Most people agree that volunteering is beneficial for either individual or company’s social responsibility towards society and business.
With calamities and undue global uncertainties such as quakes and cyclones affecting different parts of the globe, organisations should actively encourage volunteering habits of employees to serve and give back to the society and help others in need.
Since volunteering is unpaid, uncalled and not mandatory emphasized by large organisations as a part of the corporate social responsibility, employees tend to pay least attention to this initiative and think twice before volunteering.
What if, management of companies could associate perks and benefits with volunteering and rewards those employees accordingly, who choose to volunteer in global programs with an aptitude to serve?
HR professionals and employers generally look at volunteering as a means to increase teamwork engagement. A U.S Chamber Foundation study showcased benefits of volunteering activity for the millennial workforce.
Those who frequently participate in volunteering activities are more likely to feel positive, loyal and satisfied than those who don’t. About 51% of them said that volunteerism benefits much for their professional working life.
On the contrarily, according to U.K. Civil Society Almanac, 50% respondents complained on their barriers to join volunteerism, attributing the reason being commitments at work.
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HR professional and employers could initiate volunteering programs sponsored by the company and involve the workforce to join it. There are 6 ways volunteering can enhance teamwork at the workplace:
Employer-supported volunteering activity could benefit to influence the workforce perception towards the company. During the recruiting process, the company can harness on the talent potential by giving a clear presentation about the vision, mission and the company’s social awareness at the same time.
By doing this, employees can experience greater motivation and even higher engagement levels with the company, resulting in optimal productivity, performance and more solid teamwork they can achieve.
There’s a lot of learning to be gained from a company-sponsored volunteer program. In this project, various levels of employees could be reshuffled to experience different positions that they couldn’t get from their daily working routines. In this program, an employee could develop their skills and competency to handle a project as well as maintain a solid team work with various background and characteristics.
The volunteer project benefits the company’s marketing team to gain appreciation and reputation from the society and media. A company supported volunteer program can help create social awareness and add on to the company’s brand repute in the market.
Also, participants involved in this program would be motivated to work together towards a noble cause or an initiative, with enthusiasm to showcase team spirit and derive sense of satisfaction when the project is well accomplished.
The human spirit, compassion and care to help others who are in difficult conditions helps employees stay grounded and rooted to their values. Giving back to the community, makes employees feel a sense of pride and immense satisfaction, happiness to perform good deeds.
Overall, HR managers, senior team leaders and organisations as a whole should strive to make a difference to the employees lives and to the community around, by inculcating corporate social responsibility as an integral component of workplace culture for employees to voluntarily indulge, perform and serve.
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