Michael Haberman, President of PENCIL – a non-profit that inspires innovation and improves student achievement by partnering business leaders with public schools provides this article for The Huffington Post.
Here are some key excerpts:
In the last school year alone, nearly 80% of principals working with business volunteers through PENCIL felt more confident as school leaders; nearly 80% saw an increase in family engagement in their schools; and more than 95% saw an increase in student awareness about college and career awareness.
The facts are clear: promoting and providing employees with meaningful volunteer opportunities helps to attract top talent; engage, develop, and retain employees; boost public image; and improve the bottom line.
Increasingly, today’s employees are entering the workforce with an expectation that volunteering will be a part of their professional careers.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers discovered that 88% of Millennials gravitated toward companies with pronounced Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs, and 86% would consider leaving if their employer’s CSR no longer met their expectations.
And according to the 2011 Deloitte Volunteer IMPACT Survey, 61% of Millenials said a volunteer program would be a factor “when choosing between two potential jobs with the same location, responsibilities, pay and benefits.”
“Attracting and retaining great talent is the lifeblood of our business,” says Gil Krakowsky, principal at global consulting firm A.T. Kearney.
Deloitte found that over 50% of Millennial employees that volunteer are very loyal toward their company, proud to work there, satisfied with their employer, and likely to recommend their company to a friend. And Millennial employees who participate in a company’s volunteer program are more than twice as likely to rate their work culture as “very positive,” as compared to those who don’t volunteer.
The Bottom Line
Recruiting top talent, keeping them engaged and burnishing a business’ reputation — it all adds up to a bigger bottom line. In a recent Forbes article, Tim Mohin writes: “More engaged employees make for more profits…companies with highly engaged employees have three times the operating margin…and four times the earnings per share… of companies with low engagement.”
And according to Deloitte’s 2010 Volunteer Impact Survey, 64% of executives surveyed say that corporate citizenship produces a tangible contribution to the company bottom line.
Full article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/Michael-Haberman/corporate-volunteering_b_1856314.html
Kurt Schusterman 