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- Allow reasonable time off for volunteer and community service
meetings and offer the resources of a support person for typing,
copying, etc.
- Develop a release time policy that enables employees to participate
in projects with school-aged children, such as the “Hoover
Pyramid Mentoring Program” that allows 1-2 hours per week
for employees to tutor/mentor elementary and middle school children.
- Incorporate volunteer program goals into departmental business
goals.
- Communicate your Employee Volunteer Program mission and upcoming
projects on tent cards in the company cafeteria. (Sun Microsystems)
- Incorporate volunteerism into employee surveys. (American Express)
- Connect with your local Corporate Volunteer Council and/or
Volunteer Center to identify your community’s specific
volunteer needs. (Call (559) 237-3101 or (866) 476-7787 (toll
free) Volunteer Center of Fresno County)
- Incorporate a video highlighting the Employee Volunteer Program
into new employee orientation. (Centex)
- Ask all new employees to fill out a “Volunteer
Interest Form” to indicate interests, skills and talents.
- Facilitate continual cross-departmental communication after
a volunteer project by distributing a list of project participants
with phone extensions. (The Gap)
- Highlight the successes of your employee volunteer program
in your company’s newsletter and/or annual report or develop
a separate annual “Community Report” for distribution
to all employees, retirees, stockholders, customers and suppliers.
(Ames Rubber Corporation)
- Establish an employee volunteer program “Hot Line”
available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, where employees can hear
the current volunteer opportunities and leave messages about their
specific volunteer interests. (Abbott Laboratories)
- Develop an annual update for upper management describing impact
of employee volunteerism on specific company goals. (Tenneco)
- Augment a business / school partnership by bringing teachers
into the company and educating them about the business world that
their students will be entering. (Herman Miller)
- Develop a “Volunteer for Vacation” program, where
volunteer activity can earn additional vacation days. (Blackbaud
Software)
- Conduct pre-retirement seminars, which include information
on volunteering. Include retirees in the planning an administration
of your volunteer program. (Call (559) 237-3101 or (866) 476-7787
(toll free) for Retired / Senior Volunteer Program staff to
assist). Click here
to go to RSVP webpage.
- Provide a link on your company’s website to your local
Volunteer Center’s website to connect your employees with
volunteer opportunities in the community.
- Survey employees about the job skills they want to acquire
in their volunteer experience and develop volunteer opportunities
accordingly.
- Organize a brown-bag lunch presentation from a nonprofit or
your Volunteer Center about local volunteer opportunities and
have employees interview and sign up for volunteer opportunities.
- Develop an “Adopt-an-Agency” program that will
help the company have an impact on a nonprofit through multiple
projects over a year. (First Federal)
- Develop a volunteer recognition wall where employees’
names are permanently engraved after they have contributed a certain
number of volunteer hours. (Mitsubishi Motors)
- Reward volunteer participation with tickets to special events
(baseball game, opera, etc.) and opportunities to attend company
sponsored activities, workshops, luncheons, and black tie events.
- Incorporate volunteerism into the company performance review
process. (Piper Jaffray)
- Organize larger volunteer projects around the Foundation’s
“Seasons of Service” like Make a Difference Day, National
Volunteer Week and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, which will garner
more media publicity. Contact LaShaun Hargrove at the Points of
Light Foundation at (202) 729-8199 for more information.
- Set up an email mentoring program, matching employees with
students to discuss academics and careers. (Hewlett Packard)
- Consider significant community service activities as requirements
for promotion to executive level positions within the company.
(Wheat First)
- Highlight a notable employee volunteer project at each company
shareholder meeting. (Centex)
- Take an advertisement out in the local newspaper, thanking
employees for their participation in community projects.
- Have an employee contest to name your corporate volunteer program.
- Invite board members and shareholders to become involved in
employee volunteer projects. (Mellon Bank)
- Encourage the nonprofits your partner with to write about your
projects in their newsletters or you write the articles and send
them for the inclusion in the newsletters.
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