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February 06, 2008

Corporations Report a Rise in Volunteer Options for Employees

Companies are increasingly offering incentives such as time off for volunteer projects and the ability to do volunteer work on company time or for company-organized efforts as a way to attract and retain employees, reports the Associated Press.

Colleen Bramhall, a young consultant for the company Accenture, says that the wealth of her company’s volunteer opportunities has changed her vision of corporate America. “I used to be the one that was working for the man, the one with the corporate job that was the sellout, and now I think my friends are looking at Accenture in a different light, as a sort of corporate citizen,” she said. Ms. Bramhall has been to Sri Lanka and South Africa as a participant in Accenture Development Partnerships, a program that sends employees to work on nonprofit projects in developing countries.

According to David Eisner, chief executive of the federal government’s Corporation for National and Community Service, volunteer programs can help companies retain two major employee groups: younger workers looking for ways to balance work and personal life and retirement-age workers looking for ways to make a difference.

Indeed, Ms. Bramhall said that Accenture’s volunteer efforts work as a retention tool. “I’m the only one of all of my friends that works for the same company that they worked for when they graduated from college,” she said.

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