How to Share Your Institution’s Volunteer Opportunities With Employees

If you recently started or revamped an employee volunteer program, you’re likely learning that getting employees to volunteer is even more difficult than you thought. (And you thought it would be plenty hard.)  

While there are many ways to encourage employees to volunteer, one simple way is by consistently sharing each volunteer opportunity with the correct employees. So how do you do that?

The bottom line is that you need to spread the word. No matter how you choose to do it, employees should learn the who, what, when, where, and why of each volunteer opportunity. This will help them prioritize their time and participate in the opportunities that mean the most to them. And in turn, it will create less confusion for you and lead to a more streamlined volunteer approach throughout your institution. 

Here are a few ideas. 

Send regular email reminders

An easy way to spread the word about volunteer opportunities is by sending regular email reminders. 

These reminders could be weekly, monthly, or whenever a new volunteer opportunity pops up. The hard part is creating each email (with all the information) and also managing a recipient list. Do you send each opportunity to every employee? Do you share opportunities only with those employees you think will be interested? Do you send different opportunities to each department?

These are all questions you’ll have to ask yourself. And some trial and error may be just the way to go. 

And if your institution offers rewards to employees who volunteer, these emails are a great way to highlight that and remind employees. 

Post reminders on a bulletin board (physical or digital)

If your employees still work in the office, consider posting volunteer opportunities on a physical bulletin board. Most employees won’t see these opportunities (does anyone really check the bulletin board anymore?), but you may get a few bites.

A better option along the same lines may be posting volunteer opportunities to an online bulletin board or some type of internal communications system. For example, if your institution uses Slack, you could have a channel dedicated solely to volunteer opportunities. Invite all employees to follow the channel, and hopefully you’ll see an uptick in employee volunteer hours. 

Display opportunities on a digital screen

Does your institution use digital screens to engage employees and customers? If not, you really should. With digital screens in your lobbies, drive-ups, break rooms, and offices, you can get the word out about all sorts of institution-related news.  

Digital screens in break rooms and offices are a great way to share volunteer opportunities with employees. Just imagine: employees are eating lunch, chatting about their day, when a volunteer opportunity with a clear CTA pops up on the screen. The employees shift topics to this opportunity, and several of them sign up. Yay! 

With digital signage, you can share pictures, stories, infographics, videos, and more all in one place. This is a great way to get the word out about institution events, volunteer opportunities, and community news.

To learn more about how to set up digital screens in your branches, check out Kiosk & Display. Kiosk & Display has worked with dozens of financial institutions to plan, install, and deliver engaging content inside bank or credit union branches. You can even connect Kadince to your digital screen. How cool would it be to share QR codes (created using a third party like this custom QR code generator) on your digital screen that send employees directly to the Kadince event registration page? 

Talk about volunteer opportunities whenever you have a chance

The more you talk about upcoming volunteer opportunities, the more likely employees are to hear about them and sign up. Here are some ideas:

• Start each department meeting with a quick reminder about upcoming events

• When presenting to the board of directors or another group, remind them about the remarkable events your institution is planning 

• During 1:1 meetings with employees, ask if they’ve registered for any upcoming events

• Mention opportunities in casual conversation. “Hi Susan! I love your shirt. The dog is so cute. Did you know we have a service activity at the animal shelter next month?” (You get the idea.) 

Once you start talking about volunteer opportunities, other employees are likely to get excited and start spreading the word too. Look at that. Free advertising. 

Univest Financial’s Kadince event portal

Use Kadince to manage events and volunteer opportunities

Want to know the best way to share employee volunteer opportunities? Let Kadince do it for you! 

Kadince makes it easy to manage and share institution events, including volunteer opportunities. Simply add the event to Kadince and hit “invite.” Kadince will email employees based on your instructions, whether that’s all employees, certain departments, or employees with specific interests. 

And once an employee hits the register button, they’ll be taken directly to the sign-up page. This form will collect all the information you need, including availability and T-shirt size. That’s right. No more emails back and forth just to figure out what size someone is. 

But that’s not all. Once someone has registered, Kadince can send reminder emails and follow-up instructions. And after the event is over, Kadince can automatically log each employee’s volunteer hours. What a relief!

Schedule a demo to learn how Kadince makes it easy to manage and share all your institution’s events.

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None of Kadince, Inc., its affiliates, or its respective employees, directors, officers, and agents (collectively, “Kadince”) are responsible or liable for any content or information incorporated herein. Read full disclosure.