Employer Supported Volunteerism Initiatives
Benefits For the Employer
Dan O’Grady oversees the employer-supported volunteer program at Enbridge Inc., a Calgary-based energy distribution company. In a discussion about the benefits of employer-supported volunteerism for his company, he said: “We strive to create a workplace where each of our employees has the opportunity to grow and achieve and contribute to the well-being of communities through volunteerism. Partnering with the community through volunteering and community investment is a strategic business approach that contributes not only to your bottom line, but to the community as a whole.”
In fact, employer-supported volunteerism benefits everyone involved. The community, the participating employees, and the employer all enjoy tremendous benefits.
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For the Employer
- Enhanced public image and brand recognition
- Increased employee and customer loyalty
- Less staff absenteeism, less turnover
- More attractive to prospective employees
- More attractive to prospective customers and investors
- More motivated employees
- Positive media coverage at little or no cost
- Enhanced employee skills like collaboration, communication and influencing help develop leaders and strengthens teams
- Directly linked to increased revenues
For the Employee
- An opportunity to meet new people and grow their personal network
- Learning new skills, becoming more marketable
- Employees who volunteer tend to get promoted beyond what would have been expected without volunteering
- Recent University of Ottawa research indicated that volunteer work increases the annual earnings of volunteers over non-volunteers by 6 to 7%
- Builds self-esteem, promotes tolerance and understanding
For the Community
- Enhanced health, education and social services
- Volunteering promotes historical, artistic and cultural enrichment
- Builds strong communities - strong communities attract new businesses
- Safer, cleaner and more environmentally conscious
Things to Consider
When considering employer-supported volunteerism, a company needs to decide how passively or how actively it would like to be involved. The following is a list of options a company and its employees can choose to adopt.
- Choose a charity and embrace it!!!
- Have a staff recognition program for employees who volunteer
- Display volunteer opportunities
- Make office space or other premises available for volunteering purposes
- Volunteering done on employees’ time
- Employer matches volunteer time (employee donates one hour, employer matches one hour, creating 2 hours of volunteering time)
- Paid time off for volunteering
- Employees decide volunteer initiatives
- Employer and employees decide volunteer initiatives
- Staff can adjust work schedules to accommodate volunteering
- Employer appeals directly to staff to volunteer
- Employees allowed to make personal calls related to volunteering
- Volunteerism is incorporated into the business plan
- Individual or committee overseeing volunteering initiatives
- Volunteering policies and procedures in place
- Partnership with specific non-profit or charity exists
- Volunteerism is considered when recruiting or promoting staff
What should be considered when choosing a volunteer initiative?
Companies embarking on an employer-supported volunteerism initiative will
have issues around interests and expectations to address. The following
are questions that can help an employer and employees identify the most
appropriate type of volunteer initiative for that organization.
For the employer:
- What level of involvement should we pursue?
- Who will manage the initiative – company, employees or both?
- Can the employees do their jobs and volunteer at the same time?
- Will volunteer activities be well attended?
- In what way and to what extent are our employees volunteering now?
- What will employees’ volunteering cost the company?
- What specific company resources will we need to commit?
- What benefits can we expect from employee involvement?
- How do the initiative’s goals align with company values and business objectives?
- Will a partnership with a community organization be of benefit to all?
- How will this benefit the community?
- How will results be measured?
- What will be the bottom-line return for the company?
For employees:
- How will the company support my volunteer efforts?
- Will management participate?
- Will volunteering be on my own time, or will there be paid time to volunteer?
- How much time will I be putting in?
- How often will I have to volunteer?
- Will I have to do a police check?
- What kinds of activities will I take part in?
- Can I do this with my family or friends?
- Am I making new connections?
- Am I learning new skills, and/or improving skills that I have?
- Will I have fun?
- Am I doing something meaningful?
- Will the community be stronger or healthier as a result?
- How will the company recognize my volunteering efforts?
How can Community Link North Simcoe help?
Community Link has been providing volunteer services to North Simcoe for almost a decade, and we are uniquely qualified to respond to your specific volunteerism-related needs, issues and questions. If your business is interested in participating in employer-supported volunteerism, we can help you in many ways.
We can connect you with local non-profit or charitable organizations, so that you can decide where your company’s involvement would be best served.
Our quarterly newsletter contains articles about Employer-supported Volunteerism in action, and includes a sampling of interesting volunteer opportunities.
We can help you survey your employees to determine their interest in volunteering, and to identify the kind of volunteer activities they would like to participate in.
We can assist you in explaining the benefits of employer-supported volunteering to your stakeholders.
We can help you establish volunteerism policies and procedures, and help orient and train your staff in volunteer coordination.
We can help you with employee volunteer recognition programs.
We can help your business get recognition for the great volunteer work you and your staff do.
[Benefits for the Non-Profit Organization] [What is Employer Supported Volunteerism]
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