These 5 Reward Methods Are Bound to Boost Employee Volunteer Rates

Are you tired of reminding employees to volunteer? Do you wish they would just take the initiative and follow your program’s guidelines? Your financial institution may have a clear volunteer program, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to get employees to comply. 

People are busy, and finding time to volunteer may not be at the top of your coworkers’ lists. Now it falls on you and your team (if you’re lucky enough to have a team) to remind employees, promote volunteer opportunities, and manage a tracking system. There are plenty of ways to make this easier, but one of those ways is by providing some kind of reward or incentive to volunteer. 

When you incentivize employees to volunteer, they are better able to see the value and take the time to help their community. It’s not that employees don’t care about their community when they don’t volunteer; they just don’t have the time or, possibly, the proper incentive. When they see that they’ll be rewarded for volunteering, they’ll realize how important it is to your institution that they do this good work.

Here are five reward methods that are bound to boost employee volunteer rates and make your job a little easier (because who doesn’t want that?). 

Cash incentive 

Cash is a driving factor in everyday life. We work for cash, trade cash, save cash, and need more cash. A handful of cash can seem unlimited in its potential. When given extra cash, employees can do whatever they want with it. Go on vacation, buy that fancy hot tub, pay down scary debt, splurge on those groceries, or save for a rainy day. 

This makes cash a great way to incentivize employees to volunteer. Maybe every hour they spend helping others equals a $5 bonus on their next paycheck. Maybe the person with the most monthly volunteer hours in each department gets a $100 check—that’s bound to get some attention. 

There are a lot of ways to reward employees with cash. And when employees see that they may be able to earn a few extra bucks, chances are they’ll leap at that next volunteer opportunity.