Companies spend considerable amounts of money training employees. How can you help employees develop skills and also prepare them for future leadership roles?

According to recent trends, the answer is workplace volunteer programs.

With these types of programs, employees receive paid time off to volunteer. When a company creates volunteer opportunities for employees, they leverage their most valuable asset to improve the community. In return, employees gain experience and soft skills such as management, communication, leadership, and increased teamwork skills. Through employee volunteer programs, companies invest in employee to both act as good corporate citizen and build work related skills.

Employee volunteer programs increase return on investment:

1. Improve collaboration. Collaboration improves when people trust one another. Volunteering brings employees together to connect outside of work and creates an opportunity to develop and strengthen trust.
2. Increase employees’ self awareness. By volunteering in different situations, employees become more aware of how they respond, make decisions, and address conflict.
3. Grow revenue. Employees involved in volunteer activities become more engaged in their work while increasing productivity and increasing your company’s bottom line. You’ll also boost staff retention, saving thousands of dollars in the process.
4. Attract Millennials. If your organization wants to attract and keep millennial talent, it’s important to fully engage them. Volunteering time and talent is a great way for Millennials to impact the community while developing their skills.

You can create your own employee volunteer program with United Way of East Central Iowa’s Workplace Volunteer Council (WVC). The council currently includes 24 companies that work toward developing a culture of volunteerism within their business. WVC members meet quarterly to learn and share resources.

The next meeting is Wednesday, February 15 from 11:45 a.m.–1 p.m. at the Human Services Campus. The topic of discussion this month is how employees can volunteer to develop skills. To learn more about this topic and the WVC, contact our team at volunteer@uweci.org.

[Based on the article 4 Reasons Why A Corporate Volunteer Program Is A Smart Investment, Forbes.com]