Posts Tagged ‘Employee Volunteer Program’

Twelve Tips for Planning an Employee Volunteer Event

Monday, September 10th, 2012

Employee volunteer programs are starting to become important parts of companies’ business plans instead of just an afterthought in corporate planning.

Starting an employee volunteer program shouldn’t happen on whim. While it may seem easy enough to get a group of employees together for a volunteer event, some planning needs to go into your employee volunteer program or it won’t be as successful as it could be.

Try building a relationship with a local nonprofit and partner with them on planning your employee volunteer events. Work together with them to plan volunteer events where employees can have fun and can see that they’ve had an impact.

Make sure that resources are in place to support an employee volunteer program. Having a staff member whose responsibility it is to work with a nonprofit partner to ensure successful volunteer events is essential to the program’s acceptance and growth.

Here are a few more things to keep in mind when planning an employee volunteer event.

Planning

  • Verify all of the logistical information before sharing the information
  • Be sure to choose a task that doesn’t require any special skills, or plan time to train the employees before the event
  • Communicating with the partner agency is essential to a successful and enjoyable event

Project Design

  • Work with organizations that have projects where employees and their families can see and experience the impact of their work
  • Make sure the project meets a real community need and is seen as a benefit to the community
  • Don’t simply have the employees and their families do a task, turn the project into a learning experience

Management

  • Provide an orientation to the families prior to the project
  • Provide opportunities for the families to interact with one another
  • Explain to your volunteers the mission and goals for the organization and what is hoped to be accomplished as a result of the project

Risk Management

  • Assess the project site before the event for safety
  • Identify any equipment or areas of the project site that may be unsafe or a liability concern
  • Inform family members that they must report any accident or injury and to whom they should report

 

The Key to Unlocking the Benefits of Corporate Volunteering, part 2

Monday, September 19th, 2011

Today’s post comes from Chris Jarvis, Co-Founder and Senior Consultant for RealizedWorth and appeared on Realizing Your Worth on September 6. This is the second of two parts, don’t forget to read The Key To Unlocking the Benefits of Corporate Volunteering, part 1.


Corporate Volunteering is a Both/And Approach

Companies looking to generate high levels of impact as a result of their corporate volunteering programs need to pay attention to three realities and requirements:

REALITY ONE: Most employees don’t volunteer and are not interested in significant commitments.

On average only one out of three employees volunteer on a regular basis (UK, USA, and Canada). Yet companies have the amazing opportunity to promote volunteerism through corporate volunteering programs. According to the University of Toronto, in 2009, 42% of surveyed employees in Canada volunteered for the first time (in their lives) through the corporate volunteering program.

Business has the opportunity to significantly increase the civic engagement in the communities and nations in which they operate.

REQUIREMENT ONE: Provide employees quality experiences which allow them to explore the idea of volunteering and how it connects to them personally.

Companies need to design employee volunteering programs that allow their employees to fall in love with volunteering. This may involve skill-based activities, but at this stage it’s not about impact – it’s about conversion. It’s about creating a business culture where civic engagement is the norm.

Here’s how to do it:

Understanding The Journey of a Volunteer – Part 1

Understanding The Journey of a Volunteer – Part 2

The Key To An Engaging Volunteer Program

REALITY TWO: One out of three employees does volunteer on a regular basis, but probably not as part of the corporate volunteer program.

Many people view volunteering as a personal activity. Corporate volunteering programs are a nice option for those employees who volunteer regularly, but they’ve already made a connection with a cause or community that fits their interests. A significant number of these employees are volunteering their skills and they are highly committed.

REQUIREMENT TWO: Find and collaborate with these seasoned volunteers.

If you want your program to get off the ground, you need to find the employees who are already volunteering. They are influential because they possess the experience, knowledge and compelling stories to convince their colleagues (who have never volunteered) to try it out.

Here’s how to do it:

REALITY THREE: If the company’s assets are not essential to the employee volunteering program, it’s not having the impact it could.

There are major pharmaceutical companies that plant trees as the main employee volunteering activity. That’s good because it may turn a number of employees on to volunteering – but it’s not good enough.

Why?

Because anyone can plant trees. The pharmaceutical company is not adding anything to the equation.

Even if the pharmaceutical company was encouraging pro bono work among it’s accounts as part of the project, it’s still not good enough. Accountants don’t need their employer to volunteer in that scenario.

Remember the litmus test: If you were to remove your company from the equation, would it matter? That litmus test applies to both skilled and non-skilled volunteering.

