Search

Believe it or not – Companies are doing this to engage employees!

curranrecruit
Sep 22, 2015
3 min read

People feel better about where they work when a volunteer program is in place” – Cobb (2014), Vice President of Volunteer and Employee Engagement for United Way Worldwide.

In this week’s blog, we introduce the benefits of incorporating volunteer programs in terms of employee engagement and share some tips on how they can be implemented into your organisation.

In a study conducted by the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Partnership Network, led by Dr Debbie Haski-Leventhal (2013), providing employees with opportunities to connect with the community and give back through workplace activities supports their need to feel like an active community participant and strengthens their commitment to the organisation.

Let’s review some of the stats around volunteering today:

A recent international study found that 87% of employees who volunteered with their companies reported an improved perception of their employer. More importantly, a whopping 82% felt more committed to the organisation they worked for (Harvard Business Review, 2012).
Increasing numbers of young people around the world aspire for “something more” from a job. Surveys by Cone Inc. find that three out of four of the Millennial Generation (born 1978-1998) want to work for a company that “cares about how it impacts and contributes to society.”
According to Forbes, 81% of employees who volunteered together stated that the act of volunteering with their colleagues strengthened their interpersonal relationships. As an added bonus, 87% of people who volunteered in the last year said that through volunteering they developed teamwork and people skills.

Volunteering allows employees to develop new skills that can also be valuable to their job such as communication, project management, leadership and teamwork. For organisations, volunteering can help establish brand awareness trust and loyalty from the public, networking opportunities and morale building.

But, while volunteering sounds great on paper, in real life there can be some challenges that managers need to be aware of.

Th How to implement volunteering as part of CSR in your organisation:

Establish dialogue. Volunteering will be a more effective way to boost engagement if employees have had a say in where voluntary efforts are directed. This is especially likely to be the case if team members are already strong supporters of a particular charity – it’s likely they will appreciate the opportunity to offer support with the backing of their employer. Likewise, it’s important that dialogue with various charities and good causes is established in order to correctly determine where support is most required and where your employees’ skills can be most effectively used.

Match-making. Skills-based volunteering can take many forms. It may be about doing pro bono work or offering services that are very close to “the day job”, such as an IT department setting up a computer network for a charity. Or it could be more about using skills in a different context or acquiring new ones. When designing volunteer programs, look for causes that ‘match’ your people and ‘align’ with your organisation’s overall mission and involvement with the community. For example, Umpqua’s program is focused on assisting youth development organisations, schools and low-income individuals. This lines up to the bank’s overall philanthropy programs and keeps its collective efforts marching toward the same goal.

Paid or unpaid? Veena Iyer (2014) a labor and employment attorney says, consider the ultimate goals of employees’ participation. If the primary goal is around team-building, which many volunteer activities are, there’s a benefit to the organisation which suggests employees should be paid. If, on the other hand, the organisation wants to support employee interest in a particular activity by organising their participation—but not requiring participation—it may be truly voluntary.