Community involvement is a big deal at Motivation Excellence. At both our office locations, in Schaumburg, IL, and Traverse City, MI, our company sponsors volunteer activities several times a year AND allows employees to take two days off a year to help a favorite cause on their own. This call to community action comes right from the top with President and CEO David Jobes, and former owner of VIKTOR Incentives, now Motivation Excellence, Mark Bondy.
Why Volunteering through Work Matters
If you’re not sure why encouraging volunteerism at work matters, read on! According to a study from Deloitte, employers who encourage volunteering among their staff see boosted morale, improved office environments, and enhanced brand perception. Here are some more interesting stats:
- 89% of employees think organizations that sponsor volunteer activities offer a better overall working environment
- 70% believe volunteering efforts are better at boosting staff morale than company-sponsored happy hours
- 75%+ say volunteering is critical to employee well-being
Business News Daily recently did a nice breakdown of the Deloitte survey with great takeaways on how volunteering helps employees and companies at the same time.
Benefits for Employees:
- A happy employee means a more productive employee, who is excited to go to work
- Increases camaraderie with coworkers and builds teamwork
Advantages for Companies:
- Younger employees, especially, want to feel good about the company they work for and social responsibility plays a big role in attracting top talent
- Active volunteers tend to become leaders at work too
- Positive community recognition of your company’s brand is powerful
How to Get Your Volunteer Program Going
If the reasons above have you excited about starting or expanding your work-based volunteer program, there are many ways to begin. With so many deserving charities in each community, you can start by polling your employees to see what their favorite causes are. Here are some other easy steps to take on the journey to community involvement:
- Connect with your local government office to see what the greatest needs are
- Schedule time during a workday to inspire your employees to get involved with the selected effort
- Take photos and share them with the office – even print some out to remind people of the positive influence they had outside of work
- Share your efforts on social media and encourage your followers to suggest an idea for your next volunteer day
- Encourage employees to share with the team when they volunteer outside of work
- Incorporate participation in your employee rewards program
Examples to Use
Still feeling stuck about how to help and where to start? Motivation Excellence has a long history of promoting volunteerism – take some of our efforts and make them your own, we don’t mind!
- Our Traverse City group is involved in the Michigan Department of Transportation Adopt-a-Highway program.
- In Schaumburg, we spent an afternoon working at the local Feed My Starving Children branch, making nutrition packets for food-deprived regions of the world
- One year, at our summer company-wide event, we designed a scavenger hunt for teams of employees to find essentials needed for the homeless in our area and then stuffed them into tube socks – to benefit Journeys – The Road Home
- We have a history of volunteering at the beverage tent each July at the National Cherry Festival held in Traverse City, MI – a 90-year tradition that builds up and supports our waterfront community
- Using our two charity days off a year, our employees have individually helped out at school fundraisers, animal rescue groups, JDRF efforts, youth education events, cream puff assembly for charity and so much more
- In our office, we made tied-edge fleece blankets for kids with cancer and hand-made holiday cards for active military
- Our Snack for Charity initiative raises money for a different organization each month – at $1 per snack, we end up donating anywhere from $25 to $100 a month
- Many of our employees are active industry volunteers as well, for foundations like SITE and The Above and Beyond Foundation
- Each Thanksgiving and Christmas, we adopt several families, providing food and presents to help make the holidays a little better for those in need
- Another summer event saw us creating cards and care packages for cancer patients at Phil’s Friends
- We work closely with Ingage Unlimited, helping with their fundraisers and offering their charity as a donation option for award points programs
This is a small sampling of what we do to give back to our communities; now it’s your turn. Whether you want to use volunteering as a team bonding experience, or offer days off so employees can bring outside enrichment into the office, encouraging community involvement is a great way to build a cohesive work community, positively impact your surroundings, bolster a strong office culture, create new leaders and promote your brand.
So get out there and make a difference! April is National Volunteer Month, but you can celebrate all year long.
