Corporate volunteerism a good PR
A volunteer project helps a company get out of some bad publicity or it helps build an image or it gives the company high visibility. Seventy-five percent of Americans believe that employee volunteerism should support nonprofits. Any company can get good publicity by working with a high-visibility nonprofit.
Fillip to team productivity
Employees get a new perspective of productive interaction by working in the community; that feeling reaches the workplace benefiting the company. Employees talk about how they came together and worked on an emotional and personal level.
Boost to interdepartmental cooperation
An interdepartmental team effort in the community breaks down all social barriers and works wonders in helping employees forget their differences created by office politics.
Leadership opportunities
Group volunteering helps employees gain leadership skills while working in the community. Employees can exhibit their leadership skills in a volunteer team; and they may not get such an opportunity in the workplace. In team environs, managers can notice leadership skills and may try importing them to the workplace.
Volunteering helps retain workers
Company-sponsored volunteer projects make employees happy as they feel that their employer is supporting them and giving them a lot of encouragement in such activities. Generally, workers react positively to such volunteering efforts. This feeling of satisfaction makes them loyal to the company.
Outsourcing volunteering projects
If your company has resources, it can take the help of professional firms to plan volunteering efforts, coordinate logistics, and provide supplies. Thus it becomes easier to organize and carry out community volunteer projects.
Projects during work hours
It is important for companies to select a volunteer project that meets its scheduling needs and those of the target nonprofits and employee volunteers. Some companies prefer scheduling team-based volunteer projects during work hours and others confine them to week-ends and after-work hours. Yet others want to strike a balance by scheduling the activities to begin before the workday, bridge the lunch hour, or start in the middle of a weekday afternoon and perhaps continue into the evening.
