Are some of the employees who work for you civic minded? Are you aware of their acts of volunteerism? If so, even if you don’t personally celebrate National Volunteer Week in your office, if you know your employees do that sort of thing, recognizing their efforts in the community would be a splendid way of acknowledging them.
The simple truth is that all companies of any size should strive to be good corporate citizens. After all, if you’re a small business owner, you don’t just serve the community, you live there too.
In that regard, what happens in the community is very much your business and it could easily wind up impacting your bottom line.
The interesting thing though, is that being committed to being a good corporate citizen pays dividends in its own right. After all, your friends, neighbors, customers and potential customers see you. They see what you do and they remember. It sticks with them.
If your potential customers saw you kicking small animals on your way to work every day, you can bet that some of them would simply stop doing business with you. Not that you’d ever do that, of course, but the good news is that the opposite holds true as well.
When your customers and potential customers see you going out of your way to help improve the community that both you and they live in, they notice. They remember, and as such, they’re more likely to do business with you in the future.
Even if resources are stretched so thin that you can’t really afford to take any time out to be a good corporate citizen directly, you can still take the time to acknowledge your employees who volunteer. In fact, there’s a lot you can do to make their efforts to volunteer even easier. Here are a few simple ideas:
On the pure recognition front, simply calling attention to their efforts in the company newsletter or on your web page is a good start. If you can afford to take it a bit further, then a handwritten note or card from you, along with a restaurant gift card or a lunch with the boss is an outstanding touch.
If you want to go further and make it easier for them to volunteer, you could even spring for a paid day off to go volunteer for anyone who was interested. If that’s impractical then why not consider a fund drive to support the causes your employees volunteer with?
All of these things are going to invariably filter out into the public’s consciousness, even if you don’t talk about them openly beyond the confines of your office and your stock in the community is bound to soar as a result. That’s certainly not a reason to do this sort of thing, but it is a happy side effect OF doing it.
Support your volunteers. Not only is it a very easy thing to do, it will pay you dividends down the road. Try it out and see for yourself. You’ll be impressed at the results.