Employee Volunteering & Great Attrition

Great resignation impact being felt in India as attrition rate remains elevated at 20% in 2022 – Business insider 

India has been giving double-digit salary hikes since the pandemic, as demand for skilled workers increased. Despite the hikes, the attrition rate still stands at 20.3%. In its latest Salary Increase Survey in India, data across 1,300 companies from more than 40 industries in the country was analyzed. The attrition rate in India is steadily rising, going up more than 7% within the last two years. The attrition rate is expected to remain in double-digits in 2023 as well.  

To retain talent, experts suggest organizations hire for skills, allow flexible working and gig jobs and focus on revamping employee value proposition (EVP). And the larger workforce in this era is Generation Z. Generation Z is a designation for those born between 1996 and somewhere around 2012. This generation has been exposed to many issues at an early age, including terrorism, school violence and global conflict. From my perspective, all of this has taught them to be able to adapt more easily to situations, be more resilient and have more of an interest in social change. 

According to research released by the British Heart Foundation, Gen Z is more likely to have volunteered than any other age group. Although members of Generation Z are careful with money, they are enthusiastic givers who are involved in social causes.  

During the pandemic, 66% of Gen Z donated money to charity, family, or friends, far outpacing donations made by both Gen X and Boomers. – Galaxydigital.com 

With this generation being highly social conscious, engaging them in social impact project through volunteering makes a huge impact. An article from Harward Business review that touched on the benefits of employee volunteering says, 

“The benefits of well-designed corporate volunteer programs have been clearly established: They boost productivity, increase employee engagement, and improve hiring and retention, to name just a few. But too often, firms’ programs fall short.” 

With Dec 5th being observed as International Volunteer Day, an international observance mandated by the UN General Assembly in 1985, how have you been invested in Employee volunteering and reaped its benefits to the organization? Here is our IMPACT Framework that helps to establish and implement a successful employee volunteering program for your organization.  

IMPCAT Framework for Employee volunteering

  • Identify the interests of the employees / needs of the community 
  • Map the volunteers against the identified needs     
  • Pivot the actions around the needs and interests and spread out 
  • Action on the ground  
  • Communicate the impact internally and externally 
  • Thank volunteers and partners on a regular frequency 

The IMPACT Framework is a tested model that has been proving success for years now. The CSR leads/ Policy makers in the eco system should start looking at integrating employee volunteering into core CSR rather than an adhoc activity. Employee volunteering establishes a great bond between the employee and organization leading to stickiness to the organization. This invariably adds to the business benefit of the organization.  

With great attrition being live and anticipated to be increasing in the upcoming year, leverage employee volunteering as a program to make the social impact leading to business impact.  

As a closing note, employee volunteering is not only for corporates who meet CSR criteria, its for everyone to do and the benefits are deep, irrespective of your organizations size and scale.  We have an Employee Volunteering score card designed to know your employee volunteering maturity of the organization, drop a note to contactus@rightdots.org ,We will be happy to work with you to enable and successfully integrate employee volunteering for your organization.  

#CSRConsulting #sustainability #employeevolunteering #impact #rightdots

Vidhya Bhojan 

CSR Consultant