10 Steps for a Successful Employee Volunteer Program
In today's corporate landscape, it’s more important than ever for companies to prioritise volunteering and integrate it into wider corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies. Consumers, investors, and employees expect organisations to do good for the communities and the planet, and employee volunteering is one of the most direct ways to create an impact.
An effective employee volunteer program isn’t just about creating positive impact on communities and the climate.,Iit should also enhance employee engagement, boost staff wellbeing, attract green investment, and elevate brand reputation.
So, how exactly should your business build its employer-supported volunteering model to ensure success? This 10-step guide outlines our take on how to do exactly that.
In our guide to setting up successful employee volunteer programs, we’ll be covering:
What is an EVP?
10 steps for a successful corporate volunteering program
Why set up an employee volunteer program?
A Real-World Successful Employee Volunteering Program: OnHand x Domestic and General Case Study
Before we get into how to set up a successful employee volunteering strategy, let’s make sure we’re on the same page about a couple of definitions.
What is an EVP?
“EVP” is an acronym for a couple of different things. Coincidentally, the two EVPs are pretty closely interlinked.
EVP: Employee Value Proposition
In some contexts, EVP stands for employee value proposition.
This proposition is made up of all the core benefits that your company can offer to employees – and future employees – to make sure it’s an attractive place to work. It’s the case for why top talent would want to work at your business. It’s what your company and culture can offer to an employee in exchange for their talent, skills, and experience.
2. EVP: Employee volunteer program
In other contexts – like in this article, for example – EVP stands for employee volunteer program.
An employee volunteer program is a company-organised initiative that encourages and facilitates employee volunteering.
These programs make up an important part of a company's CSR and ESG strategies. But employee volunteering isn’t just about upping your organisation’s CSR, volunteer programs can foster a culture of giving back, enhance employee engagement and productivity, and boost consumer satisfaction.
If you want to have an impressive employee value proposition, you need to make sure you’ve got a brilliant employee volunteer program.
10 Steps for a Successful Corporate Volunteering Policy
1. Define Your Objectives
Before diving into the “how”, you should make sure you know your “why.” You’ve got to establish clear objectives for your employee volunteer program and set targets, so you can measure the success of your efforts.
When defining your objectives, your goals might centre on achieving carbon neutrality, engaging in your local community, or creating social value.
It’s worthwhile to think about which metrics you’ll measure to make sure you’re on track for achieving your objectives. Not sure where to start with tracking? We’ll cover all that good stuff in just a minute. First, let’s establish how you’ll set up your volunteering policy in the first place.
2. Develop a Volunteering Policy
No surprises here. If you want to have an effective volunteering program, you need to sit down and write up your volunteering policy. A well-crafted volunteering policy sets the foundation for your program.
A shareable document containing all your policy information is essential for letting your people know how much volunteering they’re allowed – and expected – to carry out during work.
It should detail the objectives, guidelines, and expectations for participation. This policy ensures consistency and provides a reference point for all staff. If you’re not sure how to start, download our free Volunteering Policy Handbook to see options and examples.
Now, the hard part: what should your volunteering policy contain? And how can you ensure your people get involved? Let’s get into it.
3. Offer a Variety of Volunteering Opportunities
To cater to diverse employee interests and schedules, provide a range of volunteering options:
To ensure high uptake and engagement, you’ll need to provide a variety of volunteering options to suit individual needs and desires. For starters, make sure your strategy covers all the key areas below.
Remote Volunteering
Virtual and remote volunteering are ideal for organisations whose employees work from home or across different offices
Plus, giving your people the option to volunteer remotely means they have the opportunity to do good on days when they just don’t feel like leaving the house
The National Council for Voluntary Organisations’ 2023 Time Well Spent research program found that volunteering online or over the phone is now the third most common place to volunteer, with 31% of people who volunteered in the last 12 months doing at least some of it online or over the phone.
