Volunteerism a Win-Win in a Downturn

I attended the Volunteer Fairfax Service Awards last week, and it was clear there are many amazing people still out there volunteering their time, and worthy of significant recognition.  But trends show that volunteerism is down across the country.  Perhaps as we all work harder to try to sustain our jobs and support our families, we feel we have no room left for volunteerism.  

With a lot of organizations and individuals needing more support than ever right now, consider thinking of volunteerism as an opportunity.  Here are a few ways to do just that: 

Free Training - if you're an employer and cutting costs across your company, employee volunteerism can serve as an excellent supplement or substitute for expensive training sessions.  A good fitting volunteerism placement for your staff can give them new skills or help them refine their existing ones by exercising them in a different environment.  You can even work it into your training programs or performance metrics to encourage it more.  If you yourself are looking to grow your skills, volunteerism is a great place to do that, from food banks to nonprofit boards, each offers an opportunity to bring your skills to bear and to acquire new ones.

Great Free PR - Not only is volunteerism a great chance to build skills for your workforce, it can also be fantastic public relations for your organization.  Many consumers and clients hope to do work with organizations with value systems that connect with their own, and in a down economy, volunteerism is a great story.  You may inspire other companies or individuals to follow your lead, as well.

 

Job Hunting - if you're one of the many individuals that has lost your job in this tough economy, consider adding volunteerism to your repetoire while you search for you next opportunity.  Pair your volunteer efforts with your passions, and you'll find opportunities to demonstrate your skills to the organization, as well as to other volunteers and sponsors. Nonprofit organizations are often looking for people with business skills to support them, and could be a place where you can shine, network and land leads for your next job!  Volunteerism is also a great way to fill a gap in your resume with meaningful contributions.

Think about how you can integrate volunteerism into your plans or your business!

Check Out the Feds Leading the Way...

Three cheers for the Obama administration's open campaign and new approach to transparent, technology savvy outreach and now governance.  With the ease of social networks and the accessibility and low cost of emerging communication tools, businesses would be smart to follow suit, especially given the current economic climate.  This promise of transparency in government is no longer just a promise, but a reality.  We literally get emails direct to our in-boxes from the President now (if you don't, sign up!).  Messaging from the top - a practice we've advised businesses of for quite some time, gets attention and action.  We saw it with Obama's campaign outreach not only through email but through Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, MySpace, text messaging and a whole host of other channels.  If government can make this kind of hyperleap into the digital age (surely you saw the boss is keeping his super secure blackberry), what are you and your organization waiting for?  Even if it's a baby step, consider increasing your organization's transparency and easing your messaging at the same time.  Creating a limited-audience blog to which your employees can subscribe is one easy way to get started.  Check out Blogger or Wordpress for ideas.

Salary Transparency Goes Market

Businesses have discussed and some even have tried on and off for years to share salary information with their workforce.  Most companies take the privatization approach, keeping salary info behind closed HR doors and strictly with management.  While this gives them the flexibility to make adjustments to stimulate an individual employee's work, in today's digital age, it will become harder to maximize the benefits on a case-by-case basis.  

With new digital offerings online like GlassDoor.com, Salary.com, PayScale.com, and SalaryScout.com, employees are taking it into their own hands and seeking negotiating information that was once once reserved for the Compensation specialists at big companies alone.  Now people are publishing their salaries in self-propelled salary surveys thatare slowly building steam and credibility, and could end up backfiring on companies who operate in a close-hold salary environment and might have major imbalances.  

Thinking about it, sharing salary information is prevalent at the executive levels, particularly in public companies where it's required by the SEC and shareholders, but what about the rest of the company, or in private business? Some companies, like Whole Foods Markets, share salary information at multiple levels and use the transparency to drive expectations and teamwork.  It does demand a high level of communication and authenticity in why changes are made.  Check out John Mackey's blog (CEO Whole Foods) as a great example of a CEO explaining changes to a salary cap.  This type of exposure and consistency in communication supports their policy, keeps employees in the know, and provides a sort of corporate social responsibility in declaring it to the public as well.  

Unstructured Play at Work

The Today Show this morning featured a segment about how kids are in too many structured activities, and that the brain actually develops best through unstructured play.  A guy from screamfree.com even talked about how kids learn to think and innovate by not having so much structure.

So what about in the workplace?  Is innovation drying up?  Is it because we have too much structure and scripted activity in our jobs?  When was the last moment you had an unscripted, unplanned, unstructured moment at work?  I'm not talking about a unexpected fire-drill.  Sometimes structure and process helps you get through those.  Have you had an impromptu brainstorming session with your staff, taken a siesta under your desk, or stood on your head in your office?  How about a lunch out where you don't talk about work?  

I'm one of those people that wakes up in the middle of the night to write down ideas that pop into my head.  Is it because my brain has a chance to rest in an unstructured way?  

Many companies are starting to extend their suggestion box programs into true innovation drivers by setting up unstructured idea-sharing systems.  It's a sort of social networking concept that gives people time and space to contribute ideas. Companies like Bright Idea are banking on the fact that we need more open idea sharing and time to network online. Are you using idea-sharing or types of unstructured play to drive innovation?

Dogs at Work and Corporate Social Networking

I'm not talking about all of us working like dogs every day (although sometimes it feels like we have to bark and growl our way through 70-80 hour work-weeks, right?), but every place that I have worked, start-ups and Fortune 500 companies, I hear people talk about wanting to bring their pets to work.  

During the dotcom boom, I saw it happen - anything to keep people happy at work in a super-competitive hiring market. I've also seen executives do it, having their assistants take mid-day poop walks, while forwarding calls from a headset (seriously).  

Question is, does this common request for canine companionship at work mean people just miss being around their pets? Perhaps, but I'd venture a guess that it's an indicator of a need for community beyond the daily work-like-a-dog grind.

OK, admittedly, I'm one of these people.  I signed the petition to have an official "bring your dog to work day" -- although the thought of controlling my dog at work around other pets while I'm working seems a bit daunting.  We looked at ways to make it happen and between building code restrictions, liability issues, allergic colleagues, it just never seemed realistic.  Closest we ever got was to host pet adoption days in our lobby or common areas (a great idea to support your local shelter, for sure), but not really meeting the need.

The American Human Society says that morale and productivity increases in places that bring pets to work, and pet-friendly employers talk about reduced stress levels and fewer absences.  Check out dogfriendly.com for more about dogs at work programs (hmmm).

Back to the community concept though.  Talking to others about my pet seemed to be an outlet, a creative stimulant, a way to identify with colleagues, much like parents sharing kid stories with other parents.  Yes, there are moms' groups, dads' groups, running groups and more in many companies, all possibly filling these same needs.  So what do they do for the business aside from giving employees an outlet to find balance?  And more importantly, should they be required to contributing something other than increased morale?  Were talking about the company formally creating employee affinity groups based on non-business related topics or interests.

I've seen corporate diversity programs fund organically formed groups with the requirement that they contribute to the company in a defined, business-benefit delivering way.  That got me thinking about how online, internal social networks can work to connect employee interest groups, and can they grow into a benefit for the business?

Could setting up internal social networks like personal blogspaces, affinity group wikis, and idea-sharing sites help form communities that ultimately benefit the business, or will they detract from more than contribute to the bottom line? Will they work for any group or are they just dogs diverting our attention?

CIO Insight magazine last year called Corporate Social Networks, "The Next Big Thing" and touted how they help people do their jobs.  No argument from me on that one, but where does that business relationship building intersect with personal information sharing in so many companies that are establishing blogging policies?

What do you think?