Why Corporate Organizations Should Invest on Volunteerism?

The arising opportunity for organizations to respond in a more sustainable future for both their people and the world in which they work

International Volunteer’s Day (IVD) is celebrated all over the world every year on 5th of December, a date mandated by the United Nations and General Assembly in 1985 that focuses on empowerment the potential of volunteerism.

Even in the age of the COVID-19 volunteers have been at the forefront of each crisis delivering support in a high-performance level with a great passion. Over 750.000 people joined the NHS call and became NHS Volunteers providing help by delivering medication from pharmacies, collecting shopping and delivering patients to their appointments. Similar actions have already been implemented and are continuing around the world, from a local movement of a group of volunteers to a national system of organizing voluntary actions. The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) have developed an administrative guideline with information for UN Volunteers, selected candidates and host entity partners in response to the Coronavirus pandemic.

With volunteerism our societies are becoming more functional. Our world has been more inclusive, more united and more humane. Volunteers as contributors to the NGOs are covering the gap of governmental weaknesses.

But what comes when we talk about the Employee Volunteering? Employee Volunteering has been described as “win-win-win” scenario (Caligiuri et al., 2013) where the corporations can increase their brand visibility, develop a strong brand personality with a human tone, help employees upgrade their skills and create positive impact for the charitable causes.

A little bit of theoretical background

Employee volunteering has been studied widely in the last few years as a way in which companies can grow a vivid and effective workplace. Employee volunteering has been associated with a wide range of positive consequences to organizations such as well-being (Stukas et al., 2016), job performance (Malinen and Harju, 2017), work attitudes (Brockner et al., 2014), morale (Caligiuri et al., 2013), collective pride (Rodell et al., 2017) and company reputation image (Jones et al., 2014). These links can effectively highlight the importance of the employee volunteering.

How can we define the Employee Volunteering? Reading back the theoretical background of this term employee volunteering can be defined as

“employed individuals giving time during a planned activity for an external nonprofit or charitable group or organization”

(Clary et al., 1998; Musick & Wilson, 2008; Omoto & Snyder, 1995; Penner, 2002; Wilson, 2000).

What can actually organizations do?

Trying to look back to this topic and when it started to gain its trust by he managers as an instrument to their human resources strategy I came across to a unique and interesting as well reading in a digitized version on an article from the New York Times, dated back to 1978. “The Employee as Volunteer, With Company Support”, presents volunteer projects, managers’ perceptions and why should companies encourage employees to take part in initiatives for good.

Discussing with friends these days about our common volunteer initiatives in which I am involved, I can feel that many people need a broader range of reasons that help them realize how important they are and how impactful their work is. Having an active volunteer program can help to boost employee’s satisfaction and retention while increasing the organization’s capability to recruit top talent.

The most crucial point of a successful volunteer program is that you must be organized to inspire your employees and having a clear roadmap of actions before you kick off. Employee Volunteering is not about donating to NGOs but it’s all about setting your employees in action.

Here are some suggested ideas and programs you might be interested in for your organizations:

• Partnership with local or global NGOs and help them to solve an internal/external organizational procedure or an activity by developing solutions (e.g. a brand new website, a media campaign, a fundraising strategy etc.).
• Give employees the opportunity to choose an NGO or a voluntary action to participate in once or twice each year with a permitted leave. Let them present their experience to colleagues in a bimonthly event.
• Develop an internal Pool of Volunteers or a Time Banking in which employees can “deposit” their time and their specializations for voluntary initiatives. Collaborate with NGOs to co-create actions and help them increase their impact on society.
• Invite an NGO representative and host a bimonthly event where the NGOs present their work and organize an inclusive training with them during the week. Let the employees invite their friends and family. Celebrate these moments together and share them for publicity while increasing the internal visibility too.
• Encourage employees to suggest and be involved in this program. Let them share their suggestions for new volunteers’ activities.

