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Employee Volunteer Programs: On The Corporate Radar As Never Before

Jen HighsmithToday’s guest post is written by Jennifer M. Highsmith, Director, Business Training & Consulting  for The Points of Light Corporate Institute.  If you are interested in contacting her for more information you can reach her at: 404-979-2929

As reported in the 2011 Trends of Excellence Series, there’s a direct relationship between the size of the investment in a company’s employee volunteer program (EVP) and its level of performance. With today’s EVPs engaging 43 percent of employees annually, more and more companies are making the investment and putting their dollars behind their employees’ passion, interests and skills.

Consider this…  In 2006, Points of Light found that EVPs invested on average $30 per employee, excluding salaries and grants. Today, EVPs are investing at least $104 per employee, excluding salaries and grants, whether they volunteer or not. That’s more than a 200 percent increase!

It appears that even while the economy and company profits may have declined, companies have invested increasingly more resources and money into employee volunteering. Now more than ever before, employee volunteering is positioned at the core of many corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs.

Why? The answer is clear. EVPs are one of the most compelling, cost efficient and can be one of the most visible ways of demonstrating a CSR program. EVPs also offer a huge return on investment for the company, employees and the community or agency it supports.

In addition to supporting CSR initiatives, EVPs help improve the corporate image and relations with key stakeholders; increases employee skills and productivity; improves employee morale, recruitment, and retention; and can help increase sales, clients and consumers.

Want to learn more about EVPs and how companies of all sizes and industries are getting involved?

Volumes 1-4 of the Trends of Excellence, is a series of reports analyzing excellent EVPs to identify best practices including company support, strategies, policies, activities and outcomes. The research findings indicate a number of key practices and trends companies should consider when developing or enhancing an EVP. Findings include:

  • Companies should consider investing at least $104 per employee, excluding salaries and grants, whether they volunteer or not; the figure jumps to $179 when including salaries, travel and other items.
  • In order to best manage limited resources to produce greater impact, companies should align their EVP to support specific business functions.
  • EVPs should draw on company assets, such as employee skills, marketing channels and commercial products, to strengthen the contributions the EVP makes to society.
  • Reward the efforts and accomplishments of employee volunteers to better support the EVP’s concrete goals.

The report is based on information from the 2010 Points of Light Corporate Engagement Awards of Excellence finalist companies. Download the series today and learn more about excellence in employee volunteering.

The Points of Light’s Business Member Program is an initiative of the Points of Light Corporate Institute.  For more information on employee volunteering or this publication contact Jennifer Highsmith.

A Billion Plus Change Set to Mobilize Skills-Based Volunteers

Nonprofit, corporate and government leaders gather today in Washington, D.C. to mark a major milestone for A Billion + Change —a national campaign to mobilize billions of dollars in skills-based and pro bono volunteer services by 2013 to help build the capacity of nonprofit organizations to effectively meet community needs.

Every day, nonprofits are meeting a wide variety of community needs, yet while they are doing important and innovative work, many often cannot take their ideas to scale, in part because they lack the professional skills needed to operate as efficiently as possible, or to successfully plan for their growth.

Today on Capitol Hill Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) is hosting an event to celebrate over fifty companies that have pledged more than $1 billion in service to nonprofits, and to encourage companies large and small across America to join the campaign by starting or expanding their own skills-based volunteer programs.

 “From helping nonprofits with job training programs or with improving access to health or education services, to providing support for IT infrastructure and board development, skills-based volunteering is still about workers giving time to their community.  When they use their workplace talents and skills, they enhance the ability of community organizations to be more effective catalysts for change nationwide,” said Senator Mark Warner, honorary chairman of the campaign.

The campaign was launched in 2008 and continues as an initiative of the Corporation for National and Community Service. Reinvigorated in 2011 with expanded leadership under the honorary chairmanship of Senator Mark Warner, it is now housed and managed by Points of Light. The initiative is powered by the support of Deloitte, HP,  the Case Foundation and IBM with additional founding support from State Farm.

Today we celebrate all the companies that have come together to transform how businesses leverage their employees to make a lasting impact on society by engaging, inspiring and mobilizing professional talent to build the capacity of non-profit organizations to better meet community needs.

“We have been overwhelmed by the initial enthusiasm for A Billion + Change. Volunteers nationwide served 8.1 billion hours in 2010, yet only around 16 percent of all companies make it a regular practice to offer their employees skills-based volunteer opportunities. Skills-based volunteerism helps companies build the human capital of their workforce and invest in their communities,” said Michelle Nunn, CEO of the Points of Light Institute, which manages and houses A Billion + Change.

To see a full list of the companies and non-profits that have pledged visit: http://www.abillionpluschange.org/

For more information visit the Billion Plus Change Facebook Page.

