NEW YORK –
Michelle Barbin’s work doesn’t always fill her bucket. Yes, she likes helping from nine to five to improve consumer experiences at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. She emphasizes that she otherwise would not have spent nearly 19 years working for the health insurance provider.
But his “empathic heart” derives true satisfaction from the company’s opportunities to apply professional skills to under-resourced nonprofits. Routine work—managing projects or organizing slide presentations—is more satisfying when it comes to, say, a new marketing campaign for a children’s health group in Pittsburgh.
She has also reaped benefits in her development; She credits her leadership at a day of service for helping convince her current boss to hire her for a new team.
“This is a big part of the reason I stay,” Barbin said.
Employees increasingly find that robust workplace volunteer programs satisfy their desires for in-person connections, professional growth, and altruistically inclined employers—career goals that may be missing in conventional corporate environments. The surge in interest stemming from pandemic-era shutdowns that forced many Americans to reevaluate their commitments to their communities generated more corporate partners, volunteer hours and active participants in 2023 than ever before, according to Benevity, a platform that helps companies to manage such programs.
More than 60 percent of respondents reported increased participation last year in employee volunteer activities, according to an Association of Corporate Citizenship Professionals survey of 149 companies.
Even employees who don’t volunteer feel better working in a place with a strong public-spirited culture. Regardless of their own individual volunteer commitments, they are proud of their affiliation with a socially conscious company, according to Jessica Rodell, a management professor at the University of Georgia who studies worker psychology.
Companies with strong volunteer programs tend to have lower turnover rates as well, he said.
“Volunteering can be a tool in a company’s toolbox to help employees invest enough in the company to perform well and then want to stay there rather than go somewhere else,” Rodell said.
It can be an especially good tool for instilling social purpose among frontline employees who tend to gain a sense of meaning from work but report detachment from their company’s mission.
But flexibility is key. Business management experts point out that employees must have the freedom to choose their volunteer activities, nonprofit partners, and time commitments for fruitful connections to develop.
Workplace volunteering wasn’t something Jesse Weissman knew he wanted from employers when he joined Microsoft in May 2021. Three years later, it’s an aspect of professional life that he said would warrant serious consideration if I was ever looking for a new job.
Seeking a deeper connection to the Seattle community, Weissman began mentoring students of color through Microsoft’s partnership with Boys and Girls Clubs of America and a local nonprofit. Since September 2022, she has worked with Microsoft’s Black employee affinity group in the Seattle area to organize speaking and mentoring opportunities for her colleagues.
“It filled a void that I didn’t realize,” Weissman said.
Just any careless activity isn’t enough, experts say. These days of service aren’t necessarily marked on office-wide calendars as matching T-shirt afternoons and on-site photo opportunities. Some companies set aside regular work hours for months on end so employees can build websites or develop business strategies for local charities.
Executives might think that a joyful social effort (e.g., filling backpacks at happy hour) is necessary for their employees to love fun. But Rodell, the management professor, said more meaningful and time-consuming programs resonate more with volunteers.
Best practices include following up on employee leads and meeting them where they are. Skills-based opportunities at Blue Cross Blue Shield range from one-day “flash” projects to month-long partnerships. The company reserves 15 days a year for associates to volunteer, as well as vacation and sick leave. Affinity groups can co-create service projects.
Integrating donations into volunteer programs is another way to engage busier, more experienced employees with less time to serve but deeper pockets. Liberty Mutual matches employee donations to more than 11,000 eligible charities. Insurance company volunteers are further incentivized by the chance to win miniature grants for the charity of their choice. Totals reach US$2,500 for those who have completed 100 hours of service.
Some employees recently spent part of more than six months consulting with More Than Words, a Boston nonprofit that provides jobs to young people ages 16 to 24 who have been through foster care, courts, homeless shelters or other systems. After surveying participants, Liberty Mutual employees identified a lack of initial support, according to Naomi Parker, the nonprofit’s director of advancement. Young people needed help getting transportation and food before they could hold down a job.
The volunteer commitments are now part of extensive ties that have seen a Liberty Mutual employee join More Than Words’ board of directors and more than $3.4 million committed to the nonprofit since 2013. employees have donated more than $85,000, including matches and other incentives.
“It doesn’t become a LinkedIn post, does it?” Parker said. “It’s not a quick success. It’s real. It’s deep. And it’s not for show.”
Volunteering can be a gateway to relationships beyond the otherwise expensive, behind-the-scenes help provided by employees. Long-term partnerships, in turn, introduce nonprofits with limited budgets to new groups of donors.
Now is an especially good time to forge those connections, given that Generation Z is expected to surpass Baby Boomers in the workforce this year, said Blackbaud Giving Fund CEO Matt Nash. More than three-fifths of charitable donors recently volunteered at the organization they supported, according to a report from Fidelity Charitable. As younger employees increase their earnings, Nash said, well-formed bonuses can become especially lucrative for nonprofits.
Legendary Legacies CEO Ron Waddell had no expectations that Blue Cross Blue Shield employees would remain committed to his nonprofit’s work rehabilitating young gang members. Several IT specialists and data analysts had helped them better capture metrics about the success of their programs, important for both feedback and grant applications. But many months later, a volunteer made a $200 donation in what Waddell considered a testament to his honest motives.
It was not “a performative measure to look good,” he said. “You could tell people were really engaged.”