The Business Case for Employee Volunteering - Case #6

Case #6 - Healthier Employees

Employee volunteering programs generate multiple health benefits in the workplace. For companies that want to decrease their health costs, volunteering is an affordable and accessible solution.

Health care is expensive. In the US, a recent survey conducted by the National Business Group on Health estimated health care costs for large American employers such as GE, Microsoft and GM will jump by 8.9%. Mitigating these increasing expenses is a priority for companies.

An employee volunteering program may be a good option.

Employee Volunteering is Healthy

In a recent study conducted by VolunteerMatch and UnitedHealthcare entitled “Do Good Live Well Study Reviewing the Benefits of Volunteering” researchers found that employees who volunteer through their workplace report improved physical and emotional health. The specific benefits include reduced obesity, reduced stress, increased levels of activity, a more positive emotional state and higher levels of overall satisfaction with life.

In a report released in 2007 by the Corporation for National Community Service (CNCS) revealed that several longitudinal studies revealed that people who volunteer live longer. Even after accounting for factors such as physical health, age, socioeconomic status and gender, the overall positive effect of longevity persisted. Even more interesting is the fact that these results were evident at a macro level. States with higher levels of volunteering enjoy lower rates of health concerns such as heart disease (read the PDF).

For companies that want to decrease their health costs, volunteering is an affordable and accessible solution.

What’s the connection between volunteering and health?

Safety

As we noted in our first blog in this series, there is a connection between volunteering and employee engagement. It turns out that increased employee engagement in the workplace leads to lower levels of boredom and risk-taking thereby reducing injuries. An extensive meta-analysis of 7,939 business units across 36 companies reveals that when employees are engaged in their roles and tasks at work there is an increase in the attention to workplace safety (read the PDF).

Connection #1 - Employee volunteering leads to engagement in the workplace. Engaged employees practice safety. Safer employees reduce health care costs.

Social Support

Improved relational connections have the immediate benefit of increasing trust and empathy. This type of positive relationship increases the level of cooperation within the workplace and may be one of the most important ingredients toward improving general productivity. Employee volunteering programs tend to foster trusting relationships between the participants. We’ve recently written about the importance of a highly relational and networked company. Functional social networks are necessary for strong ‘social supports’ to exist.

Researchers have observed that strong social supports in the workplace not only protect against poor health and mental health problems, but also increase job satisfaction, lower absenteeism, and reduce the potential for job induced psychological distress. These same researchers believe that creating and improving opportunities “for supportive social contact are a high priority” and could even be viewed as ethically mandated (read the PDF).

Dr Shelley Taylor, a professor of psychology at UCLA, defines social support as “the perception or experience that one is cared about by others, esteemed and valued, and is part of a social network of mutual assistance and obligations. Social support can be emotional, instrumental (or practical), and informational, and in the workplace it occurs through social interactions with coworkers and supervisors” (read the PDF).

Connection #2 - Corporate volunteering fosters a unique expression of corporate connectivity. Increased connectivity in the workplace results in stronger social support for employees. Strong social support reduces negative health issues while increasing positive health benefits.

How to Create a Healthy Workplace Through Volunteering
(a couple reminders)

Social support in the workplace can take many forms. For companies looking for an effective approach that accomplishes numerous benefits throughout the organization, a corporate volunteering program is an excellent option. Just remember:

1. Offering employees free space to work together and relate socially is more important than trying to force closeness and intimacy. Understanding the Stages of theVolunteer is instrumental in this process.

2. Social support can backfire easily if it feels mandated. This goes for the entire volunteer experience. Offer people the opportunity to participate at the level they feelcomfortable.

3. Make sure that the employee volunteering events include a good mix of people from other departments and hierarchical levels of the organization. There are numerous benefits to thisapproach, some of which we’ve already discussed in this post. 

