BusinessWise: What to know about corporate volunteerism

Question: My employees have shared feedback that they would like to get more involved in volunteering and charitable efforts. How do I begin incorporating volunteerism into my organization?

A: We applaud you for engaging in a feedback process with your employees and taking action to build your company’s culture. Corporate volunteerism is a component of corporate social responsibility in which companies encourage their employees to serve their community, whether they use their professional expertise or just offer a helping hand. It is a great team builder as well.

This practice is becoming popular not only among America’s largest companies, but also among small businesses. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has found that 47% of U.S. companies offered volunteer opportunities in 2018 and in their 2019 survey, SHRM discovered that 26% of employers offer paid time off for volunteering. Since then, these numbers have grown tremendously and are expected to only go up.

There are many reasons for this shift in business mindset, such as the growing awareness of the negative viewpoints sometimes associated with business and new research showing the vast benefits of encouraging a philanthropic corporate culture. With all of these factors playing their part, it is evident that corporate volunteering is quickly becoming a major part of best practices.

Corporate volunteerism connects your business and employees to the community.

Not only does serving your community help those who need it most, but it boosts employee morale, creates a closer community, and encourages quality effort from employees. While the time spent volunteering will not necessarily result in a tax deduction, the non-monetary benefits that corporate volunteering will bring to your business and working environment are priceless.

As younger generations continually enter the workforce, social responsibility is becoming an even higher priority for workers. Many businesses organize group volunteering efforts with not-for-profit organizations in their communities, allowing their employees to build personal and professional skill sets including increased leadership and networking, and strengthened colleague relationships.

Here’s how you can get started. Some great ways to encourage your employees to serve their community is to provide paid time off for volunteer events, organize volunteer services, and matching contributions to employee donations. It is also wise to provide a variety of services that employees can engage in based on their interests and expertise. Offering skills-based volunteer opportunities or pro bono work, is one of the most effective ways to utilize your professionals’ experience to give top quality assistance to those who need it.

To ensure the best results for both your business and community, you should thoughtfully plan out how your firm will engage in social responsibility and designate a team member or department to spearhead your corporate volunteerism planning efforts. Consider engaging your Human Resources team to create a volunteer program that will be attractive to your employees and clearly communicated.

Because the benefits of corporate volunteering largely stem from the increased meaning and purpose of helping others, organizing volunteer efforts should reflect the needs of your community and the interests of your employees. It may be easy to make monetary donations to charities or offer an array of volunteer opportunities for various organizations which may help the community. However, if you want to engage your employees and provide community service, we encourage you support the organizations and volunteer

Crystal Faulkner is a Cincinnati market leader with MCM CPAs & Advisors, a CPA and advisory firm offering expert guidance and beyond the bottom line thinking for today’s public and private businesses large and small, not-for-profits, governmental entities and individuals. Tom Cooney is with Wealth Dimensions, an investment advisory firm. For additional information, call 513-768-6796 or visit online at mcmcpa.com. You can listen to Tom and Crystal daily on WMKV and WLHS on “BusinessWise,” a morning and afternoon radio show that profiles highly successful people, companies, organizations and issues throughout our region.