit a program's global reach — a challenge Principal Financial Group faced. With approximately 20,000 employees worldwide, their CSR program, Principal for Good, has always been tied to the company’s core mission of helping people around the world with financial security. Yet, corporate matching was limited to a single partner, and over 7,600 international employees were excluded from participating.
To align culture with their global footprint, Principal leveraged Benevity to adopt a borderless, open-choice strategy. Employees worldwide could now support causes of their choice in their local currency and language. Other barriers were also removed: the previous 25-hour volunteer threshold was replaced with volunteer rewards of US$25 per hour.
The impact of this approach on program engagement was immediate. These changes resulted in a 41% increase in program-eligible users, a 30% engagement rate and a 197% increase in volunteer rewards in the first three months.
For Guardian, a mutual insurance company serving 29 million consumers, becoming a “champion on well-being” was more than a brand promise, it was a cultural commitment. To deepen community connection among its 8,000 employees, the company used the Benevity Enterprise Impact Platform to modernize its CSR program, Guardian for Good.
As part of the relaunch, Guardian strengthened its Community Involvement Committees (CIC), empowering employees to act as cultural champions driving local initiatives. They also introduced new engagement drivers like volunteer rewards and employee resource group (ERG)-sponsored activities.
Within just five months, overall program participation doubled. Two-thirds of U.S. employees actively engaged, contributing more than 16,000 volunteer hours. In India, the relaunch generated a 30% increase in engagement and more than 2,600 service hours by year-end.
After a period of organizational change, Iress, a global financial services technology company, faced the challenge of reigniting its CSR program, Iress Impact. With participation stalled at 12%, and a single program owner supporting 1,300 employees, the company needed a scalable, high-impact strategy.
Using the Benevity Enterprise Impact Platform, including the Reporting Studio, Iress empowered regional champions with visibility into participation data, enabling them to plan and engage their colleagues effectively. They encouraged employees who had donated previously to apply for donation matches and introduced creative engagement drivers like conference seeding rewards that achieved 90% redemption rates.
With these changes, Iress transformed a stagnant program into a thriving culture. Overall program participation grew 341%, unique donor engagement rose 229% and the volunteer rate tripled — proving that even a small team, when equipped with the right data and tools, can drive massive engagement.
Transform your culture into your competitive advantage
An authentic commitment to purpose is one of the most powerful levers for reducing attrition, deepening engagement and building a resilient workforce.
Employees want more than just a paycheck, they want a reason to stay. By creating programs that are inclusive and fully integrated into your culture, you can turn corporate values into a measurable competitive advantage.
Ready to turn purpose into performance?
Discover how the Benevity Enterprise Impact Platform can help you engage employees, reduce turnover and demonstrate the ROI of your social impact initiatives.