Employee Volunteering can also reflect the values and culture of the company, the overall business strategy or even sometimes social crises, national holidays and remarkable dates that mean something to your organization. For example, Mastercard Inc. encouraged employees to volunteer on June 19, a date known as Juneteenth that marks the day enslaved people discovered they were free in the U.S.

How can you boost the performance of Employee Volunteering?

Volunteering is an act of altruism and so organizations should develop programs that can both establish a new excitement of working there and a sense of belonging somewhere where people really care about the world and their communities.

Before you start an Employee Volunteering program, you may find helpful the ideas below in enhancing your people’s involvement:

• Designate a specific person/group to manage the program. This person/team will be your Volunteer Coordinator.
• Design a unique brand identity for your program aligned to your corporate brand elements. Produce relevant material for wider publicity (e.g. graphic logo, social media banners, t-shirts, bags, travel mug, etc.).
• Create a section on your webpage under the “About” page that presents your people and these activities or use your LinkedIn/Instagram Account (Life at #MyOrganization’sName) and invite your employees to share pictures with you to post.
• Create a separate channel of spreading news/announcements on your internal workflow tools (e.g. Teams, Slack, Podio or Skype).
• Combine your kick-off announcements with free food and coffee.
• Pick inclusive programs so all your employees will be able to participate regardless their skills and their physical ability.
• Evaluate the participation of employees and measurement the NPS of promoting Employee Volunteering to other colleagues too.

Today, physical distancing has revealed the value of the activities that keep us together and make us happy as also those that satisfy us. We can recognize that collective efforts can reflect on our deeply “why’s”. This is an arising opportunity for organizations to be prepared to respond in the coming months offering a more sustainable future for both their people and the world in which they work.

Thank you for your time!

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References:

• Brockner, J., Senior, D., and Welch, W. (2014). Corporate volunteerism, the experience of self-integrity, and organizational commitment: evidence from the field. Soc. Justice Res. 27, 1–23. doi: 10.1007/s11211–014–0204–8
• Caligiuri, P., Mencin, A., and Jiang, K. (2013). Win-win-win: the influence of company sponsored volunteerism programs on employees, NGOs and business units. Pers. Psychol. 66, 825–860. doi: 10.1111/peps.12019
• Clary, E. G., Snyder, M., Ridge, R. D., Copeland, J., Stukas, A. A., Haugen, J., & Miene, P. 1998. Understanding and assessing the motivations of volunteers: A functional approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74: 1516–1530
• Jones, D. A., Willness, C. R., and Madey, S. (2014). Why are job seekers attracted by corporate social performance? Experimental and field tests of three signal-based mechanisms. Acad. Manag. J. 57, 383–404. doi: 10.5465/amj.2011.0848
• Malinen, S., and Harju, L. (2017). Volunteer engagement: exploring the distinction between job and organizational engagement. Voluntas 28, 69–89. doi: 10.1007/s11266–016–9823-z
• Musick, M. A., & Wilson, J. 2008. Volunteers: A social profile. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• Omoto, A. M., & Snyder, M. 1995. Sustained helping without obligation: Motivation, longevity of service, and per-ceived attitude change among AIDS volunteers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68: 671–686.
• Penner, L. A. 2002. Dispositional and organizational influences on sustained volunteerism: An interactionist per-spective. Journal of Social Issues, 58: 447–467.
• Rodell, J. B., Booth, J. E., Lynch, J., and Zipay, K. (2017). Corporate volunteering climate: mobilizing employee passion for societal causes and inspiring future charitable action. Acad. Manag. J. 60, 1662–1681. doi: 10.5465/amj.2015.0726.
• Stukas, A., Hoye, R., Nicholson, M., Brown, K., and Aisbett, L. (2016). Motivations to volunteer and their associations with volunteers’ well-being. Nonprofit Volunt. Sect. Q. 45, 112–132. doi: 10.1177/0899764014561122.
• Wilson, J. 2000. Volunteering. Annual Review of Sociology, 26: 215–240.

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