Article Title: Employees See Value in Volunteering
Author Byline: William Frierson is a CollegeRecruiter.com Staff Writer.
Author Website: http://www.collegerecruiter.com/

Full Credit for this article on February 10, 2008 goes to Vinnee Tong of The Assoicated Press.
http://www.scnow.com/midatlantic/scp/morningnews.html

As a result of today's employees perspective on volunteer work as a source to develop new skills or advance their careers, volunteering is now sort of a corporate benefit. Companies are increasingly giving their employees time off for volunteer projects, volunteer work on the company's watch, or company-organized efforts. One lady says her friends are now jealous of her position. They criticized her for working for a company, Accenture, as a consultant after college. She was called a sellout with the corporate job. However, thanks to Accenture Development Partnerships, a program that sends workers to assist on non-profit projects in developing countries, she's visited Sri Lanka and South Africa.

VolunteerMatch is an online database that pairs volunteers and non-profits together. It has around 70 corporate clients, up from 30 in 2005 and 47 in 2006. The director of VolunteerMatch Corporate Solutions, Jen Kim Field, runs this division that creates volunteer programs for companies' employees. Field says the client list has kept growing; it includes Google Inc., and Target Corp. An annual fee in the range of $5,000 and $50,000 allows companies to give their employees use of a VolunteerMatch list of over 55,000 non-profits needing help. These non-profits join for free.

According to Field, a major attraction for businesses is the chance to coincide their employee volunteer programs with their business objectives. For example, General Electric Co. offers tutoring programs bringing elementary school kids from the public schools in the Philadelphia area to GE offices for assistance on school work from employee volunteers. Another program for high school students teaches skills needed for networking, interviewing, and resume-building.

Volunteer programs are designed to keep around two major groups of employees: young workers who desire work-life balance and ready-to-retire mature workers who still want to have an active role in the community. Generation Y workers want a job that lets them practice their personal values and beliefs, says one study by Deloitte & Touch USA LLC. It also concludes that 62% of Gen Y respondents between 18 and 26 will work for companies willing to use their skills to help a non-profit group. Recent tragic events have had an impact on younger workers' priorities when it comes to helping other people. A note to employers, volunteers frequently sign up to network or spend time with friends at work and discover an improvement in their interpersonal skills, their ability to be a part of a team, and their ability to overcome obstacles, all essential in the workplace.

It is good to see that volunteering can help employees. There is nothing wrong with doing a good service for other people. It is like finding a job where you can make money, but more importantly, you are passionate about what you do.

Article courtesy of the "http://www.recruitingblogswap.com/" Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.