subscribe by email
Boston College Center member 
Don’t think recruitment. Think relevance, relationships, results and renewal.
By Bea Boccalandro, Boston College Center faculty
The traditional theory about employee volunteerism has been that a strong program requires strong participation, which requires strong recruitment. One of the most common questions participants ask in the Boston College Center courses I teach is “How do we recruit more employees?” But a new report suggests that this is the wrong question.
Recent research indicates a more productive theory might be that good employee participation requires a good program, and not much recruitment. Of course, any employee program requires strong and clear communications. However, if a lot of effort is going into convincing employees to participate, it might be time to redirect this energy.
Think along the lines of “If you build it, they will come.” To attract employees, don’t focus on strengthening recruitment but on strengthening four other R’s that attract employees:
- Relevance of the program to employee work life and culture
- Relationships with internal and external stakeholders
- Results-focused design
- Renewal of programming
This four-R approach to employee volunteering emerged out of Atlanta, home of exemplary employee volunteering. Over the past four years, Atlanta has won more Awards for Excellence in Workplace Volunteer Programs, the premier national award conferred by the Points of Light & HandsOn Network, than any other metro area. These achievements helped Georgia tie California for the state with the most wins. Also, Atlanta companies outperform comparable companies in the Drivers of Effectiveness for Employee Volunteering and Giving Programs, the standard for effectiveness created by the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship. (To participate in this benchmark survey go to www.volunteerbenchmark.com.) In other words, this four-R Atlanta approach might very well represent a future trend of employee volunteering.
So next time you ask yourself “How can we recruit more employee volunteers?” consider the practices of Atlanta companies and instead ask “How can we bring more relevance, relationships, results and renewal to the program?”
» Download The Methods Behind the Magic: Examining the practices of Atlanta’s exemplary employee volunteer programs (pdf; free registration and/or login required)
December 3rd, 2008 at 8:52 AM
Good article. I agree with the focus being on creating the right kind of space – ‘if you build it they will come’ – instead of better marketing for the program. Not that the invitation is not essential, especially with respect to clarity of purpose, or ‘relevance’. But it is the space into which we are inviting our employees that demands our keenest attentions.
I speak with my clients of the ‘Point of Convergence’ for exceptional Employee Volunteer Programs. It is a mental model lifted from literary criticism (Hans-George Gadamer). When the horizon of; a) the NPO offering the volunteer experience, b) the work itself, whether environmental activism or working in a soup kitchen and c) the desires and expectations of the employee who is volunteering find convergence, there is understanding, and hence, meaning. It is the province of the business offering the Corporate Volunteering program to ensure that this convergence is possible, or rather, that there is relevance – a ‘natural fit’.
I’ve been following the work of Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship for a while, and I appreciate your efforts and insight.
Thank you.
Chris Jarvis
chrisjarvis@realizedworth.com
realizedworth.blogspot.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisjarviscan