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November 2006
Many companies – even those with the most advanced employee volunteer programs – fail to make a strong case for employee volunteer programs because they don't link the benefits of volunteering to business functions.
Sure, volunteer managers can recite the benefits of employee volunteerism: how it boosts employee morale, helps with recruiting and retention, and enhances the company's reputation among investors, consumers, and the community.
Once implemented, however, few volunteer programs are measured to determine if they have generated benefits for the corporate bottom line. Data may be collected about the number of employees who volunteer or for how many hours, but this information is rarely tied back to the value-added benefits to the company.
Commonly cited reasons for this failure to measure include a bias for action, "measure-phobia," and internal skepticism about measurement's results.
This can be a serious mistake that can mean the difference between increased funding and elimination of the program.
As with any corporate investment, senior leadership needs to know the returns their organization receives from their support of volunteering and what benefits can accrue to the business, employees who volunteer, and communities.
Just like other business functions, employee volunteering is important enough to warrant increased scrutiny. The creation of a measurement approach that factors in the company's broader goals will help support the case for continued programming that meets the needs of the company, the employee, and the community.
Building, testing, and implementing a conceptual framework
"Measuring Employee Volunteer Programs: The Human Resources Model," a joint publication of The Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College and the Points of Light Foundation, describes the elements necessary to create and implement a measurement procedure that communicates the business impact of an employee volunteer program.
The publication presents a conceptual framework as a tool to facilitate measurement, and then applies the framework specifically to human resources. However, the framework described is equally applicable to other core business goals in areas such as community relations, public affairs, and marketing.
Five critical success factors
Five success factors are critical when creating and implementing an employee volunteer program measurement process:
 Take a strategic approach. Start by clearly identifying the key goals you are trying to deliver. If employee morale and retention are key goals, specify these goals up front, before designing the program. Setting goals and planning to measure them will drive how the program is designed.
- Build a conceptual framework for your program. Design a measure that specifically addresses the desired outcome.
- Take an inventory of existing metrics. When possible, take advantage of existing measures used inside the company.
- Find the metric gaps and modify as necessary. Identify a measurement process for each goal.
- Engage key stakeholders. Overcome skepticism by making the process participatory. Engaging key stakeholders in the measurement process, from the identification of data points to data collection methods, will foster buy-in and increase the relevance of the program for the company as a whole.
Building, testing, and implementing the framework
With the five critical success factors as background, companies can follow a simple yet rigorous three-step approach to measurement:
Step 1: Identify the relationship between the volunteer program company goals, stakeholder needs, and potential outcomes of the program.
This involves identifying the key business goals of the program and building the conceptual framework in collaboration with key stakeholders. Then, with the due diligence completed, identifying specific program outcomes linked to relevant business goals will provide the data needed to ensure continued program relevance.
Step 2: Define measurement questions and criteria.
This includes selecting the questions that will determine whether or not the EVP is meeting its goals, determining what metrics would answer those questions, and developing consensus among key stakeholders to commit to these metrics.
Step 3: Implement the measurement process to test the conceptual framework, which helps assess whether current programs support goals.
If existing programs do not lead to the desired effect, then managers must strongly consider modifying the program's goals or developing a new program altogether. In addition, volunteer program managers should look for evidence of effective program communications.
Research for "Measuring Employee Volunteer Programs: The Human Resources Model" included interviews with the human resource and volunteer program administrators from a cross-section of companies with volunteer programs of varying levels of sophistication. The publication also includes insights and examples from such companies as IBM, Deloitte & Touche, and Safeco Insurance. To download the complete publication, click here. (You must be logged in to download this publication.)
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