As many top entrepreneurs will tell you, one of the greatest ways to promote a sense of shared vision within a business lies in encouraging employees to give back to their communities. Fortunately, there are many ways to promote employee engagement in charitable causes; here are just a few great ways to encourage employees to volunteer, and why employee giving benefits all levels of a business.
Let Employees Shape Their Charitable Work
To really provide employees with the motivation they will need to do stellar work in their communities, try providing them with a high degree of autonomy in their choice of volunteer work. This can include letting employees choose which charity they would like to work with, deciding which goals they will set out to accomplish in their charitable work, and what timeframe employees will require to achieve those goals. A sense of self-determination in managing their own charitable work will not only give employees a greater sense of responsibility and initiative in their day-to-day lives, but it will also enable them to develop greater confidence in their own abilities.
Provide the Time Employees Need for Volunteering
When employees are working full-time, it can be difficult for them to fit volunteer work into their weekly schedules. Family and other personal commitments can make weeknights and weekends especially difficult times for volunteering, for example, but by creating incentives for employees to volunteer in the community with paid hours of leave from work each month, business leaders can show their employees how much they value a commitment to charitable causes from everyone on their team. Not only will employees appreciate the chance to help out in their communities, but they’ll also take pride in being part of an organization that truly helps those in need.
Provide the Right Resources
Food drives and donation programs can be extremely effective ways for businesses to organize their charitable giving, but providing budgets to employee teams to spend on volunteer projects can be a particularly effective way to make a real difference within the community and build on shared group values at the same time. With a good budget available for seeing their charitable projects through and the kind of confidence that arises through teamwork, employees will have the means to make a greater impact on the world around them.
To really take a business to new heights of success, few initiatives are quite as important as programs that allow employees to give back to their communities in meaningful ways. For companies who go above and beyond in helping those in need, the rewards can be truly life-changing. And that is business at its best!