How to Create a Volunteer Culture in Your Organization

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Why would you want to institute a volunteer culture in your organization while you might be struggling to achieve your business goals in an ever-changing world? What benefits might you find from investing the time and energy to create a culture of volunteering? Many organizations have found that developing and implementing a volunteer culture has reaped real benefits in employee satisfaction, their organization’s visibility in the community and the financial health of their organization.

The Volunteer Functional Inventory (VFI), (Clary, et al.)*1 proposed that volunteering fulfills six psychological functional needs:

social (spending time with others and gaining approval of admired individuals)
career (job-related benefits or advancement)
understanding (learning or practicing skills or abilities)
values (expressing altruistic or humanitarian concern)
protective (reducing guilt over feeling more fortunate or escaping personal problems)
enhancement (gaining satisfaction from personal growth or esteem)

Employee morale, retention of valued employees, development of new employee skills and long-term satisfaction are some potential benefits of a well planned and executed volunteer culture. Several studies have found that employees can improve their working relationships by sharing time on a volunteer project together. Employees can learn a better sense of who they are and what they value. They learn about each other and sometimes learn to appreciate their differences which they might struggle with when working together. They may share a common passion for helping a specific group such as seniors and form connections with others. These shared passions can enhance their productivity during the work day. People who trust one another get things done more efficiently. Trust between employees is enhanced when we know and care more about the lives, dreams and struggles of our co-workers. Employees getting to know one another better through volunteering together can increase trust which results in more efficiency and effectiveness in achieving the objectives of the organization.

Improving the visibility of your organization in your community and among your customers is another potential benefit. Publicizing volunteer events within your organization via internal communication and effective use of social media is a good step to let people know what you are doing. What better way to advertise your brand than doing good in your local community while wearing branded tee shirts!

In this study, (Phillips, et al)*2 the researchers conclude that the intangible rewards of personal satisfaction, using one’s skills to help others, making the community a better place and developing relationships with the people served are stronger motivators than tangible rewards for volunteers.

Participation in volunteer events should be encouraged but be entirely optional. Managers who lead by example and consistently invest the time to lead and attend volunteer events will develop stronger volunteer cultures in their organization. Carefully consider the timing of volunteer events to avoid times of particularly high stress and completion of key deliverables. If team members vote with their feet and opt not to participate, don’t give up. Take this as feedback and incorporate into modifications or postponement of a program. Allowing flexibility into the type of volunteer event and timing is a key step towards gaining support from employees and their managers. You might consider developing a volunteer culture guideline statement which outlines your company goals for volunteering and the type of organizations for whom you support volunteering in your organization. Also outline the expectations for how frequently you support volunteer events. One day per quarter might be a good starting point.

Selecting Partner Organizations

Carefully consider the organizations with which you might partner. Be flexible to enable volunteer options that align with employees’ personal values while maintaining alignment with your organization’s values. Examples of groups that might not be supported by all employees is volunteering with an organization aligned with a certain religious group or a group that sells alcoholic beverages. It is a good practice to allow work teams flexibility for what volunteer activities in which they choose to participate.

Follow Up After the Volunteer Activity

Be sure to follow up to understand the effectiveness of your volunteer events and incorporate feedback to improve future volunteer events. Speaking directly to employees about their experiences works well but if you use a survey, be sure to leave space for comments because sometimes the comments are the richest source of information in a survey. Below are some examples of open-ended questions to consider.

Did you learn something significant about one or more of your co-workers as a result of participating in the volunteer event?
Do you believe that you will enhance your working relationship with a co-worker? Why do you feel this and what will the improved working relationship look like?
What did you learn about the community? What did you learn about yourself?
How could the activity be improved?
What are some other organizations that you would like to consider for future volunteer activities?

Conclusion

Consider the benefits of implementing a volunteer culture in your organization. Do you and your management team understand the benefits and are you committed to putting in the time to develop a volunteer culture and start some volunteer events? Is there someone in your organization who is likely to understand the plan and help set up and administer a volunteer program?

Here are some volunteering resources in our community.

Creating a volunteer culture can start anywhere within your organization, so you don’t need to be an executive or company owner to get started. The key is to just get started where you are!

David Gast is a retired engineering manager and a volunteer mentor for SCORE Central Oregon. Gast can be reached at david.gast@scorevolunteer.org.

*1 Clary, E Gil, Snyder, Mark, (1999), The Motivations to Volunteer: Theoretical and Practical Considerations, Current Directions in Psychological Science. Volume 8, Issue 5, October 1999

*2 Phillips, Laura C, Phillips, Mark H, (2010) Volunteer Motivation and Reward Preference: An Empirical Study of Volunteerism in a Large, Not-For-Profit Organization. SAM Advanced Management Journal — Autumn 2010

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