As a B Corporation, GreenHouse Eco-Cleaning is focused on doing well by doing good–it’s part of our company DNA and is how we do business each and every day. It is important for us that our employees become a part of our mission–it is through their enthusiasm and hard work that our mission to create a cleaner, healthier world is carried out into our communities. Even if you are not a socially driven company, encouraging your employees to volunteer makes good business sense. Studies show that employees who are encouraged to volunteer for a cause are happier and more productive–and, it will help you attract the best talent.
Where do you begin? Here are 5 tips for creating an employee volunteer program:
Discover Employee Interest
Do a quick survey of your employees to find out which community organizations and/or overall community needs are of most interest to them as well as what type of volunteer experience they already have. Once you have this internal information, contact local agencies such as the United Way to determine the needs of your community and volunteer opportunities that may be a good fit.
Make Sure It Fits
We really can’t emphasize enough the importance of making sure you select an organization or cause that is not only appropriate for your company’s overall mission and interests, but is appropriate for your company’s size and culture. “It is essential to not only confirm that the non-profit has a significant impact in the community, but also that your company will have an impact on the non-profit,” writes Ryan Scott in a post for CauseCast. “An organization and a company might, independent of one another, do great things for the community, but if your business is a mismatch with the non-profit, your partnership will not be successful.”
Create Levels of Involvement
Make it easy for all employees to participate by creating different levels of involvement. For example, plan a company sponsored service day where employees are given the day off to volunteer as part of a community-wide program, organize volunteer efforts via your internal teams allowing them to volunteer time that is in line with their skills (i.e. your accounting team could provide a day of bookkeeping services for a nonprofit) or allow employees to participate in individual volunteer programs during work hours (i.e. attend a nonprofit board meeting). Knowing that your employees lead very busy lives outside of your company, you want to make sure you have ways for them to participate even if they are time-crunched.
Keep Employees Motivated
One of the best ways to keep your employees motivated is to show them the affects of their efforts. A great idea we found from BusinessDoingGood.com is to calculate the value of volunteerism. Record the hours served doing volunteer work and apply the rate for a volunteer hour (find this at the Independent Sector). Share this information with your employees on a regular basis. Also, consider offering employee incentives such as earned time off or dinner with the CEO for those who have served. “A word of caution,” suggests BusinessDoingGood.com. “What’s meaningful to one person may not be meaningful to another, so keep that in mind. For example, dining with the CEO at a great restaurant might motivate the more outgoing employees on your staff while doing the opposite to those who prefer to stay behind their computer screens and would rather wear shorts and flip flops instead of suits and ties.”
Don’t Forget Your Business Objectives
A good employee volunteer program is not only good for the community and your employees, but should be good for your business. Create a business plan for your program that includes your overall business objectives–this will make sure your efforts align with your company’s overall mission, values and bottom line goals.
Talk to us: Does your company currently have an employee volunteer program? Why or why not?
image courtesy of flickr CC/San José Library