How Austrian companies use the positive effects of volunteering and motivate their employees
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Approximately 3.5 million people who, according to the Federal Ministry for Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection of Austria @gesundheitsministerium_autvoluntarily work outside their households, should be one step closer to happiness than those who do not. Companies also recognized that volunteering of their employees can make them more motivated and loyal to the company.
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Therefore, more than a third of Austrian companies provide their employees with the opportunity to participate in corporate volunteering. Well-known examples are Erste Bank @erstebank.sparkasse, bank employees voluntarily provide advice on debt issues, provide accounts and banking services to people who otherwise would not have access to them at Zweite Sparkasse.
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Or the pharmaceutical company @pfizerinc, which has been organizing the Days of Social Life for ten years, where its employees help their cooperation partners in various projects. Even during the refugee crisis, many companies have been able to improve their image by helping those who arrived by donating time and goods.
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But especially when both sides benefit, for example, by transferring knowledge at the eye level, corporate volunteering is a good option, says Michael Mayer, head of the Nonprofit Management Institute at @wuvienna. Examples of this can be free services, such as free legal advice or when an IT company creates a homepage for an NGO.
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Volunteer work shows a clear boundary between town and countryside. While in the rural areas - Red Cross, a voluntary fire brigade or community assistants do not have problems finding assistants, the situation in the city is more complicated, where leisure is much wider. This is why corporate volunteering also enables nonprofit organizations in urban areas to attract volunteers who then join.