Top 10 Reasons For Your Company To Consider Being Corporate Volunteers

Is your business just a paycheck to your employees, or do they get meaning, contentment, and a heart for others? In the past this may not have been a focal point for employees, let alone businesses, but times are changing. The upcoming workforce, including Gen Z and the Millennial Generation, expects their employers to provide work settings where they can balance work and home, but also achieve a meaningful work-life balance. For these two generations, standard benefits like gym memberships, health plans, and bonuses are insufficient. Several ways encouraging corporate volunteering can help you connect with your employees, community, and expand your business while doing it.

One of Community Harvest Food Bank’s greatest volunteer groups are corporate volunteers. The company has done more than write a large check to help us in our mission, but they have made it a mission among their employees as well. They help with our senior distribution program, restocking our food pantry shelves, volunteered at our Saturday public distribution, participated in company fund raising events, bagged produce, and so much more. This has taken the company/employee relationship to a whole new level. Are you ready to do the same?

1. Engage in Low-Cost Local Marketing
   In addition to the reward of selfless service, it can be a terrific option for local businesses looking for affordable ways to advertise. This might be especially helpful if you can display a banner or wear clothing with your company logo displayed on it while volunteering. People will identify your name with the kind act, and boost your reputation. You can make the most of this marketing strategy by using social media to share images and videos of your volunteer activity with your followers. Plus, many times the organization can tag your company in their social posts, granting you an even larger untapped audience. The new viewers will also see what your company stands for and give them one more reason to be a client, customer, or partner.
2. Increased Employee Pride and Loyalty
   Offering paid time off to employees who volunteer helps build the accurate perception that a company is giving back and has a personal interest in the community in which they reside beyond just making a profit. This builds pride, respect, and dedication for their employer and encourages more volunteerism among their comrades. Employees may view the organization as “people-centered” and will be more likely to mention their employer because of the good works. When they participate they are also more likely to mention it on social media as well.
3. Bring in Top Talent
   High turnover rate? A corporation that cares about the community around them, not just profit, is what people want to be a part of. They want to be part of something bigger than themselves. When looking for a career, the next generation entering the job market frequently places a higher level of importance on social responsibility. Volunteerism brings your business and employees together to support a common cause. This also motivates those same great employees to recommend others to work at a business, making retention and hiring an easier process.
4. Public Relations
   When volunteers help out organizations, those companies or their clients might be more inclined to repay the generosity by giving positive reviews. These positive reviews can be both online and word-of-mouth. Many times this form of promotion is the most coveted. This also gives a company a softer appearance as a caring partner to the community.
5. Brand Perception
   Similarly, the good association that volunteering brings to the public view of your company, also affects your brand, giving it a far wider market appeal. It demonstrates that the business cares about the causes that matter to employees. Additionally, volunteering enables you to use many platforms to reach a larger audience. It will increase interest in a brand among potential customers and increase knowledge of its goods/services. Some investors will even base their investment choices on what a company does outside of profits.
6. Boost Team Skills and Develop Leaders
   Volunteering brings people together and develops stronger teams. Teamwork, team leaders’ and managers’ abilities are increased through volunteering. A sense of cooperation is generated when entire teams engage in a worthwhile activity for a good purpose, even if for one day. They are placed in circumstances they might not have before encountered. People have the opportunity to learn several new skills or hone existing ones including problem-solving, being a self-starter, self-management, decision-making, and communication. These are skills that can develop an employee who could go on to crucial roles within the company itself. Someone who may not have considered a management role, or that the company did not know was capable of leading, can emerge from volunteer events. Whether new or existing leadership, volunteerism fosters competent leaders to increase innovation, creativity, and sharp problem-solving, which ultimately leads to business growth.
7. Motivating Your Community, Generates Community Growth
   Inspiring communities helps them to become stronger and will make the area more attractive to other businesses. Consumers seek out a wide range of services, goods, and knowledge, as well as move or start businesses where the growth potential can be easily measured. A company’s sincerity in volunteering demonstrates that change is more than possible when people come together out of compassion. This motivates others to increase involvement in charitable causes and other initiatives. Businesses that participate in volunteerism are deeply involved in the communities they serve and develop a reputation for being reliable companies that consumers want to support.
8. Increase Potential Partnerships and Future Customers
   Many businesses have employees who volunteer or serve on the boards of area organizations. By offering opportunities to volunteer, you create the chance for networking and developing connections with future clients, and partners. Additionally, it can generate a positive business reputation and presence in the neighborhood, which attracts additional consumers and clients.
9. Improved Service
   Volunteering offers useful knowledge. The only way for small and medium-sized businesses to assist their community is by being aware of their needs. Organizations can develop ties with community members through volunteer work and then discover what goods and services they can provide to support them. Businesses directly assist the community by volunteering and, over time, delivering superior services. A person’s motivation, sense of worth, and feeling of value can all be increased by volunteerism, all of which have a good impact on their general well-being and improved services within the company.
10. Reconnect
    Restoring the workplace culture to its pre-pandemic state might be difficult. The lifestyles of employees and their families have adapted to the culture of remote work. If this is to continue to be the norm, volunteering can help bring employees together to preserve (or restore) the spirit of the workplace. Even though there are no longer any physical workplaces, there are still many remote offices. Combining the two is an option. A team meeting could be held at a volunteer location. Volunteering might, with a little thought, integrate the community participation and work function. Many locations have access to various types of conference room facilities. Upcoming team meeting? Come volunteer instead of using Skype!

If this has driven you to consider this for your organization, then let us give you one bit of advice on how to implement it. Direct, don’t dictate. Take care in how you add these events to your workforce. It can be one of the areas where volunteerism can come back to harm a company. When implementing volunteer activities it can sometimes be a struggle to gather enough people depending on the cause chosen. Avoid being overzealous about a cause and forcing employees to participate, or cause stress by intimidating/guilting them into doing the event. Keep volunteering voluntary. You can increase the incentive to participate by making volunteer days a paid day off, allowing an employee to take charge of the event, or encouraging employees to come up with the cause they want to attend. If the activity is done in good spirits and with the right motivation, it will bring about new volunteers on its own regularly. It will always go better when your volunteer is a cheerful giver.

For more information on how you can volunteer either as an individual or as a company, contact our Volunteer Manager at Community Harvest Food Bank at: 260-447-3696 ext. 306.