Posts Tagged ‘mission statement’

12 Benefits from Employee Volunteer Programs

Tuesday, August 14th, 2012

Employee volunteer programs are a great way to not only benefit your community, but also your workplace environment and employees. It is easy to begin one of these programs within your office environment. By serving your community as an organization, the community will get to know your business and their employees. Establishing a personal connection with the community will improve the overall attitude that your community has toward your business.

Do you still not believe that an employee volunteer program is worth the time and energy? Check out the top twelve benefits reported by companies who have employee volunteer programs as part of their business plan.

  1. Helps create “healthier communities:” Concepts such as corporate social responsibility create more vibrant and thriving communities because it allows business to practice greener methods and sustainable business measures.
  2. Improves corporate public image: When your business chooses to give back to the community, it is often viewed as a sign of generosity and appreciation from those living in the community. Volunteering shows that your business truly cares about the community and the people with which it operates.
  3. Enhancing impact of monetary donations: Organizations will be more appreciative of your donations when they link a personal value to the donation. Do not just throw money at an organization, but rather help enhance that organization through volunteerism.
  4. Improving relations with community and/ or government: The overall community will think more highly of your business when they see the good that it does for the entire community.
  5. Building employees’ teamwork skills: The best way for your employee to get to know each other outside of a work environment is to serve together. It allows employees to interact with coworkers they may never communicate or work with.
  6. Improving employee morale: Volunteering boosts motivation and allows employees to work with each other outside of an office setting. When employees have the chance to give back in a meaningful way for something they care about, they will feel more positively connected to the organization.
  7. Attracting better employees: Your business will have a better chance at recruiting more motivated and driven employees when it offers the chance to give back to the community in addition to work benefits.
  8. Enhancing employee training: Great way to teach your employees useful skills, through volunteer work.
  9. Improving employee retention: Your employees will feel more connected to the company and want to continue their work there when  they feel the issues they care about are also important to their company.
  10. Enhancing corporate strategic goals: You can model your volunteer program strategy to accomplish your overall mission statement goals.
  11. Enhancing employee productivity: When employees get a break from the office, they become better workers when they return.
  12. Enhancing company productivity: Get your company’s goals accomplished through volunteering!
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6 Tips for Writing an Awesome Volunteer Position Description

Wednesday, July 13th, 2011

When you’re recruiting volunteers for a project, it’s nearly unavoidable that you’ll have to write a position description for the position you’re recruiting volunteers for. Recruiting volunteers face-to-face is great, but you might not find all of the volunteers your organization needs while you’re waiting in line at the grocery store.

The position description for the volunteer position you’re recruiting for might be the first contact a potential volunteer has with your organization, here are some tips for making it great!

Have a great headline. Do you read a newspaper article if the headline doesn’t interest you? Make sure the first thing that a volunteer sees on the position description is interesting and exciting. If you’re recruiting a volunteer to help socialize animals at a shelter, “Animal Shelter Volunteer” could work for a headline, but what about “Wet Nose Looking For A Dry Nose,” or “Share Your Life With Someone Who Has Nine?”

Introduce your organization. Don’t assume that everyone knows about your organization. Let volunteers know what you do and how you benefit the community. If you can avoid it, don’t copy and paste your mission statement into the description. While it’s important to share your mission with volunteers, try sharing it in a way that’s playful and exciting. If your mission statement is written that way, great!

Make it exciting! Take a look at some job postings. It’s rare that a job posting is anything more than facts about the position (the Photojojo folks laugh in the face of boring job descriptions). That’s not to say that you should make things up about the volunteer position, or that facts aren’t important, but you can put a great spin on the facts. Have a little fun writing the position – it’s ok; volunteering isn’t serious business all of the time.

Who is your ideal volunteer? Everyone should answer this questions along the lines of “someone who is extremely skilled, has eight arms, sixty hours a week to volunteer, is psychic, and can travel through space and time at will.” We all want a volunteer like this, right? Why not share your idea of an ideal volunteer, even if it’s outrageous, and build that into your position description? Do you need someone with eight arms? Ask for it, and then be open that you’re really looking for four volunteers.

Remember that volunteers are as important as staff. Make it show in your position description! If there’s an opportunity for volunteers to take on leadership positions within your organization, make sure to highlight them. The opportunity might not be there on the volunteer’s first day, but if there’s a potential for growing into leadership, don’t forget to include it.

Tell what a day of volunteering looks like. Try to describe what a day of volunteering look like. There are exciting things that the volunteer will be doing, and probably some things that aren’t as exciting. Be open about the volunteer’s tasks and talk about them in a way that demonstrates their importance to the organization.

 

How do you make volunteer position descriptions exciting? Let us know in the comments!

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Posted in Volunteer Recruitment, Volunteering | 3 Comments »