Why Nobody (really) Cares How Many Hours Your Employees Volunteered

The number of hours a company invests in employee volunteering is like aircraft maintenance - which is to say, it is vitally important. It is not, however, what your customers want to know about. 

Every week, scores of companies publish press releases about their community investment programs. Many have to do with financial donations, but more and more are written about employee volunteering programs. 

While I am wildly enthusiastic about corporate volunteering, these press releases are a waste of time.

Press Releases: All the Wrong Info

First: Companies are talking about the wrong things through the wrong mediums. As I’ve mentioned before, most companies don’t understand how to “speak CSR.” What’s more, a press release is one of the least effective means of sharing this kind of information. (More on the irrelevance of the medium.)

Second: As far as I can tell, most companies don’t understand the purpose of their employee volunteer programs. Many corporations have an intuitive notion that volunteering is the “right” thing to do (morally) and that it is an essential component of their CSR strategy. Despite these sentiments, a recent report in the UK provides the following, eye-opening info: "most managers confess not knowing how to measure the benefits of volunteering was a barrier to encouraging employees to take part (38%).” 

Outcomes vs Impacts

Instead of measuring the actual benefits, most companies report how many hours they spent painting walls, cleaning parks, serving food, teaching classes and raising money. These are not bad activities, they’re just....activities, a means to an end. Serving food does nothing to eliminate hunger. When people show up at a soup kitchen to hand out food, they are not making a dent in poverty.

I want to go on record at this point: Serving at soup kitchens is profoundly important. But one plate of donated food does not connect to the systemic injustice that creates and perpetuates poverty.

Here’s an example of what I mean:

When you board a plane for a flight, do you find yourself wondering if the airline spent a sufficient number of hours maintaining this plane? Do you do a google search on your smartphone as you’re looking for your seat: “hours spent in plane maintenance”? 

Me? I have never once thought to ask about how many hours the airline spent in maintenance. Never. 

(Turns out it’s a complicated and time intensive process. Which is....a good thing. Obviously, these types of safety protocols have probably kept millions of us alive as we careen across continents and oceans strapped to flying steel.)

Here’s what I do ask about: How often is the airline on time? Are they likely to loose my bags? How many customer complaints do they get? 

(Last week the Wall Street Journal posted the rankings for major airlines in the USA. Interestingly, I’m going to be flying on the worst ranked airline for the next couple of trips in January. Kinda wish I read the article first...)

Here’s the point: There is an important connection between the information I don’t care about and the information I do care about. As in, one directly affects the other, such as: maintenance is a key factor in airline performance which affects whether or not I arrive on time.

The number of hours a company invests in employee volunteering is like aircraft maintenance - which is to say, it is vitally important. It is not, however, what your customers want to know about. Your customers are concerned about the impacts (results) of your program’s activities; not the inputs and outputs (resources and activities).

Worst Case Scenario

With our clients, we facilitate a 2-day workshop during which one of the most important activities is creating a Theory of Change Model (also known as a Logic Model). During this process we come to understand the enormous differences between immediate 'outputs' and long term impacts. Outputs show the number of hours donated by employees, the number of trees planted, the number of classes taught. Impacts show how the world is better because of those activities. 

If you’re only measuring outputs (and this is the case with most companies), chances are you’re wasting valuable resources on inappropriate activities. You might even be burning up the capacity of the schools and nonprofits you’re trying to help. Worst case scenario, the world is worse off because of your company’s “help.” (For an example of what I mean by “worse off”, read this article about how UNICEF and the UN poisoned millions of people in Bangladesh).

One of the worst offenders we’ve seen lately in reporting on activities and outputs instead of meaningful outcomes and impacts is Alcoa. In a recent press release Alcoa boasted that it had achieved "employee volunteerism rates significantly higher than the corporate average."

"The record volunteerism rate was reached during the company’s fifth annual Month of Service in October, during which more than 29,000 Alcoa employees across 24 countries volunteered in close to 1,000 volunteer events. 

The 49 percent employee volunteer participation recorded during Alcoa’s Month of Service is significantly higher rate than the corporate average, based on data collected by the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship."

To be fair, the Alcoa press release also included the number of kids they taught, how many trees they planted and how many plates of food they passed out. That’s great information for Alcoa’s HR and CSR managers...but for the rest of us, it probably doesn’t mean anything. 

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At Realized Worth, we work with companies to create outstanding employee volunteer programs. 

Contact us here to talk about what we can do for you:

317.371.4435 or chrisjarvis@realizedworth.com & angela@realizedworth.com

Why Nobody (really) Cares How Many Hours Your Employees Volunteered