- A lack of leadership support, especially middle manager support, derails participation in an employee volunteer program.
- Measuring the social impact of employee volunteer programs is difficult, as it is an abstract concept. As a result, organizations often avoid measuring impact altogether. This is a missed opportunity to demonstrate the value and many benefits of the program to fellow employees and senior leaders.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Employee volunteer programs are best positioned to maximize shared value when they are aligned with the organization’s priorities and harness the power of employees to drive community impact. It’s a win-win-win.
Impact and Result
- Involve senior leaders, middle managers, and employees in program design from the start to gain support and buy-in at every level.
- Design an employee-powered volunteer program, aligned with organizational goals, that measures success and empowers employees to champion events and causes they are passionate about.
- Build long-term partnerships with existing and new community partners to ensure shared value.
Workshop: Design an Employee Volunteer Program
Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Frame the Employee Volunteer Program
The Purpose
- Determine program scope, metrics, and goals.
- Assess current initiatives and level of employee interest.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Established program scope, metrics, and goals
- Reviewed current initiatives and level of employee interest
Activities
Outputs
Review organizational implications to set program scope.
- Organizational implications reviewed
Examine organizational data to determine program needs.
- Organizational data examined
Review existing volunteerism and employee interests.
- Existing volunteerism and employee interests reviewed
Set program goals and metrics.
- Program goals and metrics set
Review and select elements.
- Elements selected
Decide parameters of selected elements.
- Selected elements parameters decided
Module 2: Operationalize the Program
The Purpose
- Decide on strategic initiatives, program management, and technology that may be necessary.
- Integrate with existing HR programs.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Assessed strategic initiatives, program management, and technology required
- Integrated existing HR programs
Activities
Outputs
Assess the feasibility of selected elements.
- Feasibility of selected elements assessed
Review internal data to decide if a strategic cause will be selected.
- Internal data reviewed
Decide on and draft a volunteer program manager role.
- Program manager role drafted
Decide if technology will be used.
- Technology use decided
Identify required integration points with other HR program areas.
- HR program integration points identified
Module 3: Plan to Iterate and Implement the Program
The Purpose
- Set the program parameters.
- Incorporate volunteer recognition practices and share the program’s impact.
- Solicit feedback to evaluate and iterate the program.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Determined program parameters
- Integrated recognition practices
- Generated methods to gather feedback.
Activities
Outputs
Determine required policies, guidelines, and procedures.
- Policies, guidelines, and procedures required determined
Identify ways to track and share impact.
- Ways to track and share impact identified
Identify how employees will be recognized.
- Employee recognition methods identified
Determine how feedback will be gathered for program evaluation.
- Program feedback gathering determined
Create an action and communication plan.
- Communications planned