In-person and Group Volunteering
In-person volunteering is a brilliant way to build confidence, leave your comfort zone, and create new skills – plus, it encourages direct community engagement
And group volunteering is still an important way to enhance team bonding
ACCP’s 4th Annual CSR Insights Survey revealed that 59% of CSR professionals offered more group volunteering options in 2023 and 48% offered more in-person volunteering options
Skills-based Volunteering
Skilled volunteering allows your employees to use their professional talents to benefit others – it’s a win-win, and it’s growing in popularity
According to ACCP, 28% of CSR professionals said their companies had either increased or introduced skills-based volunteering opportunities
4. Be Flexible
Flexibility goes hand-in-hand with variety. You’ve made sure that your people have options for remote, in-person, group, solo, and skills-based missions. But now you need to make sure they have the freedom to get stuck into what they care about, whenever they want to.
Here are a few key considerations when it comes to building a flexible volunteering policy:
Micro-Volunteering: Allows employees to contribute in small, manageable chunks of time – usually 30 minutes or less. Traditional volunteering days take a great deal of planning – and lots of people just aren’t able to take a whole day off to do good. Micro volunteering changes all that, allowing your staff to pick up bite-sized volunteering opportunities that can fit into a lunch break
On-Demand Volunteering: We’re used to doing everything on-demand: from TV shows to takeaways, we’re used to immediate availability. With on-demand volunteering, your people can browse opportunities that are available right away. No planning, no waiting, just feeling the urge to do something good, and doing it
Employee Choice: Let your people focus on helping charities and causes they care about the most. You’re far more likely to get great engagement if individuals can volunteer to tackle the issues closest to their hearts
OnHand’s on-demand volunteering solution is all about variety and flexibility. Your people can browse thousands of volunteering and eco action opportunities, select whatever they fancy, and do it immediately. Empowering your employees by letting them choose their own activities on their own schedule.
5. Incentivize Participation
Doing good is a great incentive in itself, but a little extra motivation never hurt anyone. And if you’re keen to get off-the-charts engagement, using targeted incentives is key.
Try some of these tried and tested incentivisers:
Gamification: Use leaderboards and reward systems to tap into your employees’ competitive spirit – employees are more motivated to get stuck in when they know they’re battling it out for bragging rights
Prizes: Give out real prizes to the individuals and teams who make the most impact – whether it’s vouchers, extra annual leave, or a climate-conscious prize like an electric bike, reward your people for doing good
Trees: Plant trees for your employees to thank them for doing good and multiply your positive impact – at OnHand, we plant trees for your employees when they do good deeds, so they’re always rewarded for their efforts
Competitions: Run time-limited competitions to boost engagement – combine competitive spirit and prizes and run an internal competition with a deadline to see a quick uptick in engagement
OnHand automatically tracks your employee’s engagement, so you can see who’s at the top of the leaderboard, and which teams are smashing it. Plus, we’ve got everything you need to set up and run internal competitions whenever you feel like it. Incentives couldn’t be simpler.
6. Celebrate Your Wins (And Your People!)
Prizes are brilliant – but sometimes recognition is the most effective reward. When your people make a difference, shout about it. At OnHand, we encourage you to award your most engaged volunteers with the title Champion of the Month.
You might announce your good-deed champion on Slack or Teams, or in a company-wide newsletter. Or, even better, you could post about your top volunteer on your company’s social media channels. OnHand provides editable templates and social media assets to help you shout about your company heroes in style.
7. Engage Leadership
If you want your employees to do good, you’ve got to get your execs and middle management on board. After all, employees won’t feel confident in taking time to volunteer if their bosses aren’t doing the same.
When executives get stuck in, it sets a precedent and encourages trickle-down employee engagement.
Take Softcat CEO Graeme Watt for example. He took a hands-on approach and was one of the very first to volunteer with OnHand and share his experience with the team.
“Volunteering is a chance to donate time and emotional support,” Graeme said. “It provides an opportunity to help others, which in turn has a positive impact on your own wellbeing.”
Softcat, with a team of 1000+ employees at the time of onboarding, saw 30% of staff engaging with our impact initiatives within the first 6 months of setup.
8. Communicate Effectively
After you launch your employee volunteer program, you need to keep up the comms. Employees need to know about new volunteering opportunities – and they need to consistently reminded that volunteering is a priority at your company.
