Skills-Based Volunteering as A Talent Acquisition and DEI Tool
I once heard a human resources (HR) leader say “I don’t care about youth engagement; I care about getting resumes.” In that moment two things were true; this HR leader didn’t understand the value of engaging youth through workforce development programs, and two, they didn’t view their company’s social impact program as a business driver. This HR leader didn’t realize they weren’t getting resumes because they weren’t engaging youth.
It makes good business sense for social impact professions to position their enterprise-wide corporate social impact programs as solutions to business challenges. In this post we’ll share how to use one of the most common corporate social impact functions as an example, skills-based volunteering (SBV), to do just this.
Let us first level-set. SBV is a form of volunteer engagement that leverages a person’s skills and expertise (academic, professional, culturally learned, or self-taught) to address the specific needs of a nonprofit. Generally, SBV bears two immediate benefits:
When conducting SBV through a workforce development program, those enrolled in the program gain new skills and knowledge from the volunteer. This helps develop their employability, provides exposure to various industries, companies, networks, and job opportunities. This is the outward benefit.
SBV allows employees to engage in impactful service by contributing their expertise in a way that aligns with their interests and strengths. At the same time, the volunteer can develop skills as a manager of others, trainer, and facilitator, while also reinforcing the knowledge they already possess. This is the inward benefit.
By offering SBV as part of a corporate social impact program, employers can attract and retain more diverse talent, fulfill their social responsibility goals and enhance their reputation as a socially responsible employer.
For those reasons, I’d argue there’s a strong case for SBV being a tool that advances both your talent acquisition and your Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) goals. Having said that, the connection between SBV and HR may not be immediately clear for everyone. So, let’s talk about how to connect the dots.
Understand your brand’s talent and DEI goals.
First, connect with your HR team and learn more about which diverse communities they’re working to attract and to get a sense of the markets with the greatest hiring needs. Work to understand the demographic, qualifications, experience, and skills they’re seeking, but also the process that applicants need to navigate to be considered.
Keep in mind different markets will have different challenges. Some of these might be very nuanced with socioeconomic factors unique to the community your HR team wants to attract. This will also be different for brands whose workforce is largely considered the service economy (i.e., hospitality, manufacturing, retail), compared to brands whose workforce is largely the knowledge economy (i.e., science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics in a corporate environment). The entry point that makes the most sense for you will inform which nonprofits you work with.
Finding the right partner.
With your HR team’s insights in mind, find a workforce development program that supports the specific community you’re targeting, and also the industry in which you’re trying to increase access to jobs and employability.
Connect with programs that exist in the markets you’ve identified and then determine how each nonprofit or education institute will benefit from engagement. Find alignment on the outcomes you’ll help them achieve and the potential pathways into your brand’s talent pipeline.
Be the dot connector, recruit volunteers.
Once a partner is identified, recruit volunteers from within your company. Find the employees whose subject matter expertise aligns with that of your workforce development program partner. Be inclusive in your search and recruit senior-, mid- and entry-level professionals with unique skills, but also those with lived experiences and whose backgrounds most closely reflect those you’re supporting.
Engage them in speaking opportunities with your nonprofit partners and at education institutions, as content providers for curriculum and as trainers and facilitators. All these activities should focus on the following:
Upskilling program participants
Immersing program participants in your industry
Removing any stigma and preconceived ideas they may have about your industry
Building awareness of opportunities that exist by joining your brand or industry
Connecting program participants with job opportunities
The cherry on the top is when your employees also benefit from this as well!
While all this is well intentioned, don’t stop at just engagement. Hire these same program participants or get them hired elsewhere.
Line up jobs for program graduates with the help of HR and your nonprofit partner.
Workforce development programs are missioned to get people jobs, so they will be eager to connect their program grads with employers. Connect the workforce development program managers to your brand HR teams in the markets with the greatest need. This way, your HR team can work directly with your nonprofit partner to identify talent as they’re being trained and upskilled. Line up jobs so that, when they graduate, they can be immediately hired.
Just remember that this can work for most industries (both the knowledge economy and service economy), but you’ll need to think about the entry-point of these now qualified job candidates.
Applying an equity lens to your hiring practices.
Work with your HR team to hire equitably - and this is especially true if you’re working with candidates who may be formerly incarcerated or have other barriers to entry. Set clear expectations around hiring individuals who may have a criminal record and are working to reintegrate successfully. If you don't have guidelines for hiring candidates with criminal records, then that'll be a policy consideration to revisit with your colleagues in HR. Just be sure when designing a new policy that it's as inclusive to persons who were formerly incarcerated. You can even work with your workforce development partners for guidance if that’s the population they work with often. This also means ensuring that there is a diverse hiring board whose background and lived experiences reflects those you’re seeking to hire.
And lastly, think about working with your nonprofit partner and those internally to provide the necessary support so that those who are hired have what they need to be successful after starting their job. You’ll want to set them up for success right from the beginning and work to retain them and provide appropriate support so they can advance into more senior positions.
These types of purposeful programs can be good for both your community and your business. At the same time, the way in which you position your corporate social impact program may be what results in success or failure when seeking buy in. Need help? Then don’t be a stranger and reach out today.
The Uplift Agency
Uplift builds strategies, programs, and communication campaigns that advance ESG in workplaces, supply chains and communities.
We know how to navigate the road ahead because we’ve already been down it – 90 percent of our team has led environmental or social programs in corporations or nonprofits. Because ESG is all we do, our services are more comprehensive and integrated than most firms.
