Volunteering in the workplace is proven to build leaders and company culture.
Skilled volunteering marries together professional pursuits and philanthropy. By definition, it involves employees using their professional knowledge and expertise on a pro bono basis to serve nonprofit organizations. This form of volunteering is a commitment made by many companies looking to leverage their skill sets to create social impact. Skills-based volunteering has made its way into corporate language and is a fast-growing trend that is here to stay.
Kim Lanphear, who has transformed nonprofits through technology and passion by way of nonprofit, Apparo, shares her insight on why skilled volunteering is so important:
Company culture of engagement
Research shows that employees of all ages care that they have ways to give back to their community from their place of work. Apparo’s data demonstrates that 96% of those who volunteer through their skills self-identify that it is “important to them that their company provides opportunities for them to give back to the community.”
By leveraging employee skills, a company can create meaningful ways for employees to give back to the community in a unique way using their skills. This bolsters the employee confidence in their skills and gives them immediate feedback of success using their skills.
Professional development
Apparo’s research shows that by using skills in the community, employees gain new perspectives on some of the more basic elements of their work skills and can empower their own workplaces as a result.
Apparo’s research also demonstrates that employees self-identify professional growth in the areas of increased leadership, out-of-the-box-thinking and collaboration skills. These are skill sets that most upper management is eager to find ways to provide professional development for their teams.
Talent Acquisition
It has been a hard market for finding the best talent. One of the things that matter to new talent, is the ability to give back to the community. If a corporation has partnerships that align their employee skills with the needs of the community, it is an ace in their pocket for hiring new talent.
Skills can be shared remotely
As companies struggle to create retention strategies and cultures that employees find compelling, looking at skilled volunteering is a good idea. Employees can provide volunteering with their skills both virtually and in person. Projects to assess business processes, security measures, and more can all easily be done remotely.
Apparo’s approach and impact
Apparo wraps each skilled volunteer opportunity with a wrap-up story of impact and a follow-up story of impact 1 -2 years later so that the volunteers recieve repetitive praise for their work and so that the company can promote their culture of community impact. Apparo does not leave the nonprofit once the project is done. Apparo continues the partnership, as often does the company and/or individual skilled volunteer, so that business and technology strengths can continue to be shared.
Apparo remains the only organization in the technology skills-based category, providing hope for nonprofits and the people they serve through technology advancement and setting the tone for generations of skilled volunteering overall.
