Corporate sponsored volunteer events are becoming commonplace, and it’s not hard to see why. Volunteering can be fulfilling work that brings an individual closer to his or her community. But why invest the time and money to bring your entire office together for a volunteer event? Take a look at some of the best benefits to incorporating volunteer work into your company’s annual achievements:
Increase employee engagement. The employees who are engaged with the work that they do are the employees who work harder and more passionately. When employees take part in volunteer work together, they get the opportunity to get to know their coworkers and employers on a deeper, more emotional level. This allows the employees to relax a little and take a step back to realize that the boss is a down-to-earth person or that the receptionist shares some of the same interests as them. Creating a deeper emotional bond with coworkers and employers enables employees to find inspiration in unlikely places and to be more creative and innovative once they get back to the office. In addition, employees who are more engaged with their company and coworkers generally stay with the company for a longer period of time.
Enhance employee reward and enrichment. Along with becoming more engaged with their work, employees will enjoy a greater sense of personal reward and enrichment when they are able to go above and beyond what’s in their job description to help not only their company, but the community in which they work and live. Sharing skills with others in need is a rewarding experience, and many don’t realize just how much of a difference one afternoon of volunteer work can make. On top of enriching the lives of others in the community, employees may find that they can apply some of the knowledge and skills that they learn while volunteering in their office life. From incorporating more teamwork into the day-to-day workflow to communicating more effectively, there is a lot to be learned through volunteering as a group.
Humanize your company. Volunteering is an excellent way to represent the values and integrity of your company within your local community. When your employees are seen helping out a local nonprofit organization, the community starts to see it as being made up of real live human beings just like themselves rather than as an intangible entity. Most consumers believe that companies only think in decimals and dollars. When you and your employees volunteer, members of the community are able to put faces to the company name, making your company more appealing to the consumer’s emotions. It reminds the people that corporations are much more than just a name with a product. They are made up of living, breathing people.
See NBF in action at our most recent volunteer event at Milwaukee’s own Urban Ecology Center!
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