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The ROI of Volunteering

In It Together

By David R. Basler

SWITZERLAND HAS LONG BEEN KNOWN AS “A NATION OF VOLUNTEERS.” A self-appointed moniker, I imagine, but nonetheless, the stats don’t lie. In recent years, studies have shown that the average Swiss spends almost 500 hours per year helping their local community in some form or fashion.

Just to put that stat into perspective, for the average American that number is 187, while in Canada the average is 168 and it’s 136 in Australia.

While I certainly don’t need to shout from the rooftops that volunteering is important (I think everyone is aware), I think it’s important to note that more companies worldwide are seeing the positives effects of volunteerism, and that’s a lesson we can all find value in.

The 2009 study, “The Benefits of Employee Volunteer Programs,” by Junior Achievement Worldwide showed an average 5 percent increase in overall job satisfaction among employees whose companies implemented an employee volunteer program, and a case study of Sears published in Harvard Business Review shows a direct correlation of that stat to the bottom line.

A 5 percent increase in employee satisfaction may not sound like much, but for Sears that increase resulted in a 1.3 percent improvement in customer satisfaction, which produced a 0.5 percent increase in revenue for the year. That translated to US$65 million more in the bank. Not too shabby—and easy to see the ROI.

Companies that haven’t taken CSR seriously up to this point should clearly start. Implementing a strong CSR program linked to your company’s business strategy not only improves employee morale and the bottom line, it allows your employees to build on their leadership skills and it brings people together for a common good—a value set all companies should strive to obtain.

I’ve volunteered regularly for years and have been lucky enough to either own my own company or work for others who shared that value set (MPI being one of them), so I know the value first hand, and after talking with some of our members for the cover story in this issue, “The Best Advice I Ever Got,” one particular story stood out—that of Disney’s George Aguel.

You’ll have to turn to Page 78 to hear his story, but I’ll bet you can already guess its moral. One+

DAVID R. BASLER is editor in chief of One+. He can be reached at dbasler@mpiweb.org. Follow him at www.twitter.com/onepluseditor.