Seeking engagement and purpose, corporate employees turn to workplace volunteering

NEW YORK — Michelle Barbin’s job doesn’t always fill her bucket. Yes, she enjoys working from nine to five to help improve the consumer experience at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. She emphasizes that otherwise she would not have worked for the health insurer for almost 19 years.

But her “empathetic heart” finds real satisfaction in the company’s ability to apply professional skills to nonprofits with limited resources. Routine work—managing projects or organizing slide shows—is more satisfying when it comes to, say, a new marketing campaign for a children’s health organization in Pittsburgh.

It has also reaped developmental benefits; she credits her leadership on duty for helping convince her current boss to hire her to a new team.

“This is a big part of why I’m staying,” Barbin said.

Employees are increasingly finding that robust workplace volunteer programs meet their desires for personal connections, professional growth and altruistic-minded employers – career goals that may be lacking in conventional corporate environments. The surge of interest sparked by the pandemic-era shutdowns that forced many Americans to reevaluate their obligations to their communities led to more corporate partners, volunteer hours and active participants in 2023 than ever before, according to Benevity, a platform that helps businesses manage such programs.

According to an Association of Corporate Citizenship Professionals survey of 149 companies, more than 60% of respondents reported increased participation in employee volunteer activities last year.

Even employees who don’t volunteer themselves feel better working somewhere with a strong, public-spirited culture. Regardless of their own individual volunteer work, they are proud of their association with a socially conscious company, said Jessica Rodell, a management professor at the University of Georgia who studies industrial psychology.

Companies with robust volunteer programs also tend to have lower employee turnover, she said.

“Volunteering can be a tool in a company’s toolbox to help employees invest enough in the company to perform well and then want to stay there rather than go elsewhere,” says Rodell.

It can be an especially good tool for achieving social purpose among frontline employees who tend to derive a sense of purpose from their work but report feeling disconnected from their company’s mission.

But flexibility is crucial. Business management experts note that employees should have the freedom to choose their volunteer activities, nonprofit partners and time commitments so that fruitful connections can truly be formed.

Workplace volunteerism wasn’t something Jesse Weissman knew he wanted from employers when he joined Microsoft in May 2021. Three years later, it’s an aspect of professional life he said would have to be seriously considered if he were ever to look for a new job.

Seeking a deeper connection with the Seattle community, Weissman began mentoring students of color through Microsoft’s partnership with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and a local nonprofit. Since September 2022, he has been working with Microsoft’s Black Employee Affinity Group in the Seattle area to arrange speaking and mentorship opportunities for his colleagues.

“It filled a hole that I didn’t realize,” Weissman said.

Not just any random activity will do, experts say. These service days aren’t necessarily circled on office-wide calendars as afternoons with matching T-shirts and on-site photo opportunities. Some companies set aside regular work hours for months so employees can build websites or develop business strategies for local charities.

Executives might think that a light-hearted, social effort—filling backpacks at happy hour, for example—is necessary to make their cheerful employees successful. But Rodell, the management professor, said more time-consuming, meaningful programs resonate more with volunteers.

Best practices include following employee leads and meeting them wherever they are. Skills-based opportunities at Blue Cross Blue Shield range from one-day “flash” projects to months-long partnerships. The company sets aside 15 days annually for employees to volunteer, as well as vacation and sick days. Affinity groups can co-create service projects.

Integrating donations into volunteer programs is another way to engage busier, seasoned employees with less time to serve but deeper pockets. Liberty Mutual matches employee gifts to more than 11,000 eligible charities. The insurance company’s volunteers are further incentivized by the opportunity to earn miniature grants for the charity of their choice. The total is $2,500 for those who complete 100 hours of service.

Some employees recently spent parts of more than six months consulting with More Than Words, a Boston-based nonprofit that employs youth ages 16 to 24 who have cycled through foster care, courts, homeless shelters or other systems. After surveying participants, Liberty Mutual employees noticed a lack of front-end support, said Naomi Parker, the nonprofit’s chief advancement officer. Young people needed help obtaining transportation and food before they could hold down a job.

The volunteer effort is now part of expanded ties that have seen a Liberty Mutual employee join the More Than Words board and donate more than $3.4 million to the nonprofit since 2013. Employees have donated more than $85,000, including contests and other incentives.

“It won’t be a LinkedIn post, will it?” said Parker. “It’s not a quick hit. It is real. It’s deep. And it’s not for show.”

Volunteering can be a gateway to relationships beyond the otherwise costly behind-the-scenes help provided by employees. The long-term partnerships, in turn, introduce nonprofits with limited budgets to new groups of donors.

Now is an especially good time to forge those connections, as Generation Z is expected to overtake baby boomers in the workforce this year, says Matt Nash, executive director of the Blackbaud Giving Fund. According to a Fidelity Charitable report, more than three-fifths of charitable donors recently volunteered with the organization they supported. As younger workers increase their incomes, well-formed bonds can become especially lucrative for nonprofits, Nash says.

Legendary Legacies Executive Director Ron Waddell had no expectation that Blue Cross Blue Shield employees would remain involved in his nonprofit’s work to rehabilitate young gang members. Several IT specialists and data analysts had helped them better understand the success of their programs, which is important for both feedback and grant applications. But many months later, a volunteer made a $200 donation, which Waddell took as proof of their honest motives.

It wasn’t a “performance measure to look good,” he said. “You could tell people were really invested.”

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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits is supported by the AP’s partnership with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.