For years, Foundation for Shared Impact (FSI) has been offering impactful skills-based volunteering opportunities to our corporate partners, whether through our Community Connections Program or shorter engagements available at our Community Business Support Program. This gives us the opportunity to see first-hand how companies can benefit from a well-structured, impact-driven skills-based volunteering program. And it has enhanced our ability to curate engaging corporate volunteering programs that our corporate partners’ employees are actually excited about.
Unlike traditional CSR initiatives of one-off volunteering activities, skills-based volunteering allows your employees to leverage their skills, knowledge, and expertise to help social impact organizations tackle operational or organizational challenges, which results in more lasting impact on the social impact organizations and the community they serve, as well as your employees and your company’s reputation. Additionally, skills-based volunteering is a great way for your company to achieve your ESG and CSR goals.
Some of our corporate partners have relayed stories about how Community Connections has helped them with talent retention: their employees chose to stay in the company because of the meaningful skills-based volunteering opportunities made available to them by their employers.
In addition to allowing companies to demonstrate their commitment to social impact to their employees and stakeholders, a skills-based volunteering program also provides employees with an executive training ground, where they can practise and acquire new skills, collaborate and problem-solve with people from different sectors, and expand their knowledge and network, enabling them to initiate or inform the development of new products or services for their companies.
“The Community Connections Program is a significant opportunity for employees to develop their leadership skills while adding tremendous value to the community,” said Usha Pillai, Vice President of Corporate Citizenship & Foundations APAC at Credit Suisse, a corporate partner of our Community Connections Program. “We have seen many instances of employees developing various skills while supporting their community and bringing these skills back to Credit Suisse in expanded roles, which is a win-win-win for all.”
Benefits of a Corporate Skills-based Volunteering Program
Here’s how a corporate skills-based volunteering program can be a win-win-win for all:
- Professional development: When employees engage in skills-based volunteering projects, they will have to find ways to collaborate with people from different sectors and problem-solve in environments unfamiliar to them. This is how they can practise leadership, collaboration, and communication skills while acquiring new knowledge and expanding their network, all of which are beneficial to employees’ professional development.
- Increased innovation: Exposure to new challenges and perspectives can spark creativity and innovation in your employees. The insights, knowledge, and skills gained from skills-based volunteering projects enable your employees to bring new ideas and approaches that can benefit the company.
- Improved employee engagement and retention: When employees are given the opportunity to use their skills and knowledge to give back to the community, they often feel more engaged and fulfilled in their work. This can lead to increased job satisfaction and reduced turnover rates.
- Increased organizational performance: Studies have shown that employees engaged in skills-based volunteering are more enthusiastic about their work, more cooperative with their colleagues, which can lead to increase in overall organizational performance.
- Positive reputation: Companies that have effective corporate volunteering programs in place can build a positive reputation in their communities and among customers. They are also more attractive to talents looking for companies committed to driving social impact. In other words, having a skills-based volunteering program can lead to increased brand loyalty and improved public perception for the company.
- Enhanced CSR and ESG: Aligning skills-based volunteering projects with your company’s corporate social responsibility or ESG strategies is a good way to achieve CSR and ESG goals. Tracking, assessing, and communicating the impact of your company’s skills-based volunteering program allows you to demonstrate your company’s commitment to the social and environmental impact that your customers, employees, and other stakeholders care about.
Maximize Employee Engagement, ESG, and Corporate Volunteering Initiatives with Community Connections
So how do you go about building your corporate skills-based volunteering program? The good news is that you don’t have to from scratch!
As a corporate partner of our Community Connections Program, you can entrust us with matching your employees with skills-based volunteering projects that are aligned with your employees’ skill sets and passions as well as your company’s CSR and ESG goals. This means that you will be able to accelerate your corporate ESG or CSR initiatives while increasing engagement with your employees.
We can also equip your senior managers and leaders to be effective leaders through our Board Director Training, and connect them with our community partners that are looking for directors or advisors to join their boards.
For employees who are new to skills-based volunteering, we can help them identify their capabilities as skilled volunteers and issues they are passionate about, set goals for their social impact journey, and match them with the right community partners and projects.
If you would like to learn more about how Community Connections can help your company run an effective corporate volunteering program that offers training and development opportunities to your employees, get in touch with us at communityconnections@shared-impact.com!
