Employee volunteer programs (aka employee volunteerism, corporate citizenship) have been getting a lot of attention lately.  Changing consumer expectations, increased attention to corporate social responsibility, and the demands of a new generation of workers have left many employers looking for ways to satisfy this new contract.  Employee volunteer programs are proving to be a popular solution because properly executed they provide good fodder for P.R, can be part of a larger CSR strategy, and have been positively linked to employee engagement and customer loyalty.

At last week’s SHRM conference in Chicago, I presented a session on “The Leadership Role of HR in Corporate Social Responsibility.” There was a lot of buzz on the topic of employee volunteering and after the session a participant asked how to make the most of employee volunteer efforts at her company.  I gave her my best answer, which was a good enough answer -- but being unable to ignore my perfectionist tendencies, I’ve been wishing ever since then that I had a way to contact her to give her a more complete answer.  So what follows is a synopsis of the question, what I said, and what more I could have said.  (Given the time, a comfortable chair, and perhaps a hot cup of coffee...)

Should employee volunteer programs be considered part of an overall CSR strategy?
Comprehensive CSR strategies center on three business drivers:  people, planet, and profits.  For each business driver you can incorporate initiatives that have to do with your organization’s relationship with the workplace, the marketplace, the community, or the environment.

Employee volunteer programs fit in the people component, and can include:

• Workplace efforts like volunteering to support a company fund-raiser or workplace-sponsored event
• Marketplace efforts like providing customer or vendor education
• Community efforts like those we would consider traditional volunteer efforts that support a community cause
• Environment efforts like planting trees or picking up litter 

You might find that several efforts could fit multiple categories and that’s okay.  It’s just a good starting point to take inventory of what volunteer programs you are supporting and where they fit.  That will help you prioritize your initiatives and will help you in your future decision process when you are asked to support additional initiatives.

Should employees be allowed to volunteer for whatever efforts they choose?
There is no question that providing your employees the opportunity to volunteer for a worthy cause is a worthwhile investment. Plus you will logically get better participation if it happens to be a cause the employee feels passionate about.  But as with any employee benefit program, or any investment of resources for that matter, it’s important to know what you’re getting for your money.  And the only way to do that is to put some structure and measures around it.

If your company is already supporting employee volunteer efforts with paid time off, that is fantastic.  It means your leadership already understands that volunteering benefits the employee, the effort, the community, and the company. 

That being said, I certainly wouldn’t recommend providing paid time off for employees to volunteer for just anything. 

Why not?  Well, for starters there are literally thousands of volunteer opportunities that your employees could participate in – efforts that cover a vast landscape of choices such as fundraising for political campaigns, working crowd control at a local St. Patrick’s Day parade, picking up litter on the side of the highways, serving on non-profit boards of directors, or providing community education in a local shelter.  If there is an issue someone feels strongly about, there’s a good chance they can find a way to support it.

Why is that a problem?  Well, let’s say that you are a commercial development company.  Would you be okay with paying your employee’s salary while they participate in a protest against developing a part of town where you are contracted to build?  What if an employee wants to take off to sell trinkets at a crafts fare that is raising money for their church, which happens to be a sect of the “only people with brown hair and green eyes who were born under the sign of the Neptune moon crossing are worthy” church.

The point is if you have no parameters around employee volunteering, you are going to end up in hot water the first time you tell someone that roping out tailgating spots for the Jimmy Buffet concert doesn’t count as a worthy cause.

Not having parameters means you have to accept everything, or put your organization at risk when managers begin to make judgment calls on what should or should not count. 

How should we determine which volunteer efforts to support?
When your employees are volunteering in the community on company time they are the face of your company.  So it’s important to consider what you want your company to represent.

Most organizations will look for causes that are consistent with their mission, vision, or values statements and make sense with the product or service they deliver.  So for example, Sun Microsystems’ statement “Innovation and action guide our efforts to eliminate the digital divide” serves as their cornerstone in guide employee volunteer initiatives. 

What if I don’t have any mission, values, or vision statements to guide our efforts?
Then look for something that supports your product.  For example, if you are a publishing company, you could look for environmental opportunities to plant trees or develop sustainable inks, community opportunities on teaching English as a second language or supporting literacy programs.  Look for a tie in to whatever you are selling or producing.

Another option is to put together an employee work group to look at options in the community and determine which ones they feel the company should focus their efforts on.  This is a great way to gain some momentum and improve employee participation.

The Points of Light Institute has some worthwhile resources, including their “Principles of Excellence” guidelines for developing and sustaining volunteer programs.  They also have very good benchmarking resources.

How do I convince my leadership team that we need some parameters?
One word:  data.  If your leadership team is hesitant to change the status quo, take a step back and gather data.  Track the number of employee volunteer hours, the causes supported, and the types of work projects that were done.  Put a dollar value on it.  Compare your results to those of similar companies in your industry or community.

Numbers are the language of business and it’s been my experience that it’s tough to sell anything you can’t quantify.  So start there.

If that isn’t enough, kick it up a notch with some qualitative data.  Pull together some informal employee focus groups and find out which issues are top-of-mind for them.  Listen to the pool of job candidates you are recruiting.  Is there an overriding theme or question?  Look at the results of your employee opinion or job satisfaction surveys.  Is there any qualitative data there?

If your stakeholders ask the question “What do you stand for?” what are you going to tell them?  And how are you going to show it?

Any volunteer efforts should ultimately contribute to and support an organization’s business goals.  Typically you will get a bigger bang for your buck with focused efforts than with scattered ones. 

Effective employee volunteer programs are a win-win-win for the employee, the community, and the organization.  Good parameters will help you maintain maximum ROI so you can keep your programs alive and growing for years to come.  (Hey!  Let’s call that “volunteerism sustainability.”) I’d say it’s a worthy cause to strive for and another great way for Human Resource professionals to make a lasting, positive impact on the workplace.  I look forward to your success stories.