REQUIREMENT THREE: Design corporate volunteering programs that depend on the business’ unique tangible or intangible assets ()

Here’s a great example of how to do it:

The Future of Employee Volunteering

Employee volunteering programs need to offer opportunities to experience volunteering and fall in love with it. This takes time. It also requires enjoyable experiences that ask for low commitment.

Companies also need to enable/allow employees to invest their skills and abilities in ways that increase the impact of the nonprofit or community they serve. (Through Taproot, for example! They are brilliant at this.) If your employees connect with a cause or community, they’ll most likely be looking for this kind of opportunity.

In both cases, companies need to design these volunteering experiences in light of their brand and unique resources. This is the key to unlocking the profound benefits of corporate volunteering.

Seven Steps for a Successful Company-Sponsored Project

Tuesday, June 14th, 2011

Start a project committee. Designate a committee leader, such as an employee volunteer program manager, who will recruit representatives from other departments. A diverse committee can recruit volunteers from all parts of the organization. Engage your company’s management to further help champion the project and provide visible support.

Choose a project. Decide what activities are appropriate for your location and your employee volunteers. Consider corporate community involvement goals, employee interests and skills, community needs, and existing volunteer opportunities. Consider projects that encourage and provide opportunities for family volunteering. For more ideas, contact your local HandsOn Action Center or your local Corporate Volunteer Council, a coalition of businesses that are developing or have active employee volunteer programs, is also an excellent resource.

Contact a partner organization. Contact the prospective recipient organization to make sure they can use your services. Agree upon the objective, time, and location of the project, what supplies are needed, how many volunteers are needed, the project evaluation, and any other critical project management activities.

Communicate the project. Start posting fliers and posters throughout your office to recruit employee volunteers. Distribute a memo from top-level management encouraging employees to participate. Include messages in company newsletters, e-mail messages, and meetings. Also have executive secretaries, union leaders, and office managers recruit volunteers within their department.

Recruit volunteers. Hold meetings to explain the project. Sign-up volunteers for specic tasks. Send periodic pre-event updates to volunteers with event details, names of volunteers who have signed up, celebration party details, etc. Build excitement by showing the planned activities or distributing creative reminders. Approach employees one-on-one and do not forget to engage senior management as volunteers as well. A personal ask to volunteer goes a long way!

Finalize checklist. Verify that needed supplies are available. Go over the details with the partner organization. Organize leadership participation and support. Provide volunteers with clear instructions about event details. Distribute company logo volunteer T-shirts or buttons for employees to wear during the project.

Plan for media coverage. Partner with your internal communications department to contact the media and distribute press releases detailing your projects and the results of your effort to the community. Plan to arrange for a photographer—either an employee or professional photographer—to document the event. Be sure to get action shots and be able to identify people in the pictures.

Post-project steps. Plan a celebratory event immediately following the project. Recognize volunteers with certificates of appreciation or small tokens. Highlight volunteers in your annual report, internal newsletter, or at a special luncheon. Solicit volunteer feedback and evaluate the project. Post photos and results of project.

Twelve Tips for Planning an Employee Volunteer Event

Thursday, April 7th, 2011

Employee volunteer programs are starting to become important parts of companies’ business plans instead of just an afterthought in corporate planning.

Starting an employee volunteer program shouldn’t happen on whim. While it may seem easy enough to get a group of employees together for a volunteer event, some planning needs to go into your employee volunteer program or it won’t be as successful as it could be.

Try building a relationship with a local nonprofit and partner with them on planning your employee volunteer events. Work together with them to plan volunteer events where employees can have fun and can see that they’ve had an impact.

Make sure that resources are in place to support an employee volunteer program. Having a staff member whose responsibility it is to work with a nonprofit partner to ensure successful volunteer events is essential to the program’s acceptance and growth.

Here are a few more things to keep in mind when planning an employee volunteer event.

Planning

  • Verify all of the logistical information before sharing the information
  • Be sure to choose a task that doesn’t require any special skills, or plan time to train the employees before the event
  • Communicating with the partner agency is essential to a successful and enjoyable event

Project Design

  • Work with organizations that have projects where employees and their families can see and experience the impact of their work
  • Make sure the project meets a real community need and is seen as a benefit to the community
  • Don’t simply have the employees and their families do a task, turn the project into a learning experience

Management

  • Provide an orientation to the families prior to the project
  • Provide opportunities for the families to interact with one another
  • Explain to your volunteers the mission and goals for the organization and what is hoped to be accomplished as a result of the project

Risk Management

  • Assess the project site before the event for safety
  • Identify any equipment or areas of the project site that may be unsafe or a liability concern
  • Inform family members that they must report any accident or injury and to whom they should report