Employee Volunteering Initiatives: What to Consider
Is it worth it to consistently offer volunteering opportunities for your employees?
We see many companies’ volunteering efforts spike from November to January and then take a dip the remainder of the year.
As more and more companies begin to understand the positive correlation between employee volunteerism and employee engagement and wellbeing – with corporate volunteering increasing since 2020 – many companies are wondering whether they should maintain a more consistent volunteering presence.
Here we’ll discuss the benefits of consistent volunteer engagements for companies, and offer ideas for how your company can provide a more sustained impact through employee volunteering.
Understanding the Benefits of Employee Volunteering
Employee volunteering programs allow the company to show the employee they care about their personal and professional development – but perhaps more notably, enlisting your employees to volunteer can help them develop a stronger connection to their community.
Janelle St. Omer, Regional Vice-President with Benevity, put it this way in an interview with the Social Impact Show podcast:
“I think volunteering allows employees to get a better sense of what’s out there in terms of need, understanding the things that are shaping their community, understanding of organizations that perhaps might be in their localized area.”
And numbers don’t lie. When measuring the impact of corporate volunteerism, a study by Deloitte found that employees were:
Twice as likely to rate their corporate culture as very positive, as compared to millennials who rarely or never volunteer.
More likely to be very proud to work for their company.
More likely to feel very loyal toward their company.
Nearly twice as likely to be very satisfied with the progression of their career.
More likely to be very satisfied with their employer.
More likely to recommend their company to a friend.
Another long-proven benefit of employee volunteering is that it improves the wellbeing of staff members. According to the Journal of Happiness Studies, volunteering alleviates stress and produces happiness. Another study has shown that “...participating in volunteer activities improves one’s emotional state and correlates positively with the expression of more positive and fewer negative emotions at the workplace.”
Look for Skills-Based Volunteering Initiatives
Skills-based volunteering allows employees to develop skills while making a community impact. With these types of initiatives, employee volunteers can find opportunities to strengthen their current skill set or work on projects that allow them to utilize skills that their current job may not offer. For example, maybe an employee’s current role is focused on email marketing, but they volunteer on a project to build their marketing analytics skills. This not only benefits the employee by expanding their skills, but it also benefits the company.
Employees who volunteer are also able to improve soft skills such as mentorship, leadership, communication, and time management through hands-on learning opportunities in their volunteering projects.
A lack of career progress has been identified as one of the top reasons why employees seek new employment, so implementing skilled volunteering can provide opportunities in their training and development programs.
Foster Interdepartmental Volunteering Initiatives
Employees who volunteer together have the opportunity to form closer bonds and get to know each other in a way in which they otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to. These kinds of collaborative volunteering efforts can dismantle barriers and foster a sense of unity and mutual respect among employees.
By working closely on a common goal, individuals from different areas of the company can discover shared interests, learn from each other's expertise, and develop a deeper appreciation for the collective mission and values of their organization. When we encourage interdepartmental volunteering, we’re not only enriching the workplace culture, but also driving innovative thinking and problem-solving by fostering diverse perspectives.
Mission Edge can help you tackle your employee volunteering program
Have you been wanting to make employee volunteering more of a priority at your workplace, but you struggle to find the bandwidth? Mission Edge offers operational support so you can focus on your mission.
