Let’s Give Volunteering a Facelift! | Business Doing Good

Let’s Give Volunteering a Facelift! | Business Doing Good: What image comes to your mind when you think of employee volunteerism?

Perhaps a team of smiling people at a local shelter in branded t-shirts putting their hands together just before a “go team!” chant? Or maybe it’s a cheerful woman standing on a ladder with a paintbrush in hand? How about some slightly dirty but happy colleagues standing around the piles of bagged litter that they just spent a day cleaning up in a local park? These are the prevailing images of employees engaging with their communities. And while these images do reflect an important kind of volunteerism, they don’t come close to representing the full spectrum of innovative ways in which employees are now uniting with their companies, nonprofits, and each other to build and sustain healthy local communities. The truth is, the term “volunteering” needs an image makeover to reflect the new paradigm of employee engagement taking hold across the country.