 

Be sure to check out the other blogs in this series:

Business Case #1: Employee Volunteering Creates Employee Engagement

Business Case #2: Employee Volunteering Attracts Better Talent

Business Case #3: Employee Volunteering Is Employee Development

Business Case #4: Employee Volunteering Offers A Competitive Advantage

Business Case #5: Employee Volunteering Increased Corporate Intelligence

Give us a call to discuss your company's employee volunteering needs: 317.371.4435 or email us here: chrisjarvis@realizedworth.com or angela@realizedworth.com

 

The Business Case for Employee Volunteering - Case #6

Hiring a Corporate Volunteering Consultant? Here’s what to expect.

Your consultant should be intelligent, experienced, and competent. Here are a few pointers to help you choose the corporate volunteering consultant who can meet your company's needs.

Most of our readers work in the field of Corporate Citizenship, CSR, Corporate Community Investment and Corporate Volunteering. The majority are directly responsible for their company’s employee volunteering programs.

In conversations with these readers, we’ve become aware of a significant increase in the number of large companies interested in either starting or expanding their employee volunteer programs.


We’re not imagining things...

Sure, examples of corporate volunteering have been around since the early 1900’s in the US. But now, almost one third of US corporations embrace some form of employee volunteering, representing a growth of almost 150% in the last few decades. These days, it is widely accepted that employee volunteering is a key component for the success of a company’s CSR and Corporate Citizenship strategies.

So...why the growth? Why this incredible interest in employee volunteering?

One perspective is the fact that employee volunteering is able to provide an effective strategy with which to address often negative or at best suspicious relationships that sometime exist between business and society. The potential of this strategy becomes even more profound given the backdrop of weakened nation states and globalized societies.

In addition to the relational benefits, there are also strong business benefits to be had. Corporate volunteering programs promise returns beyond traditional philanthropic activities; they add value to the recruitment potential, retention rates, training, development, loyalty and overall satisfaction of the company’s staff.

Check out our latest series on the Business Case for Employee Volunteering:

Case #1: Employee Engagement
Case #2: Better Talent
Case #3: Employee Development
Case #4: Competitive Advantage

Getting some help...

Since the ideas, theories and practices surrounding employee volunteering are relatively new, where to start when building an corporate volunteer program can be unclear. There are multiple questions to answer, each seemingly leading to even more questions:

1. What is a best practice - and why?
2. What are some good benchmarks when it comes to participation rates?
3. What kind of risks are involved?
4. How do other companies achieve widespread support and agreement around programatic elements?
5. What kind of recognition and reward incentives work?
6. How big of a budget will this require?
7. Is it a good idea to connect workplace giving programs with volunteering?
8. How should nonprofit’s be vetted and then partnerships formed?
9. What is appropriate when it comes to promoting the program inside and outside of the company?
10. What kind of metrics can or should be collected and for what purpose?

Consequently, many companies are looking to consulting firms for help - and even that task becomes daunting as they try to determine what kind of kind of help to ask for and where to look.

You can peruse this blog to find some guidance in this area, but in case you’re still feeling unclear, we’ve complied a short list outlining what kind of help you should expect from consulting firms when it comes to employee volunteering.

1. Intelligence (Duh.)

Research is an important aspect in the development of any theory or practice. Employee volunteering is new enough that there are relatively few voices contributing to research which means there is quite a bit of work to be done in the field. It also means that any consultant worth their salt is active in either researching and/or writing on the topic.

There is a wide range in the type of work that reveal the “smarts” of your consultant. First, your consultant should be making concerted efforts to keep his/her finger on the international pulse of corporate social responsibility. It may look different from one consultant to one another, but one way we chose to do this was by conducting a major survey of 150 companies in Canada, USA, and the UK. (Watch for its release soon.)

Second, contributions to academic research will show that your consultant’s perspective has been tested and proves relevant. A great example of this kind of research is The Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship report Mapping Success in Employee Volunteering: The Drivers of Effectiveness for Employee Volunteering and Giving Programs and Fortune 500 Performance, authored by Bea Bocolandro.

Writing a book on the topic is, of course, a great indicator that the consultant is informed on the topic. Elaine Cohen did this with her new book, CSR for HR. Two other great ones on slightly broader topics are Joe Waters’ Cause Marketing for Dummies and Jason Saul’s The End of Fundraising.

