What Do Your Employees Get Out of Volunteering?
The business benefits of implementing an employee volunteering policy are many.
From reduced employee turnover, to helping you attract top talent, there are very real cost savings to be made from providing volunteering opportunities in your benefits package.
In fact, According to a McKinsey study, 60% of employees leave companies as a result of lack of purpose and seeking a fresh challenge. So creating a benefits package that offers something a little different can really make you stand out and help retain your top talent.
But something that is often overlooked is the employee wellbeing angle, and what your team themselves will actually get out of having access to a volunteering platform like Matchable.
Below, we will summarise the key benefits to your team that come from engaging with skilled volunteering projects.
😮💨 A Welcome Change: A New Challenge
One of the biggest reasons why employees change jobs periodically, and look for that next ‘better’ opportunity is getting burnt out and feeling stuck doing the same old work day-in-day-out.
But volunteering can provide a break from the usual tasks, and offer up a new environment in which they can apply their skills. Through remote volunteering they could have the chance to use their skills to help a charity in a brand new industry.
Or maybe, your staff would simply value the opportunity every now and then to try a task that is completely unrelated to their work. Employee volunteering benefits are an effective strategy to keep your team’s roles varied and engaging in an innovative way!
📚 Learning + Development: Up Skilling
Skills-based volunteering like that offered on the Matchable platform provides real world up skilling opportunities for your team, helping them to progress in their career and feel challenged in a new way.
Many companies now offering this kind of benefit such as Primark and GANT are viewing employee volunteering not just as a means for creating positive impact, but also as a personal development tool for their employees!
For example, maybe members of your marketing team have never been in a position where they have the authority to create a marketing strategy from scratch. But through skilled volunteering, they could get that opportunity to assist a charity in need of their expertise.
💚 True Purpose at Work: Give Their Role New Meaning
Through remote volunteering, you can go a long way towards giving your staff true purpose at work, and help to give the entire team’s work more meaning by offering the chance to help charitable causes that they themselves are passionate about!
Perhaps you have an employee resource group (ERG) focused around climate action, who would love the chance to get involved in the fight against climate change in a meaningful, creative way.
Creating that shared culture of giving through volunteering can help you to support global causes that your business, and employees align with in an effective way. This isn’t the typical green washing box ticking corporate volunteering…This is real impact.
👫 Team Building: Strengthen Work Relationships
80% of employees say that group volunteering strengthens their relationships with their colleagues*
Whether you’re providing vital, on the ground support to local organisations in need of man power, or teaming up with your colleagues to offer skilled support online, volunteering offers endless opportunities for collaboration.
