Fundamentals of Employee Volunteering Programs

Introduction

As employers, we spend a lot of time trying to attract the best employees, make them happy, increase productivity, create a corporate culture and positively present ourselves to the community. As a socially driven business, we also spend the time and resources to develop practices that advance the mission we stand for.

One solution that helps us satisfy all of these objectives–the employee volunteer program.  Building a corporate volunteer program that delivers these benefits is not brain surgery, but it takes more than rounding up some employees on a Saturday for Habitat for Humanity.  

This GLOMACS training course on Fundamentals of Employee Volunteering outlines the benefits, process and common questions around creating an effective corporate volunteer program.

This training course will highlight:

• Developing programs that reflect the organization’s mission and values.
• Ideas to help staff at all levels to understand the societal impact of business decisions and the role of the organization’s activities to improve the local community.
• How to coordinate with other business leaders to integrate volunteering objectives throughout the organization.
• How to coordinate with other business leaders to develop and implement appropriate levels of transparency and corporate self-governance.
• How to assist management on developing corporate stances on technology usage, environmental policy and human rights.

Objectives

Corporate volunteering is a way for business to enable their employees to give back and contribute to communities. It’s usually accompanied by volunteering time off VTO or other policies that empower employees to work with a larger purpose outside of their world of work.

At the end of this training course, participants will understand how to:

• Connect their employer branding and recruiting programs to the volunteering efforts.
• Identify the organization as one that encourages their employees to give back to their community.
• Determine how your volunteer program helps the organization meet its mission and corporate objectives.
• How to determine the relationship between volunteering and employee performance.
• How to connect employees to the volunteering program.

Training Methodology

This training course will utilize a range of proven adult learning techniques that will ensure maximum understanding and retention of the information included in the program. This will include group discussions, case studies, presentations via power-point and other exercises.

Organisational Impact

Here are four reasons why employee volunteer programs are a positive influence on employee engagement, as well as other aspects of business.

• Creating a workplace that allows employees to find pride in both the company they work for and the work they do helps to keep them.
• Attracting and hiring the best talent in the industry is what every company wants. Volunteer programs can increase the attraction of a business for potential employees.
• Getting employees involved can increase the commitment they feel towards their job duties and the company they represent.
• Implementing a volunteer program can be an effective way to help employees develop skills that will, in turn, be beneficial to their job performance.

Personal Impact

The participant in this training course will enhance their own competencies as a human resource professional and be able to apply these competencies to their own organizations.

• Improve the retention rate of the employees, especially key employees.
• Enhance the recruiting efforts of the organization by attracting more qualified applicants.
• Assist with increasing employee engagement efforts.
• Improve and enhance their own professional skills.