2. Experience

Hiring a consultant who knows how to consult is not the same thing as hiring a consultant who knows the field for which they are consulting. Both are obviously important, but actual experience with volunteering and designing successful approaches is essential. Often we find large consulting firms offering expertise in the area of employee volunteering - who really haven’t figured out how to do it for themselves. Since employee volunteering is growing so quickly it seems every type of consulting agency is being asked to provide services. PR firms, marketing agencies, engineering firms, financial firms, you name it - if they are consulting on some related aspect of CSR, they are being asked to help out with employee engagement and employee volunteering programs.

Some of these firms have the expertise to help you research, design and implement a good volunteering program. Most do not.

One way to determine if your consulting firm has the experience you need is to ask how many of their consultants have been employed with nonprofits. This is usually a good indicator of their ability to appreciate the subtleties of not only partnership with nonprofits, but of the volunteering experience itself.

Another indicator is whether the consultant (or their firm) has appropriate experience is by whether or not they provide training, seminars and education specific to volunteering and employee engagement in volunteer activities. This can take many forms of course, but typically the more a consultant is asked to speak on the topic of volunteering, the more depth of experience they are offering their audiences.

3. Competence

A competent consultant will be able to bring together all of that knowledge, experience and skill to provide a client with the required help. Expecting a consultant to be competent feels like a no-brainer, but consultants will have varying degrees of competency based on the type of work required.

For example, when starting a new employee volunteer program, many companies are merely looking to plan and execute a successful half-day employee volunteering event. If that’s what you need help with, you actually have quite a few options, such as:

• The Hands On Network - USA
• Canadian Business for Social Responsibility
• Volunteer Match - large network of nonprofits in the USA
• Volunteering Australia - online guides
• Business in the Community - ‘turn-key’ programs in the UK
• Community Business - practical help and training in Hong Kong
• Hungarian InterChurch Aid
• Volunteer Canada

If you want a consulting organization with competencies specific to skills-based volunteering you can check out these organizations:

• Taproot Foundation - USA
• Common Impact - USA
• Employee Volunteering - UK

Another indicator of competence is in how a consultant responds to your hiring inquiry. If they are well-informed about the field, they will understand that not all companies want the same thing when it comes to employee volunteering. They will ask you about your company, your CSR history, and your long-term goals. Essentially, a competent consultant will assess you as much as you’re assessing them. You may or may not be a good fit as a client and they will not want to take on someone that’s not right for them.

We use the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship matrix when figuring out whether or not a client is a good fit. You can watch this video for our description of the 5 Stages of Corporate Citizenship. Basically, if the company is Stage 3 or higher, it might be a great fit. Otherwise, we recommend looking for a consultant with competencies specific to planning corporate volunteering events that will provide a strong foundation while yielding good PR elements.

If you are looking for some help designing and implementing a quality employee volunteer program, here is a short list of consultants that we can vouch for as more than competent:

USA: Bea Boccalandro is a Boston College Center instructor and is president of VeraWorks, a global consulting firm that helps companies with their community involvement. She has helped Aetna, Bank of America, Levi Strauss & Company, The Walt Disney Company and others develop and enhance their community involvement through research, strategy design, program development and evaluation.

Canada: Peggie Pelosi, Founder and CEO of Orenda. Peggie has spent her career inspiring international business leaders through her speaking, coaching and writing—all based on 20 years of personal sales success. Her greatest inspiration, however, has come from corporate philanthropy—a means for companies to move forward by giving back.

Brazil: Mónica Galiano, Senior Researcher at Global Corporate Volunteer Council (GCVC) and the President of Iniciativa Brazil. Monica recently helped produced the report “Global Companies Volunteering Globally” by the GCVC of the International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE).

USA: The good folks at the Entrepreneurs Foundation. EF is able to provide help to companies that may be lacking resources to build employee volunteer programs. They offer comprehensive approach for building corporate philanthropy and community involvement programs.

