Volunteerism high on B-School grads' agendas
Taru Bahl -
Tuesday, November 11, 2008 11:26 AM
One of the top five questions which B-school graduates in the US and UK are asking potential employers during placement sessions is, "will I get a chance to do voluntary work in your company?"
On a three-hour drive from Nagpur to a cluster of villages in Chandrapur district, Rachael Barber, global head, community investment, Barclays talked to me about how increasingly employee engagement in local communities is high on the bank's sustainability agenda and how people – from 24 to 60 years are opting to work for charities, supporting causes and giving away a good portion of their time, without expecting any monetary return.
In 2007, Barclays invested £52.4 million in community projects around the world, and more than 43,000 colleagues in 29 countries were involved in all kind of fundraising and volunteering initiatives that included simple things like painting schools, planting trees, improving environments to doing heavy duty-based school training, spending time at old age homes and counseling out-of-school children to get them back to school.
Skill-based volunteering according to her adds maximum value to aid recipients. This becomes even more relevant when you see the ILO estimates which point out that there are over 88 million unemployed young people (15-24 years) around the world, comprising half the world's total unemployment. Also world over young people are four times more likely to be unemployed than older workers.
Youth unemployment figures get further pushed up when you see the serious barriers they encounter on entering the labour market. Poor educational attainment and lack of experience places them at the bottom of the work pyramid. They are often the last to be hired when times are good and the first to be laid off when times are bad – a scary thought, especially when jobs seem to be getting scarce and holding on to them tougher. And those who have missed on a basic education have even lesser prospect of catching up.
While volunteering is not a KRA or mandatory for companies that are engaged in any kind of CSR activity, it definitely has the potential to add to the employee's annual appraisal. For the last 6-7 years there has been a strong culture in UK and Africa, where Barclays has a strong presence to participate in a 'make a difference day' project that spans two weeks. Employees come up with ideas and suggestions on what they can do and the bank provides assistance, aid and time off to do that. In 2007 in 26 countries 100,000 hours were devoted to different initiatives. Some of the novel things that got done included providing shelter facilities for homeless dogs.
Consulting and accounting companies have traditionally done a lot of community work. It is easier for them to move their consultants from place to place. But for others, much of their voluntary work has remained confined to where they are headquartered. In Barclays too this was the trend but in the last few years they have tried to go beyond the UK and see how the amount allocated for aid has a 50% component that can be spread out to other countries, locations and geographies.
Ritu Anand, deputy global head of human resources at the Tata Consultancy Services had recently talked about how their employees were actively seeking voluntary work, choosing to devote weekends to spending in villages on the various projects which the company has on ground without claiming any compensatory offs in return.
Now the good news is that companies are beginning to offer employees long-term volunteering opportunities that could be for 2-3 years at a stretch. So you could actually take time off and devote yourself to something that interests you. You continue to be on the payrolls of the company and do something that gratifies and fulfills. Even international volunteering opportunities are up for grabs. With donors like Barclays who have social projects in different countries this could mean volunteering work in Africa, Pakistan, Egypt or even India.