Points of Light Institute Corporate Service Council Names Leader

Points

of Light Institute’s Corporate Service Council (CSC), a group of more than 40 companies that are leading and inspiring the business community to increase civic impact through innovation, sharing of best practices and the application of human capital and financial resources for the greater good, has new leadership. Cliff Burrows, president, Starbucks Coffee U.S., has been named chairman of CSC. Burrows succeeds John Rice, vice chairman of GE. “Engaging people to participate in meaningful service is a positive force to drive positive change in our communities,” said Burrows. “Companies have a responsibility to address these critical issues. The Corporate Service Council provides an opportunity to bring the influence and business acumen of corporations to the public sector. Working together we’re better equipped to answer the call to action around issues of importance to the neighborhoods in which we do business.” Corporate partnerships are vital to Points of Light Institute’s mission to inspire, equip and mobilize volunteer service. By leveraging the power of their employees, members of the CSC are able to deliver high-impact service and volunteer leadership that is resulting in stronger neighborhoods, schools and nonprofits around the country.

Reimagine Service at NCVS!

Reimagining Service is a national coalition of multi-sector representatives from nonprofits, government, education, faith-based organizations, funding entities, and corporations.


Reimagining Service views volunteerism like an ecosystem, and believes it can deepen the impact that volunteers make by working collaboratively to address the challenges and opportunities facing all of us.


Join the Reimagining Service sessions in New Orleans!


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Reimagining Service Forum

Tuesday, June 7, 2011 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM

Session ID: 5086

Speakers: Gary Bagley, James Weinberg, Diane Melley, Liz Blake, Kaira Esgate, Rosa Moreno-Mahoney, Sonal Shah, Amy Smith

Twitter Hashtag: #NCVS5086

Join this forum for updates on Reimagining Service learnings over the past year, and to hear how leaders from nonprofits, for-profits, and government are applying the Reimagining Service principles to their work.

Senior staff from all sectors, especially those with policy-making authority, are encouraged to attend.

Reimagining Service in the Corporate World

Tuesday, June 7, 2011 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Session ID: 5095

Speakers: Kaira Esgate, Gail Gershon, Monique De La Oz, Evan Hochberg, Dean Furbush, John Power

Twitter Hashtag: #NCVS5095

Reimagining Service has identified eight key characteristics of highly effective corporate volunteer programs.

What are the characteristics of these corporate service enterprises and what steps can a company take to implement them?

How do corporate service enterprises collaborate with community organizations so that both partners get maximum value out of the relationship?

Corporate representatives will share their experiences — including honest insights into barriers, challenges, and opportunities – and discuss how they’ve applied the Reimagining Service principles to their work

Becoming a Nonprofit Service Enterprise

Wednesday, June 8, 2011 8:30 AM – 10:00 AM

Session ID: 5178

Ann Burroughs, Rafael Gonzalez, Margaux Helvey, Dannielle Campos

Twitter Hashtag: #NCVS5178

Everyone can probably think of a nonprofit that has figured out how to fundamentally engage volunteers in mission critical activities, enabling the organization to do more with the same financial resources, and deliver significant positive results.

We think of these organizations as nonprofit service enterprises.

When you talk to leaders and staff from these kinds of organizations, they’ll probably tell you the change didn’t happen overnight – it took time to shift thinking, policies, and practices – but that it was worth the effort.

At this session, we’ll hear from nonprofit representatives who are at various stages in the journey toward becoming service enterprises.

Last, we’ll save time for a peer exchange.

Participants will divide into groups based on the organizations they represent — nonprofit direct service, nonprofit volunteer management, government, faith-based organization, for-profit, schools – to further explore their own organizational needs and opportunities.

What’s Your Story?

Corporate responsibility, including volunteerism, has a significant impact on overall corporate reputation, driving up to 50 percent of consumer decisions*. If you are not sharing your employee engagement story with key stakeholders, you are missing an opportunity to positively impact your company’s reputation.

Companies invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in employee engagement strategy and implementation each year. How are you sharing the outcomes of this investment with the stakeholders that matter most to your business?

These days, recognition is commonly included in the management and execution of an EVP. Communication around recognition is usually only shared through internal channels, and occasionally the company PR department is engaged to issue a press release that acknowledge a milestone, new element or special characteristic of the program.

By limiting your communication to these channels and audiences, you can’t maximize the reputational value for your company.

In the “How to Communicate Your EVP” session, participants will hear from three companies—UPS, Microsoft and Disney—who have mastered the art of telling the company’s EVP story to reach both internal and external key audiences.

Each panelists will cover how the company communicates about its EVP on a local and global level, with an emphasis on how to:

• Identify your unique story

• Leverage your employees as brand ambassadors

• Show how volunteerism provides a real business value for the company

Then, all session participants will engage in an interactive breakout session to share successful tactics as well as identify current communication challenges and get advice from peers in addressing them.

If you are unable to attend the session, please reach out to me directly [email protected]—I’d be happy to share the learnings with you. Sharing your story is a critical, yet often neglected element to a company’s EVP. Join our session “What’s Your Story? How to communicate your EVP” (5081) Wednesday, June 8, 2011 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM so you can learn how to better tap into this resource.

*APCO Return on Reputation Research Indicator, 2010

Today’s post comes from Tara Greco Vice President of APCO Worldwide