Drop us a line

Our own work at Realized Worth is focused on designing and implementing ongoing employee volunteer programs. We work with clients toward a sustainable approach that uses the leadership and influence of the employees instead of relying on staff alone. If you’re interested, you can read more here or give us a call. We’re happy to discuss your consulting needs and help direct you to the help that’s appropriate for you.

You can reach us here: 317.371.4435 or chrisjarvis@realizedworth.com or angela@realizedworth.com

Hiring a Corporate Volunteering Consultant? Here’s what to expect.

The Business Case for Employee Volunteering - Case #5

Case #5 - A Smarter Company

Employee volunteer programs have incredible potential to increase your company’s intelligence.

Smart people impress me. The ability to retain and recall pertinent information and then synthesis the collected data in meaningful ways that address current contexts - well, that’s impressive. Add a sense of style and humor, that’s pretty much the whole package.

In much the same way, companies are either smart, or less smart (I mean dumb, but I didn’t want to offend anyone). Some corporations seem to be able to pull relevant information and skills from across business divisions and apply these resources towards meaningful solutions to the current business context. Smart businesses are obviously more profitable and competitive.

A good employee volunteer program can make your company smarter.

Connections Matter

A defining characteristic of most employee volunteering programs is that they usually involve groups of employees. Some employee volunteering is done solo or in small groups. More often that not (much to the dismay of many nonprofits), corporate volunteering is a large team sport.

That means that while they volunteer, employees are able to meet coworkers they may not normally have a chance to interact with. They guys from the mail room are chatting it up with the sales team while the custodians are painting a wall with the executives from the top floor. Normally, these types of social interactions would simply not take place. There is a magic that can occur during an outstanding volunteer experience. Within that magic, anything is possible.

Consequently, corporate volunteering fosters a unique expression of corporate connectivity. Similar to a brain growing new synaptic pathways, this kind of networking engenders relational awareness that is far more significant than any org chart. Profiles, departments, and job titles become real people with shared interests and dreams - all brought together by a cause and supported by the brand.

If new relationships are discovered, existing relationships are strengthened. Teams that work across from each other in cubicles find new reasons to connect and strengthen relational bonds while building a Habitat home. This is all due to the basic nature of our humanity (and a little bit of oxytocin).

Information Spreads

How you know...

It makes sense that people are more willing to share information in environments where they’re enabled to build relationships. Why? Because relationships cultivate trust. In the context of relationship, we find ourselves sharing more than just raw information – we also talk about how best to use that information. For example, when someone I’ve never met asks me a question via email, I may simply reply with a bullet list. However, when someone whose name I know and face I recognize asks me the same question, I have a willing sense of obligation that motivates me to expound on the bullet list with helpful pointers, recommendations, and resources. A strong network of relationships is the most effective context for sharing information and knowledge.

Benefit: Employees are informed and work in a trust-based environment.

What you know...

By building both strong and weak connections among employees, corporate volunteering helps create an environment of trust in which social networks thrive (read more here PDF). These networks facilitate the flow of information among those in the network. It is this network - based on reciprocity, obligation, trust and social norms - that results in the effective sharing and use of knowledge. The result is increased cooperation and collaboration. Employees in these settings are able to access more information and access company wide relationships to solve problems, innovate and increase their personal productivity.

Benefit: Employees are more informed and motivated to collaborate.

Who you know...

This network of connections not only facilitates the flow of information, it also opens up access to new information that may not have been previously available. When employees meet colleagues with whom they may not normally cross paths, new sources of knowledge become available: who you know affects what you know (read more here PDF). Corporate volunteering enhances the flow of information and communication across hierarchical levels and business units. The importance of this access to information across the multiple levels within an organization becomes acute when considering a company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) messages and activities.

Research suggests that when employees hear about a company’s CSR program they try to interpret the message in light of the organization’s culture and sensemaking systems. Sensemaking is a collaborative process we use to understand things and find meaning within our own reality. Everyone engages in sensemaking and it happens at a subconscious level. Information “from the dominant organizational collective narratives (informal and formal story‐telling) and day-to‐day language” is used to understand new ideas and messages. (Here is a great description of sensemaking as it relates to CSR.)