Create a channel in Slack or Teams, or use email newsletters to share:
New volunteering opportunities
Photos of your people doing good
Updates on your company’s collective impact
Kudos for employees and teams going above and beyond
OnHand circulates weekly newsletters to all volunteers, so they’ll know all about new missions, causes to focus on, and global awareness and impact days. Plus, we’ll provide you with editable templates and assets, so when you’re using internal comms, you can just tweak and send. Easy.
9. Measure Impact
Remember those objectives you set out right at the beginning? Well, you need to track your progress against these targets by using some key metrics. For instance, your impact objectives might require you to measure:
Hours volunteered
Metric tonnes of CO2e reduced
Trees planted
£ of social value created
Some of your objectives might be harder to quantify. For instance, it’s hard to tie a number to employee wellbeing. But don’t be afraid to set these objectives too. To measure your progress, try using employee feedback to make sure you’re on the right track.
Especially with new EU regulations coming into play this year in the form of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), setting clear targets is an essential part of the process. If you want the full run-down on all new regulations, we’ve got you covered – just check out our CSRD handbook.
With OnHand, your hours volunteered, tonnes of CO2e reduced, and number of trees planted are automatically tracked – so you can check in and see your impact health metrics whenever you like.
10. Continuous Improvement
Ultimately, a good employee volunteer program isn’t one-size-fits-all: it should evolve based on feedback and changing needs. Ask your people for their feedback and tweak your policy over time to create a formula that works for them. Listen to your teams and watch engagement soar.
Why set up an employee volunteer program?
Volunteering makes the world a better place – but an effective corporate volunteering program does more than just that. A good employee volunteering strategy can affect your business in so many ways.
These are just a few of the ways in which volunteering could boost your business.
Employee engagement and productivity
Volunteering is one of the absolute best ways to engage your team and boost productivity. The Boston School of Management’s 2023 Community Involvement Study showed that employee volunteering is a key driver of employee engagement. A huge 91% of the companies that measured the connection found a positive correlation between employee volunteering and employee engagement scores.
And according to Gallup, highly engaged teams are 18% more productive and companies with highly engaged employees are 23% more profitable.
Talent attraction and retention
Social and sustainability policies are an essential factor in attracting and securing the best talent. The Great Place To Work Institute’s Power of Purpose in the Workplace report 2023 found that retention triples at companies where employees feel their work has meaning and is more than “just a job.”
Plus, 89% of employees believe working for a company committed to the values they believe in is important – and 39% of Gen Z candidates have turned down employers that do not align with their values.
Brand reputation and consumer satisfaction
Put simply, consumers care about your company’s impact. According to Aflac, a whopping 77% of consumers are motivated to purchase from companies committed to making the world a better place.
Investment attraction
Green investment has never been more important: the global impact investing market is set to grow from $478.15 billion in 2023 to $550.52 billion in 2024 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.1%, according to the Impact and Markets’ Impact Investing Global Market Report 2023.
And with 41% of millennial investors putting a significant amount of effort into understanding a company’s CSR practices before investing, it’s safe to say that your organisation’s sustainability and social value practices are a key factor in securing investment.
Keen to hear more about the benefits of an effective employee volunteer strategy? Check out our handbook on the ROI of volunteering and eco action. It’s got all the numbers to prove how volunteering can benefit your business.
A Real-World Successful Employee Volunteering Program: OnHand x Domestic and General Case Study
At OnHand, we empower employees to do social and environmental good through flexible, on-demand micro-volunteering opportunities – and our clients reap the rewards.
Domestic and General x OnHand
After launching with OnHand, the D&G 2023 report highlighted their key impact metrics:
92% employee engagement rate (industry average: 70%)
15% reduction in employee turnover
8% increase in customer satisfaction
Numerous awards for corporate social responsibility and employee engagement
Domestic & General’s commitment to impact is a triumph, and it shows in their employee engagement and retention metrics, as well as their impeccable reputation.
Read the full case study here.
Takeaways
When executed properly, an employee volunteer program can be revolutionary for your people, and your business. Follow our 10-step guide to create a program that not only does good but also boosts employee morale, attracts talent, impresses investors, and enhances your brand’s reputation.
Remember, it’s all about being flexible, offering a variety of opportunities, and keeping the lines of communication open. Celebrate your wins, get leadership involved, and always look for ways to improve. Feel like getting started today? Book a demo and see how OnHand can help.
