Do You Have a Volunteer Recognition Strategy?
People who volunteer in their community give one of life's most precious gifts -- their time.
Once a year employees at 1to1 Media give their time by spending the day volunteering at a local children's community center. Yesterday we painted, scrubbed, and organized the building's classrooms so that the children can return to clean rooms in the fall.
1to1 Media participates every year because we think volunteering is responsible business and good corporate citizenship, but we also believe it gives employees a chance to connect with each other outside of the office, as well as promotes teamwork. Employees who don't typically interact with each other in the office find themselves looking for solutions to common problems.
There are other benefits of a socially responsibly business. Recent studies show that Gen Y workers want to work for companies that allow them to incorporate community involvement into their professional development both for personal reasons and for professional ones. Companies that don't engage in socially responsible programs may miss out on hiring the best employees.
1to1 Media is small so it's fairly easy to organize a volunteer day. But for enterprise-level companies, social responsibility programs may be tougher to execute and encouraging thousands of employees to participate is challenging.
Some companies like Motorola raise awareness by encouraging employees through regular emails to report the time they spend volunteering in the community through an online system.
Other companies, including Cargill and American Express, award employees who volunteer for activities outside of the companies' volunteer guidelines. Cargill awards $1,000 to peer-nominated recipients. American Express' Global Volunteer Action Fund operates on similar principles, with individual employee volunteers eligible to apply for $1,000 awards and two or more employees eligible to apply for up to $2,500 team grants.
Yet other companies are even more ambitious with their volunteer efforts. Gap debuted a recognition program for employee volunteers a couple years ago. Through the Founders' Award, which honors the philanthropic character of Don and Doris Fisher, founders of Gap Inc. and the Gap Foundation, the company donates up to $50,000 to a nonprofit on behalf of the winning employee. The volunteer is also awarded up to 80 hours paid time off to further contribute to the nonprofit.
Volunteer recognition strategies are essential to improving skill-building, leadership development, and team-building. How can your company follow these examples and use employee volunteer recognition strategies to contribute to business goals?
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