960,000 hours of volunteer time up for grabs

Did you know that 75% of business' in Australia now have employee volunteering programs? I found this figure surprising. At first I thought it must be inflated, but these stats from Volunteering Australia are the real deal. What is even more surprising, however, was just how many allocated corporate volunteering hours remain unworked each year.

The equivalent of 500 full time employees every year remains on the table, EVERY SINGLE YEAR!

Thats 20,000 hours a week! 

960,000 hours a year! All there for the taking.

Why is this figure so high?

One reason is that employees are not electing to take up opportunities. The other is that organisations are not adaptable and flexible enough to meet the needs of the corporates.

All this screams OPPORTUNITY for not for profits and community groups who are willing to step outside their comfort zone a little.

If we can craft offerings that appeal to employees, that tap into their motivations and inspire action and if we can work with corporates and develop volunteering opportunities that are mutually beneficial, then we can easily access abundant volunteering hours and offer our groups and networks huge long term partnership opportunities.

Companies are looking for great experiences for their employees, the research is clear, their are massive benefits to productivity for having well developed employee volunteering opportunities. These benefits include;

- Employee retention. When employees find a sense of pride in both the company they work for and the work they do employee engagement and employee retention is significantly increased. In 2004, a Lloyd Morgan study of 50,000 employees showed that companies can have an 87 percent reduction in the number of resigning employees when they increase employee engagement.

- Increased sense of purpose. When employees feel that the work they do not only creates benefits for the company but also for the world as a whole, their sense of purpose increases, leading to increased rates of happiness and motivation in the workplace.

- Recruitment. Its a jungle out there. Attracting high caliber employees can be a difficult task. Employee volunteering programs can be an enticing benefit for a candidate and can make the company a very appealing place to work.

- Variety and skill development. Skills like leadership, problem solving, communication, adaptability and being a team player are all powerful and highly sought after skills in any workplace. Learning these skills through out of the ordinary work, helps to build their muscle and can provide large benefit to on the job performance.

With these company and employee benefits in mind, can you craft a volunteering opportunity that is mutually beneficial and helps you t access the vast bank of skills and time that is available from this rich and ever growing source of volunteers? Think; What will they give? what will they gain? How can you sweeten the deal even further for them?

Make them an offer they are excited to get on board with and they will keep coming back year on year.