Community Service and Your Employees
Posted December 26th, 2011
If your human resources department is involved with overseeing volunteer programs for the company, here are several ideas for getting employees engaged within volunteer opportunities that don’t actually have them involved in some kind of volunteer assignment.
One thing a company can do is sponsor a kind of signature volunteer program that is of a short-term duration, but one that involves the entire company. For example, JP Morgan Chase has a volunteer program called Global Days of Service, which is a month-long effort of volunteer service each year by Chase employees around the globe. The Chase employees get together with family and friends to volunteer in a variety of service projects. In 2002, volunteers at Chase worked in more than 950 projects in 275 cities around the world.
In another kind of volunteer effort, companies can help out non-profit organizations by volunteering their skills and business expertise. An example here is America Online, which offers IT help to non-profits and schools. The goal is to help them more effectively use resources online for whatever purpose they have. .
To get the most out of your volunteer programs, your company should follow a three-point plan outlined by the Points of Light Foundation:
- First, your company should acknowledge that community service and employee volunteerism are not just the right thing to do, but important to your business achieving its goals.
- Next, your company needs to make a commitment to create and encourage volunteerism for all employees, and you need to look at community service the same as any other business function.
- Finally, you need to focus your efforts at serious social problems in the community.
Community service programs have wide-ranging benefits. They help workers do their jobs better, acquire new skills, work in teams, think creatively, and help with job satisfaction. They also are an important factor in attracting and retaining good employees. And, as is well known, they also improve the company’s image and reputation.
Will you need skilled and reliable workers for your San Francisco-area business in 2012? Then give Bayside Solutions a call! We can place one worker for a short-term assignment, or several temporary workers for long-term assignments. We can even help find great full-time employees for direct-hire assignments. Contact us today!
