Give Something Back

Consider giving a little something back to the community that supports you.

While the effective altruism movement might be more concerned about a Terminator-style takeover of the world than feeding the homeless, they ultimately do have the right idea: what can we do that will actually do some good rather than just making us feel good? As the idea of corporate social responsibility (CSR) becomes more ingrained in business, consider how you can use your company’s resources and your employees’ talents to address a local problem. This is not just about providing money…it is about talented people who can combine their skills into something powerful, something that can really help others.

There are many good ways to volunteer. You might offer your employees’ services to a non-profit group. Maybe they could teach at a youth center or mentor students in their field at local high schools. Your hairstylists might do hair once every couple weeks at a battered spouses’ shelter. Your IT team could help a non-profit create a more useful website and organize their donor database. Your opportunities are limited only by your creativity, and if you are encouraging innovation and creative thinking among your employees, that shouldn’t be a problem.

Why should you do volunteer work? Well, for one thing, it’s just a nice thing to do. We are all part of a community (however we choose to define that community) and contributing to that is something responsible members of a community tend to do. Just think of it as a way to positively increase social capital where you live.

It is also a good way to build on existing skills or try something new. Your employees might hesitate to do something different with a paying customer and could feel more at ease testing it out as part of a volunteer opportunity. That does not mean you should provide bad work for a charity…if you mess something up, be sure to fix it before you leave! It is also a good chance to practice existing skills, especially those they might not use every day.

Volunteering also offers opportunities for leadership development. Your rising leaders could do strategic planning for a non-profit group, or lead teams of volunteers on projects, or be a board member and learn more about things like budgeting and decision-making. The unusual challenges and the need for flexibility found in volunteer work make for a great leadership lab.

Your industry may be cyclical, and you might face “downtime” on occasion, leaving your employees with some extra time on their hands. If possible you want to try not to let them go, since ultimately as business picks up you would just be hiring them back (or, more likely, getting less experienced replacements). Volunteering offers one way for your employees to be productive even if they are not being profitable.

Finally, it can be a good recruiting tool. Actively volunteering in your community suggests a company culture that is attractive to many people. It tells potential employees that there is more to your company than just making money, and a lot of people are looking for the opportunity to do more with their talent than simply make someone else rich.

Speaking of recruiting, you never know what the future holds for those people you help. You just might find a great new employee in that group. Recruiting doesn’t get much cheaper than that.