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How To Build A Team For Employee Volunteering?

Writer's picture: AdminAdmin

Getting employees to volunteer for your CSR events can be extremely challenging and stressful. 40-50 hours in the office a week should never be all about work. We are humans, remember? Sometimes we forget, thanks to technology that enables us to do more. Work never stops. We need to stop. To recharge.


Every human is built with a sense of purpose. We have a conscience that finds solace in good deeds. A job alone is not everything for most employees.


Many look to engage themselves beyond work.

Many want to make a difference in people’s lives.


Gear up to guide the change-makers, and maybe you’ll end up awakening some sleeping giants too.


Educate Yourself Before You Build A Team For Employee Volunteering


As a CSR manager, before you reach out to create a team, learn more about the organization.


Read up on all your programs, and spend time planning roles for employees for your big splash first event.


Focus on optimizing employee time for the event. Find out about previous volunteering events organized by teams, if any. See how you can up the ante. Arm yourself with relevant info before stirring up leaders and managers running large teams.


Employee Communications Is Your Friend


You may have it all together, but still, stick to protocol. Connect with Employee Communication to ideate channels to reach out to all employees. Best to keep it digital. Use email, intranet, and digital displays.


Make sure your email is not too long. Partnering with Employee Communication helps create content that can be avoided for your internal communication. If employees don’t like your first email, they won’t bother looking at it later. It’s very important to set the right expectations. State the facts, the current scenario, and how we can make it better. CTA should be first, and context setting can be done in the latter part of the email. Those who are interested will read through it all.


Catch Up with Leaders

With an email sent, along with the rest of the shebang, continue to dialogue with functional leaders informally. Catch them during breaks or request an off-the-record meeting. Request them to drop in a word during their team meetings.


You may not get a great response from employees initially. Don’t worry! If 25/5000 people respond, congratulations, make an email list. Call for a quick meeting to set the right expectations. Off the 25, maybe only 15 can attend your meeting. Despite your having called everyone personally. What is common among the 15 employee volunteers? A Shared Purpose to make a difference. These are your proactive, genuine volunteers, ready, willing, and able to champion relevant employee volunteering causes for your CSR program.


During the meeting (30-45mins)

  • Avoid presentations unless you have awesome content to showcase. Be honest, transparent, and clear. Do not try to please. Be honest. Only the truth can set you and others free.

  • Detail on how employees can make a huge difference across all programs.

  • Encourage questions. In your responses, look for ways to connect their aspirations to Company (CSR) objectives.

  • Assign Employee Leads for various focus areas under your CSR program for future employee-driven volunteering campaigns.

  • Conduct a quick exercise to decide on a name for the team of active employee volunteer leads; in case there isn’t one.

  • Appoint leads and delegate roles for your big splash first event with your most active NGO partner.

  • Share as much information as possible for the upcoming event so that they feel comfortable and look forward to the event.

  • Post meeting, with dates set for the event, work with this core group to mobilize employees for volunteering. Since it is the first event, lead the entire experience.

  • Give them enough material to reach out to their larger teams and employees. Share every detail possible to empower these future volunteer leads on the Who, When, Where, What, Why, and How. From the choice of NGO, Purpose, Benefit to Company/Employees/NGO, Minimum number of employees, Budget, etc. It helps employee leads take up responsibility for the next event.


Post-Meeting, Pre-Event


Pre-Event, brief the entire group of volunteers on the dos and don’ts. Stir them up, encourage them, and do the work of an evangelist. During the event, make a mental note of how some employees were being proactive. Post-event, appreciate those employees who were exceptional, personally. Take feedback, and respond positively to those employees if it’s possible to implement their suggestions. Appreciate the team of volunteers with an email, and mark managers where possible (not every manager endorses CSR activities).


As a CSR Manager or an Employee Volunteer Champion, you need to lead the entire experience. Lead in a way you feel best to ensure volunteers are motivated to come back for the next event. Leading initial events will build their confidence to take it up themselves in the future. Sometimes it gets difficult to let go to allow others to lead. As a CSR Manager or Employee Lead, you need to focus on your core job instead of giving away too much time to managing volunteering events.


Building a core team for employee volunteering is not a one-time effort. It requires commitment and drives to keep employee volunteers going. Make it a point to connect with them regularly. Informal get-togethers yield better results for non-core activities.

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