What is ESV?
As described by Volunteer Canada, employer supported volunteering is, “a continuum of employer support for employee volunteer activities. It describes a company that voluntarily supports its employees’ involvement in the community. Typically, employer-supported volunteer initiatives are integrated into the workplace and involve various levels of employer involvement and expenditure.”
What kind of volunteering can you do?
Anything and everything! ESV could be hosting a BBQ for a local organization, cleaning up parks as a team, serving at a soup kitchen, organizing a fundraiser, and much more. If you’re looking for a specific organization to get involved with or a list of volunteer opportunities please see our current volunteer opportunities page.
Why is ESV important?
Many non-profit organizations are delivering multiple services with minimal resources and rely heavily on the support of volunteers. With the increasing demand for community programs and decreasing supply of resources, volunteers play a crucial role in creating a stronger community.
By encouraging employees to volunteer our city will see the “Community Gains”:
- Enriched community life
- Community organizations with more human resources and a wider variety of skills delivering enhanced health, education, and social services
- Citizens with access to more programs and services
- New partners for government in service provision
- Enhanced historical, artistic and cultural richness for citizens to enjoy
Return on Investment
ESV creates a competitive edge as your business takes initiative to value corporate social responsibility and corporate community involvement. This creates an enhanced company reputation, increased consumer loyalty, and greater attractiveness to prospective and current employees.
It is also one of the most cost-effective ways to show your commitment to the community, while at the same time reaping the rewards that have a direct impact on the business bottom line. Employers whose employees volunteer gain a more highly skilled workforce. Employees whose employers support their involvement in the community are more loyal to their employer and stay longer, reducing the costly need to recruit and train replacements.
ESV demonstrates a rare example of a win-win-win-win-win situation through which the community, individual citizens, governments, business and employees gain. Employee attitude, customer relations, and sales have also been linked to the benefits of volunteering as well.
Recommendations:
- Businesses should develop written policies on employee volunteering
- Recognize the contributions of employee volunteers
- Encourage or accommodate employee volunteering during work hours
Choose your level of involvement:
- Acknowledge Volunteerism
- Encourage Volunteerism
- Enable Volunteerism
- Facilitate Volunteerism
After you have established how involved you would like your organization to be in ESV, contact Volunteer Kamloops to see how we can assist you in your initiatives.
Additional Information
All ESV research has been extracted directly from the research study provided by Volunteer Canada: Making a Business Case for Employer – Supported Volunteerism.
To access this paper please see the attached link: Making a Business Case for Employer – Supported Volunteerism PDF