5 Tips for Creating a Volunteer Time Off Program at Your Company

By Emmy Thomas

Making a positive community impact has always been a priority at my company. For years we've made financial contributions and worked on pro-bono projects with many local nonprofit partners throughout the country where our offices are located. Our employee committees also organize regular company give-back initiatives like blood drives, clothing and toy drives, pet adoptions, and more. However, we wanted to find new ways of inspiring our employees to give back individually, which would amplify our collective efforts even further.

Ironically, work responsibilities often prevent people from volunteering as much as they'd like. We thought the perfect solution was to make it as easy as possible for our employees to get out and help. That's why in 2019, we implemented a company-wide volunteer time off (VTO) program, which allows our employees to take up to 40 paid hours off annually to volunteer.

With about 900 employees working in 10 different states, we believe our volunteer time off program creates a lot of opportunities for them to use company time to do good in their communities.

Tips for building a volunteer time off program

VTO programs are a growing perk for American companies, and for good reason. Not only does VTO provide critical support for nonprofit organizations, but employers and employees benefit as well. Evidence suggests that these policies improve recruitment and retention efforts while also boosting employee engagement.

If you're considering launching your own volunteer time off program, here are a few tips we learned in our process.

Establish volunteer guidelines

It's essential that your organization establishes a vetting process for nonprofit organizations that ensures volunteer time supports efforts that are effective and aligned with company values. We maintain a list of pre-approved organizations and conduct an approval process whenever an employee offers a new nonprofit suggestion.

Generally, we aim to support organizations that focus on children and families, community and well-being, animals, and the environment.

Create clear program parameters

As you're creating your volunteer time off program, it's also important to establish parameters for how employees gain VTO and how they can use it.

My company decided to adopt an accrual system, but we also allow employees to go in the negative because we don't want a lack of hours to inhibit an opportunity to give back. Each organization should make these decisions based on its own systems, needs, and values.

Make it easy for employees to volunteer

A VTO program won't be very effective if employees can't use it. If you're committed to implementing your own initiative, look for ways to streamline your internal systems, like time-off requests, manager approvals, and payroll to prioritize VTO.

Management can also boost program involvement by allowing employees to use VTO in smaller chunks for morning or afternoon opportunities, or by encouraging managers to use VTO as part of team-building activities.

More articles from AllBusiness.com:

• Volunteering Is a Great Way for Salespeople to Give Back—While Sharpening Their Sales Skills at the Same Time
• What the Most Successful Nonprofits Have Learned From Salespeople
• 16 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Give Back This Holiday Season
• The Importance of Strong Sales Leadership in Nonprofit Businesses
• 7 Ways Small Businesses Can Engage in the Local Community

Require proof of volunteer service

Proof-of-service is not about micromanaging employees. Instead, it helps ensure the program's integrity and enables you to record all the places employees have volunteered, plus the collective hours your company has donated.

Volunteer organizations are very familiar with proof-of-service requirements and often offer their own documentation. At my company, we created a template our employees can use to make the process as easy as possible.

Be open to innovation

Sometimes employees may come to you with ideas that fall outside the scope of typical VTO usage. For example, we have one employee who uses all 40 of their hours at once while volunteering internationally. Being open to these ideas will demonstrate your commitment to giving back, while also encouraging your team to find creative new ways to serve.

If you’re an organization with employees working in different parts of the country, or with a large population group working remotely, look for volunteer opportunities that impact your employees’ local communities, rather than the area where your headquarters is located.

Give back in whatever way you can

We understand that a large company can offer VTO time that other companies might not be able to afford. But you don't have to give a week of VTO to make a difference. You can always start on a smaller scale by offering fewer hours or building give-back opportunities into team-building activities.

Whatever method you choose, you'll be taking concrete steps to give back to the communities that give to you.

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