5 Standout Employee Volunteer Programs

Employee volunteer programs or employer-supported volunteer programs are becoming increasingly popular with companies that are looking for innovative ways to engage and motivate their employees while giving back to the community. While we all want to hear that there is a one-size-fits-all solution, every company has a different set of employees as well as a different set of resources they can utilize which means different methods are required. While there are many successful employee volunteer programs, check out our list of 5 standout employee volunteer programs and learn about their strategies to gain success.

Cenovus Energy

Cenovus Energy developed their “In the Lead” program in partnership with the Calgary Youth Justice Society and the Calgary Board of Education where employees can volunteer to coach vulnerable youth. While on paper this is a basic leadership development program, this program allows volunteers and students to form deep bonds and gain new skills that they can apply in their own lives. Volunteers help the youth become more comfortable in who they are and confident in their potential - leading to stronger community bonds as well as team relationships.

Deloitte

Every year, Deloitte hosts a firmwide volunteering day - Impact Day - where employees can scroll through a registration site to select volunteer opportunities they would be interested in. Deloitte has been quite strategic in utilizing volunteering for the betterment of the company as well as the community after realizing that certain types of volunteer opportunities are more sought after by employees than others. After recognizing this, they began expanding their volunteer opportunity pool beyond traditional volunteering roles by filtering opportunities that can intellectually stimulate their employees or skill-based roles. These opportunities are specifically chosen to engage their employees intellectually and allow them to invest their existing skills and experiences while expanding them.

One of the results of these efforts was the Deloitte Charity Think Tank Model. This is a volunteer opportunity where employees listen to the everyday challenges, faraway opportunities, or other points of concern of NPOs and charities and then bring their own unique skills and experiences together to craft solutions and recommendations for the organization, allowing them to gain professional insight and employees a chance to exercise their critical thinking.

Investors Group

Investors Group has taken a more employee-led approach with their volunteering program, the Employees in Action program. Within the program, teams of employees organize volunteering activities or other projects in partnership with NPOs. This strategy allows employees to take initiative in choosing the causes they care about as well as how to support them. This has resulted in stellar performances such as the time when 150 employees came together to assemble food packages for Stop Hunger Now as part of Hunger Awareness Week in 2014, resulting in 65000 packages being made for the NPO which had been well over double their average package count for the time volunteered.

This program is further supported by the award system in place to ensure that employees feel recognized and that the work they do is valued by the company.

Meridian

Meridian has a large network of local community partnerships which they use to their advantage. Through their Commitment to Communities campaign, they demonstrate their commitment to the community through creating partnerships, offering grants and scholarships, and committing to investing 4% of their pretax earnings in programs and partnerships that benefit local communities. Two of these programs are their My Commitment to Communities, donation match program where they promise to match employee donations of up to $1000 to any charity, and their Volunteer Grant program, where employees and their family members are entitled to grants based on hours volunteered.

These longstanding partnerships and their employees' enthusiasm allowed them to build an engagement portal, where employees can log volunteer hours, apply for donation matches, and manage their activities with ease.

Telus

Telus has taken a broader mindset when it comes to volunteering, using their international influence to bring attention to international causes. One notable example is their Connections program. Connections is their international women’s network that aims to support the lives and interests of women who work at Telus to support inclusivity. This program adapts to the needs of women depending on their location, their El Salvador location having an additional program - the Work for Her program - where English and life skills are taught to high school graduates that can eventually be used to work full-time within the company.

While Telus also provides weekly opportunities for employees to volunteer, during their annual Telus Days of Giving event, the company has many of their employees join forces for a cause chosen for the year. These projects have taken place all across the globe and, in 2020, they focused on the oncoming pandemic by delivering food baskets and blankets to families in need, care packages to healthcare workers and computers to students to transition into virtual learning.

While the companies listed have all been large corporations, medium-sized companies can also have standout employee volunteering programs by utilizing some of these techniques or partnering with companies that help curate effective volunteering platforms such as Purposely. While each of these companies have utilized different strategies and techniques to create impact within their communities, what is clear is that each company acknowledges that volunteering is an important part of any organization, so much so that they choose to invest time and resources into it. Volunteering has the power to engage, motivate, and empower employees and communities alike.

If you want to learn more about starting an employee volunteer program, click here to read our blog post about it! Looking to convince upper management to start investing in volunteering? Click here to learn all the facts and data about employee volunteering to get leadership at YOUR company on board!