Hooking employees on corporate social responsibility

Monsanto uses blogs, video and online polls to spark employee passion

Monsanto has been named a “great place to work” many times. It also has won spots on multiple “best corporate citizen” lists.

It’s no coincidence, says Internal Communications Manager Raegan Johnson; indeed, there’s a strong link between the two designations, she claims.

“Individuals want to work for a company they are proud of—a company that not only cares about its business, but also its responsibility to surrounding communities, the country and the world,” she says.

And so, when the St. Louis-based agricultural chemical company launched a major business project called the Sustainable Yield Initiative (SYI), Monsanto communicators were confident employees could become the program’s best champions.

They launched an intranet site to promote the SYI—the goals of which are to produce more, conserve more and improve farmers’ lives—and update it daily with news stories, company updates, employee-penned blog entries, video and employee polls.