Dive Brief:

• It may not be a major trend yet, but some employers have been finding ways to lend a hand in helping end extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice and fix climate change, according to an article at Huffington Post.
• To that end, those employers encourage and pay for some highly skilled employees to "experteer" around the world.
• Programs such as Microsoft's MySkills4Afrika, IBM's Corporate Service Corps and Pfizer's Global Health Fellows, among others, already have a track record of positively affecting short-term issues while "developing leaders more capable of leading us towards a more equitable world in the long-term," said Matthew Farmer, Managing Director of Emerging World.

Dive Insight:

Farmer just published a new study, the Corporate International Service Learning Impact Benchmark, which examines the value these types of programs deliver. He said employers offer them for a variety of reasons, including "leadership development, international market development and to increase employee engagement."

According to Farmer, those benefits are driving an increasing number of employers to establish these programs. But, he added, what really fueled adoption are "global megatrends" businesses face, including "the increasing importance of emerging markets, increasingly diverse work forces, the growth of experiential learning and leadership development programs, and the increasing value placed upon corporate citizenship."

Farmer said it makes great business sense to create socially and environmentally responsible programs that deliver business value. But it also is proving to be a potent employee engagement driver, as 99.7% of post-program participants surveyed recommended the experience to at least one other co-worker.