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Published on Oct 29
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From serving meals in shelters to delivering presents to children in hospitals and food drives to Giving Thursday, there are many opportunities for your employees and your company to give back to your community during the holidays. To make the most of your efforts, you’ll need to craft a strategy to make sure that your volunteer efforts align with your corporate values and goals. Read on to learn more about crafting your corporate holiday volunteer strategy.
Corporate image
Holiday volunteer efforts can promote your image and reputation, helping to drive profits and sustainability, while simultaneously your company and employees the opportunity to give back to the community in which they live and work. From sales to goodwill, the internal and external benefits of volunteering present a win-win situation for your company, your community, and your employees. Great Place to Work found that employees that participate in company-sponsored volunteer efforts were four times more likely to spread the word of these efforts and to tell others about the company’s good works.
You’ll want to set some basic ground rules concerning the kinds of volunteering efforts you want employees to engage in or specific organizations that you’d like to target with your company’s hours of service. Not only can these parameters help protect you in potential workers’ compensation situations, but they can also save you PR headaches from an employee being affiliated with an organization that doesn’t align with your business’ values.
Tips for selecting a volunteer partner
Like most other activities that you engage in, you’ll want to select a nonprofit to volunteer with that reflects the values and mission of your company. If your company is in the real estate or construction industry you may consider volunteering with Habitat for Humanity or a homeless shelter in your city.
Selecting activities or programs that align with your employees’ interests can help encourage employees to participate in the program. Considering developing a list of options and allowing employees to vote on how to spend their volunteer time.
If your work environment doesn’t allow for employees to be offsite, you can bring the volunteer efforts to them. Canned food drives, clothing drives, and collection drives for homeless shelters all allow your employees to give back to their communities without taking them away from the workplace.
Before committing to volunteer with a nonprofit organization, make sure that you do your research on their background. Guidestar.org provides valuable data and background information on all registered nonprofits in the United States, allowing you to make a smart decision about your volunteer efforts.
Write a volunteer policy
If you are considering starting or expanding your holiday volunteer program, you’ll need a clear policy for your employees. This policy should take into account the practical effects that volunteerism will have on your daily business and how employees will qualify for and participate in the program.
Creating a written policy that addresses all of the factors that could impact your holiday volunteerism efforts will help to educate your employees about the program and set the ground rules for how the program will operate. Your policy should take into account your goals and aims for your volunteer program and ensure that your business is able to run smoothly, even when you have an employee out of the office for volunteer efforts.
Volunteerism and Sheakley
Whatever the aims of your holiday volunteer program, employee empowerment is key to getting a full return on investment on your corporate volunteerism program. By giving your employees a voice in the decisions about the charitable efforts your company supports, you can create high levels of commitment and pride among your employees. Sheakley’s HR Management division can help you develop volunteer policies for your employees that ensure the success of your volunteering programs.
Schedule your free consultation with a Sheakley HR professional today. Stay up-to-date on all things Sheakley by subscribing to our blog and following us on social media. Join in the discussion by commenting below.
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