The Good Works Perk

It would take the stars and the moon to lure Suzanne Suzuki, a quality engineer at Agilent Technologies electronics and communications company, away from her job. Agilent allows Suzuki, 45, to share her workspace every day with Barbara, a one-year-old golden retriever she is training as an assistance dog for the disabled. In the workplace, Barbara is exposed to being around all kinds of people, office chatter and noise. She attends meetings with Suzuki, accompanies her to the copy machine and visits the employee cafeteria--all the while learning to remain calm, focused and able to handle a variety of stimuli--skills the dog needs in order to assist a disabled person in daily activities. "My work with dogs is so much a part of my very being," Suzuki says. "Not every employer is going to understand the passion and commitment that I have to doing this."

Suzuki is a beneficiary of Agilent's policy of supporting employees' philanthropy where possible. This includes providing up to four hours a month of paid time off for volunteer work and helping staff members find volunteer opportunities in their communities via a central corporate database. "Anytime you can offer a benefit that is important to your employees you will have an edge over the competition--especially in a competitive field like ours," says Cynthia Johnson, vice president of public affairs in charge of Agilent's philanthropic efforts. "If employees feel good about us as a company, which is what we hear, they will be happier at work and ultimately do a better job for us."

More and more employers these days are supporting the work of community-minded professionals like Suzuki. They have to. Even with the economy slowing, a tight labor market has prodded companies to satisfy their employees' ever increasing need for work/life balance and social consciousness--or risk losing them to more progressive competitors. This is especially true in fields like technology, financial services, banking, insurance, travel and law, where employers have to work hard to woo top talent.

"You're now seeing obscenely wealthy people in competitive fields like investment banking say they're missing something in their lives," says Robert Goodwin, president and chief executive officer of the Points of Light Foundation, a Washington-based nonprofit that encourages and supports volunteerism in corporate America. "That need is being fulfilled by reaching out to others in the community in more ways than just writing a check." And it doesn't look like an anticipated economic downturn is going to slow down this trend anytime soon. "God help the company that doesn't support employees in their volunteer efforts, now or in the future," says Tom Casey, Boston-based partner in charge of the attraction-and-retention practice for Unifi Network, the human-resources consulting arm of PricewaterhouseCoopers.