When strong social networks allow information to pass both longitudinally and latitudinally through an organization, sensemaking is enhanced. Not only is information shared, the ability to correctly interpret that information improves. Using relational channels to ask questions and seek clarity is a significant benefit that is often overlooked. Conversely, “When information is distributed among numerous parties, each with a different impression of what is happening, the cost of reconciling these disparate views is high, so discrepancies and ambiguities in outlook persist.” (Read more here PDF)

Benefit: Employees are more informed about the right things and they are connected to the right people.

In the know...

Companies with employee volunteer programs may also possess more knowledge management capabilities than organizations with less formed networks and lower levels of trust.  Knowledge Management (KM) is a business strategy that looks to “identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and experiences. Such insights and experiences comprise knowledge, either embodied in individuals or embedded in organizational processes or practice.”

Companies that are able to access the knowledge possessed by employees throughout the organization have a distinct competitive advantage. Research shows ‘work group membership and socialization are the most potent predictors of knowledge and information.’ Knowledge is shared socially much of the time because people facing work-related problems are more likely to turn to colleagues and friends than other sources of information. Employee volunteering creates social settings that facilitate the exchange of knowledge and information.

The importance of social networks as a key ingredient in knowledge management should not be ignored. The ability of a company to access and use the knowledge and information possessed by its employees directly affects organizational performance.

Benefit: Companies can access more of their employee’s knowledge.

The Bottom Line

The more connected a company’s employees are to each other, the smarter the company. Here are some suggestions to get it right:

1. Do not try to force relationships to happen. The ‘voluntary’ nature of employee volunteering must be retained in order for individuals to discover relational connections that fit them. This is especially true when working with your ‘influentials’.
2. Provide ongoing opportunities to build relationships between co-workers. Understand, a once-a-year volunteer event will only yield minimal results.
3. Create opportunities for reflection as a group. This will enforce the shared experience of the volunteer event while enabling attitudinal and behavioral changes among the employees themselves.

Be sure to check out the other blogs in this series:

Business Case #1: Employee Volunteering Creates Employee Engagement

Business Case #2: Employee Volunteering Attracts Better Talent

Business Case #3: Employee Volunteering Is Employee Development

Business Case #4: Employee Volunteering Offers A Competitive Advantage

Coming up next in the series? Case #6:  Employee Volunteering Creates Healthier Companies.

Chris Jarvis and Angela Parker write, research and consult for Realized Worth. We're happy to discuss your company's employee volunteering needs anytime. Contact us here: chrisjarvis@realizedworth.com or angela@realizedworth.com or 317.372.2435

The Business Case for Employee Volunteering - Case #5

Social Media & CSR: Rules, People and Tools

Social Media goes hand in hand with corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and community investment, but figuring it all out can be daunting. Here are some rules you must know, people you must meet, and tools you must have.

When you decide to venture out past Facebook there is a lot to learn about social media. At first it seems daunting, but everyone learns the same way: by doing. Just remember, each social media platform has unique rules and processes for communication. They are all relatively similar and once you get the hang of it, youʼll find it becomes fairly intuitive.

Learn the rules

Remember, the rules of society are essentially the same within social media:

• Listen and learn - a lot!
• Be gracious & generous
• Reciprocate & Connect people
• Be personable & Engage others
• Offer actual value
• Donʼt sell stuff

Here is a great infographic on the Do's and Don'ts of Social Media we found on http://visual.ly/

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Find your community

We love using twitter. But starting out it can be pretty tough finding quality people to follow. Here are some links that offer great information and lead to other sites with great information. Take some time to browse through them - youʼre community of quality people will increase effortlessly.

