A few days ago, Deloitte released their 2011 Volunteer IMPACT Survey which looks at the connection between volunteering in the workplace and employee engagement – focusing on millennials in the workplace. The survey found that millennials who frequently participate in workplace volunteer activities are more likely to be proud, loyal, and satisfied employees as compared to those who rarely or never volunteered.

Millennials who frequently participate in their company’s volunteer activities are:

• Twice as likely to rate their corporate culture as very positive, as compared to millennials who rarely or never volunteer (56% versus 36%)
• More likely to be very proud to work for their company (55% versus 36%)
• Nearly twice as likely to be very satisfied with the progression of their career (37% versus 21%)

The survey also looked at barriers to millennials’ engagement with employee volunteer programs. Seventy-one percent of millenials who don’t volunteer with their employee volunteer programs say they don’t have time to volunteer.

Companies can support their millennial employee’s desire to volunteer with strong employee volunteer programs. Here are some tips for building strong programs:

• Twelve Tips for Planning an Employee Volunteer Program
• Seven Steps for a Successful Company-Sponsored Project
• Four Benefits of Employee Volunteer Programs

Companies can also structure their volunteer programs to address millennials’ perception that they don’t have enough time to volunteer.

• Give employees more time to volunteer. Build time for volunteering into your company’s pay structure. Allow employees to earn paid hours to volunteer while they’re working. Give them two hours a week, or a day a month (or more!), of paid time to volunteer in their communities.
• Bring small volunteer tasks to your employees. Try providing volunteer opportunities to your employees that can happen in the office. Try building disaster preparedness kits or toiletry kits in the office and taking the completed kits to an organization that can distribute them. Don’t forget to plan the event with the organization that will benefit from the work.
• Bring employee volunteering online.Sparked has an employee volunteering program that is completely online and is built on small volunteer tasks that employees can do at their desk during a coffee break. Time to devote specifically to volunteering can be built into employees’ days so that it’s even easier for them to volunteer while they’re in the office.

Do you run an employee volunteer program? Are you a millennial that volunteers through your job? What makes volunteering an important part of your work life? Let us know in the comments!