Novartis India follows the principle of 'giving back more to the society than we take' and this is what is helping them create a successful employee volunteering experience.
A meta-analysis of 199 studies on volunteering programs, covering 152 organizations, 44 industries, and 26 countries, conducted by Gallup suggested that a high employee engagement in organizations' employee volunteering program increased business performance numbers across the board: Profitability increased by 16 percent per productivity by 18 percent, customer loyalty by 12 percent and quality by an incredible 60 percent.
In February this year, Novartis got a new Global CEO and one of the things that he put maximum emphasis on was giving back more to the society than we take. "So, it's something we need to build in the fabric of our company not just in terms of volunteering but in the way we do business as well," she adds.
• Recruiting Advantages: Millennials prefer employees whose community activities match their values.
According to the PWC Future of Work survey by Deloitte, 59 percent of millennials seek out employers whose CSR values matched their own. 83 percent of employees of companies with community involvement will stay with the company compared to 61 percent of employees of companies with no community involvement. In fact, 89 percent believe that companies who sponsor volunteer activities offer better overall working environment than those who do not.
Volunteer program serves as a solution to a lot of problems if done correctly. Fundraising is often considered the easiest as you have to write a cheque. Instead, you can link employee volunteering to your CSR program, so there's a better connect rather than just making a tick in the box. This gives a new meaning to your fund-raising initiatives and portrays a positive light on your companies. Another challenge that volunteering can solve is attracting talent. As employees like aligning their sense of purpose with the ideals of the company, the initiative a company chooses to attract those already working in that direction.
Usually, companies believe that finding people to volunteer is difficult, but Svetlana believes it is a myth. She says, "The struggle was not to find volunteers but create more opportunities to let people volunteer." As a solution to this, Svetlana concludes by giving out volunteering ideas that include skill-based volunteering, fundraising for a cause, volunteer days and event-based volunteering.