• Find anything on twitter:# http://search.twitter.com/
• Find lists of people to follow on twitter: http://tweepml.org/
• Find the right people/places/issues: http://www.twellow.com/
• Find topics and communities: http://www.tweetizen.com/
• Find executives to follow: http://exectweets.com/
• Find people and communities: http://mrtweet.com/
• Find anyone, anywhere: http://www.peekyou.com/
• Discover lists of people on Twitter: http://listorious.com/
• List interests and find others who share them: http://wefollow.com/
• Lists created by other people and easy to follow with just one click: http://tweepml.org/
• Find more executives you want to follow (be sure to check out the 'lists' for even more people to follow): http://twitter.com/#!/exectweets
• Figure out what the hashtag means: http://tagal.us/
• Find upcoming trends and perform custom searches http://twitterfall.com/
• 8 Easy Ways to Network on Twitter http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/8-easy-ways-to-network-on-twitter/

More ideas

If you want to find and connect with an incredible online community focused on CSR, Corporate Citizenship, Sustainability, Employee Volunteering, and all things Green - here are 16 great sites that will help you build your network.

If you want to connect to stakeholders using social media here are some new realities to remember.

If you're planning on putting together a conference and you want to know how to make it social media friendly, read this.

If you're planning an awards program for CSR, Corporate Citizenship or Corporate volunteering these tips may come in useful.

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Connecting companies with communities through employee volunteering & social media.

Social Media & CSR: Rules, People and Tools

The Business Case for Employee Volunteering: CASE #4

Case #4: Competitive Advantage

An effective corporate volunteering program will give your company a competitive edge - Here’s how:
 

Invisible Advantages 

The competitive advantage of a company is less about what’s produced and more (much more) about how it's produced. That’s because every company has two kinds of resources to work with when producing goods and services: tangible resources and intangible resources.

Tangible resources are things like desks, machines, buildings, raw materials, and staplers. Intangible resources are anything that cannot be touched or shoved in a drawer. Tangible resources are sometimes hard to come by and yet they can usually be accessed by competitors given enough time and money. (Read more here.)

While most of us think about tangible resources when it comes to business, (after all, everyone needs plenty of paperclips) they are not the greatest factor when it comes to competition.

It is a company’s intangible resources that are instrumental in achieving competitive advantage.

Why?

Intangible resources are a bit trickier for competitors. They are valuable, rare, socially complex, and in many cases, almost impossible to replicate. Things like brand image, team dynamics, innovation, human capital, reputation, and corporate culture fall into the intangible category. If you’re wondering about the value of these resources compared to, say, paperclips, think about Zappos and Apple.

The Employee Factor

Most intangible resources have a direct connection with employees. So it makes complete sense that developing employee ability to perform is a highly valued tactic toward increasing intangible resources. Businesses investing in employee development can expect to see gains in performance, organizational commitment, and innovation.

Beyond the skills gained by the employee, training programs indicate that the employer is willing to “invest in its human capital that both builds employee capabilities and increases their degree of job satisfaction.” (Read more here.) Ultimately, employee development is essential if companies hope to adapt and develop within a constantly changing business environment.

Employee Volunteering & Competitive Advantage

It is difficult, if not impossible, to prove a direct relationship between a company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices and financial performance. Yet it can be demonstrated that there is an indirect relationship through the accumulation and utilization of intangible resources. This is because companies that have Corporate Citizenship programs like employee volunteering are more capable of “generating intangibles such as innovation, human capital, reputation and culture.” The resulting “accumulation of human capital derived from socially responsible practices can become a source of competitive advantage and result in improved financial performance” (read more here).

Starting or Improving Your Employee Volunteer Program

If you’re interested in increasing the competitive advantage of your company we highly recommend considering employee volunteering as part of your strategy. Here are some articles that will get you on the right track.

What kind of employee volunteering program does your company have?

If you want an engaging employee volunteer program, you'll need to make it 3 dimensional. Here's how.

How to find your influential employees who volunteer and let them lead your program

The key to meaningful impact for your employee volunteering program

10 essential elements for your employee volunteering and giving program

Be sure to check out the other blogs in this series:

Business Case #1: Employee Volunteering Creates Employee Engagement

Business Case #2: Employee Volunteering Attracts Better Talent

Business Case #3: Employee Volunteering Is Employee Development

Business Case #4: Employee Volunteering Offers A Competitive Advantage

 

At Realized Worth, our favorite thing to talk about is employee volunteering. Give us a call to discuss your thoughts: 317.371.4435. You can also email us at chrisjarvis@realizedworth.com or angela@realizedworth.com.

