Employees and potential hires today will judge you based on your company values. They want to work in a place where they know they’re contributing something to make the world a better place. In this article we look at 4 Ways Volunteering Can Boost Your Employer Branding.
If you embrace corporate social responsibility (CSR), then, you enhance their perception of you as an employer.
One effective way to show you embrace CSR is by adopting a policy that allows current employees some volunteering time. There are multiple ways you can enable employee volunteering. You could have your own CSR program. You could also offer paid release time for volunteering, unpaid release time for volunteering, or employee secondments to nonprofits.
Whichever strategy you use, allowing your employees to volunteer their time for noble causes can boost your employer branding:
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It Helps Boost Employee Morale and Health
When employees feel like they make a positive impact on the world around them, it gives them renewed energy in life. They gain the personal benefit of feeling they have a purpose. That makes them happy, a feeling they attribute to their employer’s good corporate values.
But that’s not the only reason employees love employers that allow them to volunteer. When employees are allowed to participate in volunteering programs, their emotional health also improves.
That’s a deal-breaker for employees. A study by McKinsey found that health–both mental and physical—is a priority for them.
So, if you still have employees who are not convinced about volunteering, use a webinar to highlight the benefits of doing so. Double down on these benefits with Linkedin, Facebook, and Instagram posts.
Emphasize in all these that while your employees will be spending some of their time and exerting extra physical effort to help the community, they’ll ultimately be happier–and better—people for it.
It Shows Employees You Walk the Talk
By allowing your employees to render some volunteer time, you can show the core values of your business to them. Actions speak louder than words. Saying you care for the environment is one thing but getting your hands dirty in sustainable development volunteering, for example, is another. Your employees want you to walk the talk.
Studies have shown that this company’s ability to follow through (or lack thereof) affects employee retention.
Project ROI of the Campbell Soup Company found that employers who allow staff to engage in CSR activities had a reduced employee turnover of a staggering 50%. It’s safe to assume these employees who did not leave are happy in the company. When they’re happy in the workplace, you can expect them to be your brand ambassadors, boosting your employer reputation also outside the company.
It Helps Promote a Culture of Trust in the Workplace
Volunteer programs allow your employees to interact with each other and, therefore, develop positive relationships.
When employees develop positive relationships even in outside activities, they become more connected with each other in the workplace, too. That helps build a culture of trust, which makes your employer brand stand out. Employees, after all, appreciate this culture of trust. Forbes reported that employees feel 106% more energetic at work, experience 74% less stress, and are more satisfied with life in general in “closely-knit” workplaces.
It’s important to note that if you want volunteering to be part of the company culture, you need to implement monitoring strategies.
Use a work schedule app to keep track of the employees who are out volunteering. After the event, hold a follow-up meeting and ask what they learned from it. You can highlight what your volunteers say in company-wide emails to get other employees to render some volunteer time as well.
It Enhances Your Organizational Attractiveness to High-Quality Candidates
Your potential employees want to work in a place not driven purely by profit. They want to be part of a company that’s socially aware. Around 71% of employment seekers and employees say that environmentally sustainable companies are their employer of choice.
That means that if you allow your employees to volunteer their time for noble causes, you increase your chances of landing these high-quality job candidates.
You just need to make sure potential candidates know this is actually your policy. So, post pictures of your employees while rendering volunteer time on social media. Create other content like blog posts and case studies as well. You can use generative AI to write these in minutes.
The good news is that many companies have already adopted this volunteering policy to increase their employer attractiveness. In fact, LinkedIn’s Employer Brand Playbook reports that 83% of talent acquisition leaders already believe employer branding and CSR go hand in hand. CSR significantly impacts their ability to attract great talent. For them, it’s a powerful recruitment tool.
In Closing
A company’s perception of its role in the community is becoming a point of consideration for job seekers and employees. Employees and prospective employees want a place where they can make a difference in the community. In other words, if you want to land and retain good talent, you must embrace corporate social responsibility. You can do that by offering volunteering opportunities.
Allowing employees to volunteer can boost your employer branding in many ways. It helps improve your employee morale and health, shows your employees who walk the talk, and promotes a culture of trust in the workplace. It also helps increase your organizational attractiveness to top talent.
Employer branding and CSR combined make for a potent employer branding tool. All you need to do is leverage it.
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