Making the DHL purpose feel personal through employee volunteering
DHL Express | Volunteering Campaign
Context
Across a global business, purpose can feel removed from everyday work. Volunteering gives colleagues a hands-on way to live their company’s purpose, improving morale, wellbeing and a sense of community. The challenge at DHL Express was to make volunteering feel open to everyone, so more colleagues could experience the benefits.
Approach
The aim was to challenge the idea that volunteering requires a major commitment – and show employees that every contribution counts. As well as introducing a global pledge and a volunteering hours tracker, we shared real colleague stories and practical, relatable content to encourage people to participate, record their hours and inspire others.
Outcome
The result was an employee-centred campaign that encouraged colleagues around the world to volunteer their time, connecting the DHL purpose to causes they personally cared about. Within the first two months of launch, participants logged 4,100 volunteering hours, rising to 76,866 hours by the end of the first year and benefiting more than 211,000 people.
For DHL Express, ‘Connecting People. Improving Lives.’ is a purpose with real weight behind it. But DHL is a huge, global business. Purpose can’t rely on corporate messages alone; employees need simple ways to connect it to their own lives.
Volunteering gave colleagues that connection. It gave people a way to support their communities, spend time with others and feel that their actions meant something beyond their day-to-day role.
The communication challenge was to protect that personal feeling and encourage more people to take part without making volunteering feel like another instruction from the business.
Making volunteering feel open to everyone
EveryONE was built around a simple belief: every colleague can contribute and every contribution counts.
Volunteering can sometimes feel like a big commitment, but EveryONE aimed to shift that perception. It showed colleagues they could give the time they had, in a way that worked for them.
One hour, every hour, every action, EveryONE counts. The emotive messaging at the centre of the campaign helped colleagues see that their time mattered, whether they were volunteering often or for the first time.
Keeping the story rooted in real colleague experiences
The platform had to feel employee-led, so real colleague stories were central to our approach.
Film-strip inspired visuals heroed volunteering moments from across DHL Express, while volunteer spotlights gave people space to share what they had done and who they had helped. These employee stories gave EveryONE the warmth and credibility it needed to resonate with others across the business.
Editable social templates meant colleagues could share their personal stories in the EveryONE style, giving them a way to recognise each other, celebrate what they cared about and inspire people to get involved.
Showing every hour counted
To give EveryONE more momentum, we recommended a global pledge for 2023 and a volunteering hours tracker for everyone to record their progress.
The pledge gave colleagues a shared target to work towards. The tracker made their contribution visible, helping them see how their own time added to the total global impact.
Together, they made taking part feel both motivating and manageable. Every hour logged became part of a collective achievement across DHL Express and colleagues could watch their individual hours add up to something much bigger.
How we made a meaningful difference
Within the first two months of EveryONE’s launch, participants logged 4,100 volunteering hours, which skyrocketed to 76,866 hours by the end of the first year. By making it easier for colleagues to participate and see the value of their contribution, we brought them closer to the company’s purpose.
Through EveryOne, volunteering became a more meaningful part of everyday life at DHL Express, with more than 211,000 people having benefited from their efforts.
Big Insight
Employee attitudes towards volunteering can vary hugely. Some people are passionate about it, while others assume they don’t have the time or anything to contribute. Our role was to make volunteering feel more accessible. Through the pledge and the idea that every contribution counts, we helped shift the focus away from big gestures and towards the cumulative impact of small actions, making it easier for employees to get involved in a way that felt achievable.
— Tor Radford, Strategy & Insight Director
What we delivered
- Creative concept
- Volunteering initiative positioning
- Strategic narrative and messaging
- Design look and feel for EveryONE
- Internal content plan
- Volunteers at Express landing page copy
- Launch and follow-up post copy
- Launch and follow-up visual assets (including GIFs)
- Employee story templates
Award recognition
EveryONE was recognised for its creative approach to employee volunteering, receiving Gold at the MUSE Creative Awards in the Strategic Program – Internal Communication Campaign category. It was also Highly Commended at The Simplys for Best Frontline Engagement and Best Creative Campaign – Enterprise.