The Business Case for Employee Volunteering: CASE #4

The Business Case for Employee Volunteering - CASE #3

Case #3 - Employee Development 

The typical corporate volunteering program is underfunded, underdeveloped and underutilized. This blog series offers a number of compelling reasons why your business needs to invest (a bit more) in employee volunteering.

Very few executives would argue against the importance of developing the skills and abilities of their employees. When companies invest in employee development they can expect to see gains in performance, organizational commitment, and innovation. Beyond the skills imparted to the employee, training programs indicate that the employer is willing to “invest in its human capital that both builds employee capabilities and increases their degree of job satisfaction.” (Read more here) Ultimately, employee development is essential if companies hope to adapt and develop within a constantly changing business environment.

Typically employee development takes place through some type of formalized training. Much of the training has to do with "hard skills" such as process and procedure. An example of this may be how to properly wrap cheese in the dairy factory. On the other had, "soft skills" have to do with abilities that are essential for employees to know and understand but can be difficult to measure. Some examples may be teamwork, problem solving, public speaking, networking, negotiating, etc.

If you’d like to check out your own skill level when it comes to ‘soft skills’ you can take a little quiz here.

The Cost of Employee Training

Given the importance soft skills play in creating competitive advantage (remember, these are all intangible resources), many businesses invest in providing some type of training to increase the abilities of their employees in these areas.

But training isn’t cheap.

The Society for Human Resource Management reported in 2006, that the cost of employee training averaged out to $995 per employee. More recently, Bersin and Associates estimated that the average spending per employee in a training program in 2010 was $1202. Interestingly, the largest single area of expense (21%) is in leadership development and management training - soft skill stuff.

The Training Potential of Employee Volunteering Programs

Employee Volunteering programs offer companies a unique opportunity to act as good Corporate Citizens while enabling their workforce to acquire relevant work related skills. By creating opportunities for employees to volunteer in the community, companies are able to leverage one of their most valuable assets towards addressing social and environmental concerns. In the process, the employees gain experience and understandings that make them more effective in their roles with the company. Usually, employees acquire soft skills such as communication, management and leadership. Beyond individual skills, employees become better at working in teams. Barclay’s Bank discovered that of the employees who volunteered in the community, 61% increased their team-work skills. Probably more impressive, 58% of Barclay’s managers reported a visible improvement among their staff’s attitudes towards each other following a volunteer experience.

A number of other examples are available thanks to the recent report "Global Companies Volunteering Globally" produced by the Global Corporate Volunteer Council (GCVC) of the International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE). Here are some examples, but click here to view the entire list:

Timberland All service projects are led by employees who learn new skills and gain valuable project management and leadership experience to forward their professional development.

Marriott Volunteer activities bring a new dimension to the meetings and strengthen teams both within and across functions. 

Samsung Volunteering with NGOs complements in-house training programs to enhance professional competencies, especially negotiation and communications skills with external audiences.

Telefónica contracts with universities (in four countries) to provide training for employees on how to develop projects and make presentations.

Conflicted about Developmental Goals

But not all volunteering is created equal. Much of the perceived gains in employee development through corporate volunteering programs are only available via skills based volunteering. Specific skill developments such as project management, problem solving, risk management and so are only available through volunteering when the activities demand that application of those processes. Your team may feel more connected after building a new playground, but nobody will be a better public speaker because of it.

Barclay’s managers certainly reflected that reality in that only 9% viewed employee volunteering as an effective method of formal training, while 36% judged it to be not very effective.

Realizing this, many companies are beginning to structure their employee volunteer programs more intentionally. It seems simple enough - identify the development goals for the employee and find volunteer opportunity that will enable them to acquire those skills. Yet “there is a fine line between actively encouraging involvement in employee volunteering and making it compulsory, either by formal inclusion in personal development plans (PDPs) or through managers asking staff to get involved.” By looking to extract the value of employee development from a corporate volunteering program, there is a risk of over-formalizing the programs thereby destroying the very heart of the program: volunteerism.

