3 Ways Corporate Volunteering Fosters Employee Engagement
Picture this:
Taylor, an employee who has been with your organization for a little over a year, knocks on your office door and announces she’s resigning from her position. You’re surprised — Taylor has been a high-performer since she began working with you, and you assumed she was really happy in her position.
After your HR representative meets with Taylor for an exit interview, you review the details together, and Taylor’s reason for quitting stands out in particular. She said, “I never really felt invested in my work or recognized for the value I was contributing. More and more, I’ve felt like I was just going through the motions. I need a job that provides more fulfillment and meaning in my life.”
While Taylor’s story is made up, the reality is that many employers are facing similar challenges with their employees. Many employees have concerns in areas such as compensation, which strategies like compensation consulting can proactively address, but one of the most prominent contributing factors is a lack of employee engagement.
Employee engagement is a broad term, but is essentially used to describe the relationship your organization has with its employees. An engaged employee is loyal and truly invested in their work and the organization’s overall success. They find meaning and purpose in what they do each day, and they feel valued and appreciated by their employer for their contributions. This is important for both for-profit and nonprofit human resources departments to take into account.
If this sounds “too good to be true,” that’s because, for many employees and employers, it is. Employee engagement is an area in which many organizations struggle. According to Gallup, only 36% of U.S. employees are engaged in their work. And, 74% of workers who identified as “actively disengaged” in 2021 were also either actively looking for new jobs or watching for job openings.
So, what can you do to prevent your top talent from becoming disengaged and even leaving your organization altogether? There are a number of preventative measures and solutions your organization can employ, but we argue that one of the best ways to effectively engage your employees is to encourage corporate volunteering.
What is corporate volunteering?
Corporate volunteering is linked to corporate social responsibility and looks a little different at each organization. You might, for example, partner with a nonprofit to arrange corporate volunteering days once a quarter or provide volunteering time off (VTO) for your employees so they feel encouraged to get out and give back to the community. Or, you might offer volunteer grants for employees who volunteer for a certain amount of hours at a charity of their choice.
Whatever form of corporate volunteering resonates best with your organization and employees, it’s shown to be effective in helping your employees feel more connected and loyal to your organization.
Corporate volunteering can be a way to make a difference and boost employee retention at the same time. A survey done by Cone Communications shows that 83% of millennial workers would be “more loyal to a company that helps them contribute to social and environmental issues.” Cone Communications also highlighted some volunteer activities millennials like to see employers offer, like corporate-led volunteering, company-wide days of service, and service trips. And with the especially socially-engaged Gen Z-ers entering the workforce, these trends aren’t likely to disappear anytime soon. It may also be worth expanding your business’s corporate philanthropy efforts beyond volunteering.
These numbers alone are convincing, but it’s worth taking a closer look at how corporate volunteering can impact your organization for the better.
1. Corporate volunteering encourages employees to take ownership of their community.
Everyone likes to feel like they belong to their community. And as an employer, you can be instrumental in providing your employees with opportunities to be active members in their communities. After all, with a standard 9-5 job, it can be difficult to find the time (or motivation!) to engage in extra activities like volunteering.
When an employer steps in to facilitate corporate volunteering activities, they’re communicating to their employees that they know what matters to them and want to help them live well-rounded and enriching lives. If you want to be this type of employer, try doing the following to encourage your employees to get involved:
Spread the word about opportunities. Sometimes the only thing standing between someone and finding a volunteer position they love is not knowing where to look! Simply promoting different volunteer opportunities in your city or neighborhood can be a great way to help your employees get started.
Educate your employees about the social benefits you offer. If you offer volunteer grants or donation matching, do your employees know about those benefits and use them? Teach your employees about the ins and outs of your social benefits and frequently encourage them to take advantage of them. Not only will this be great for your employees, but it will also build your employer's reputation as you establish that these benefits are there for use, not just for show.
Take care of the logistics. If you have (or want to establish) a more formal corporate volunteering program, this can be a great way to take away the logistical challenges of volunteering for your employees. When you take care of everything from scheduling and arranging virtual training to distributing volunteering waivers, your employees will find it easier to commit to a volunteer opportunity!
Playing an active role in the community will, in the end, benefit everyone involved with your organization — from your employees to your customers. If you’re looking to improve relationships all around, a corporate volunteering program can make a huge difference.
2. Corporate volunteering creates an uplifting internal culture.
A full-time employee spends 40 hours of their week working for your organization, and whether they work in person or interact with their coworkers remotely, they want to be happy while doing so. In other words, employees want to work in an environment with a positive and uplifting culture.
Check out these three tips for using corporate volunteering to bolster your internal culture:
Leverage your focus on volunteering in the recruitment process.
Corporate volunteering can contribute to your organization’s positive internal culture from the very beginning of the employee lifecycle. As you’re hiring new employees, corporate volunteering can be a great talking point to help you highlight:
The different ways in which your organization helps employees find meaning in their jobs
How outward-focused and community-minded are your current employees are
Your social benefits in action
As you frame your volunteering program this way, you can differentiate your organization from other organizations, making it more likely that people with similar values will take your job offer over another!
Recognize employees who participate in your corporate volunteering program.
Recognition includes everything from a “Thank you!” to a bonus and can play a big role in how employees feel about you as an employer, how they feel about their jobs, and how long they work at your organization.
Recognizing employees for their participation in your corporate volunteering program can set a great tone for your internal culture. Give shoutouts in company-wide meetings, or reward the employees with the most volunteer hours with a VIP parking spot. Going the extra mile to say, “Thank you for helping us make our community a better place!” can go a long way in how your employees feel about coming to work every day.
Use your corporate volunteering program as a tool for professional growth.
Volunteering as a docent at a museum or as a dog walker at an animal shelter isn’t just a nice thing to do that makes employees feel happier and more connected to their communities — these volunteer opportunities can also give them a leg up on their professional development.
For example, say an entry-level employee does volunteer work through your organization for a few years, working their way up through the ranks of a local historical society’s volunteer program until they’re managing a small team of volunteers. This experience could contribute to the employee’s development and training from entry-level employee to manager.
3. Corporate volunteering drives connections between employees.
It could be said that an office that volunteers together sticks together. In other words, a corporate volunteer program can be influential in improving employee relationships, boosting the synergy between departments, and uplifting the spirit of teamwork and collaboration between individuals.
After all, volunteering is a different context in which your employees get to work together. Employees get the chance to work with people they might not usually work with on tasks that may be totally unrelated to what they do full-time. For example, Tina from marketing might get to work with Isabella from accounting on stuffing donor tax letters into envelopes, or Juan and Sierra from HR might get to work together to learn how to properly irrigate a community garden. This gives your employees a chance to talk about something other than work, which can help build workplace friendships over time. This, in turn, can lead to better collaboration and communication. Consider working with an HR consulting firm that can provide expertise to help you implement strategies to monitor and boost engagement.
Solid volunteer management, whether it’s facilitated by your organization or the nonprofit partner you’re working with, will be key to creating opportunities for your employees to work together and get to know each other better. As you’re setting up or working to improve your corporate volunteering program, make this a clear priority.
Final Thoughts on Corporate Volunteering
In today’s turbulent working world, being proactive about employee engagement is critical for any organization that wants to retain its talent and work toward its goals. While it’s not the end-all-be-all solution to employee engagement solutions, corporate volunteering can play an impactful role. An effective volunteering program will help your employees feel more engaged and invested in the work they do, more connected to their community, more appreciated by your organization, and more comfortable collaborating with others.
Want to learn more about UPchieve’s turn-key corporate volunteering opportunities? Request more information today!