Bea Boccolandro, an international authority in the field, suggests that the answer may be to just admit that employee volunteering isn’t really about volunteering. Boccolandro believes it is impossible to reconcile the strategic intent of corporate volunteering programs with the altruistic aspects of volunteering. Instead, she suggests viewing employee volunteering as a corporate citizenship strategy that utilizes employees as an investment in the community. In return, companies should look to these types of programs as primarily employee development programs that create a ‘Shared Value’ with the community.

Despite these potentially conflicting perspectives, the fact remains that when employees serve in the community as representatives of a company with both the support and resources of that company, there are wonderful opportunities for employee development to occur. What’s more, this approach to achieving competitive advantage is in itself a competitive advantage.

Meaning - it’s quite cost effective.

The Comparative Cost of Employee Volunteering Programs

The recent Points of Light Institute report, Trends Of Excellence In Employee Volunteering Series , estimates that companies that have good employee volunteer programs are spending, on average, about $179 per employee (whether they volunteer or not). That’s a significant increase from just a few years back when we were advising on the Drivers of Effectiveness for Employee Volunteering and Giving Programs produced by the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship. That report identified $30 per employee as the hallmark of an excellent program.

Still, once applied to employees who actually volunteer, the cost of a solid corporate volunteering program seems to be around $416 per employee who participates in the program. Compared to an average of $1201 per employee who participates in one training program per year, employee volunteering is a bargain.

It is not, however,  a straight one to one comparison. The training is not always specific to a set of skills needed by an individual employee, and if the company only offers volunteering on an episodic basis, there is probably little to no effect realized for the company.

In order to address this potentially limiting reality, the Human Resource department must play an essential role. If a corporate volunteering program is to achieve any amount of success, the HR department must meaningfully participate in the design and coordination of the program. HR departments are able to ensure that the practices, procedures and policies of the employee volunteering program internalize the learnings gained from the volunteer experience. Aligning HR practices and objectives relating to employee satisfaction, training and engagement with CSR activities in general and corporate volunteering specifically will ensure broad success of the program. A collaborative approach with HR achieves:

• increased levels of employee empowerment
• improved flexibility within the organizational processes facilitating the flow of information and increasing innovation 
• the ability to design compensation strategies which further increase employee participation in CSR programs

For more great info about the connection between HR and CSR be sure to check out the book by Elaine Cohen CSR for HR.

The Bottom Line

Investing in the development of employees through training programs is without questions a necessary component of a company’s competitive advantage. Employee volunteering, when done correctly, offers an affordable and effective strategy to developing the workforce. Here are some suggestions to getting it right:

1. Decide which skills you’re after - Employee volunteering can increase your intangible resources by helping employees develop soft skills but only when placed in the right situation.
2. Do it more often - A once a year event isn’t going to be effective on any level - not even for team building. Schedule volunteering events throughout the year and make sure to mix up who attends.
3. Call it what it is - If you want to create a development opportunity, do not call it volunteering. Instead, offer a training opportunity with a ‘real world’ experience and go work in the community. (Shared Value employee training.)
4. Get the biggest bang for your buck - Don’t expect great results from an employee volunteering program in which there is little to no financial investment. If you’re willing to spend $1200 to help your employees with interpersonal skills through a traditional class room experience, set a reasonable amount aside for the employee volunteer program as well.
    

Be sure to check out the other blogs in this series:

Business Case #1: Employee Volunteering Creates Employee Engagement
Business Case #2: Employee Volunteering Attracts Better Talent
Business Case #3: Employee Volunteering Is Employee Development
Business Case #4: Employee Volunteering Offers A Competitive Advantage
Business Case #5: Employee Volunteering Increased Corporate Intelligence
Business Case #6: Employee Volunteering Reduces Health Care Costs 
 


Realized Worth works with companies to design and implement employee volunteer programs. Maybe you need to start with a basic evaluation of your current program - Give us a call here to get started: 317.371.4435

The Business Case for Employee Volunteering - CASE #3