10 Virtual Employee Volunteering Ideas for Companies in India

The Indian employment market is a complex one. With a huge demographic diversity, it consists of millions of people with diverse skills, backgrounds, experiences and expectations. Despite the huge number, there is still a dearth of skilled and talented youth in the job market. With such limited talent pools of well qualified millennials, employers are determined to find and retain the best ones for their company.

Employers and HR are often found going over ways to engage their employees. And why wouldn’t they? After all, an engaged employee equals to a satisfied and committed employee; which further translates to more productivity, better customer satisfaction, retaining and attracting the best talent and improved company culture. Doesn’t that sound like a recipe for success? Well, Forbes and various Fortune 500 companies would agree that well engaged employees are more likely to be motivated and less likely to leave your company.

Now you may ask, what’s the best way to ensure employee engagement? While you may find different answers and approaches depending on who you ask, but one of the tried and tested (and emerging) ways of employee engagement is through Employee Volunteering Programs. There are numerous supporting studies from Deloitte, Gartner, Forrester, and others on the benefits of an Employee Volunteering Program. The outcomes consistently point towards a return-on-investment and happier employees.

Volunteering in COVID Times

When you think about volunteering, you typically visualize a group of people planting saplings, revitalizing local water bodies, cleaning beaches or local areas or even painting colorful murals at local schools. Yet all around the world, thousands of engaged employees volunteer using just their computer or smart phone. The internet too may or may not be necessary.

Given the circumstances where most people are home bound, there seems to be little scope to “go out there” and volunteer for good. However, the need for Volunteerism has never been more pronounced. It has also been observed that employee interest to contribute to the society is at its peak and it is critical to channelize these energies effectively. With web searches for Virtual Volunteering Opportunities having increased by 5 times, we can safely assume that people are keen to continue volunteering even from home. With the pandemic, we have also seen a drastic increase in adoption of technology in almost all sectors. As tech is now bringing us all together, we are also seeing a shift in the nature of volunteering to skills based virtual/remote volunteering.

Why #GoVirtual?

Not only is there a heightened need for volunteers at the beneficiary end, employers too are recognizing the importance of Online volunteering to engage their employees who are currently disconnected with their work environment and culture, and help them adapt to the new normal and contribute to help rebuilding the communities. Since it is possible that ‘Work From Home’ may become more common, Virtual Volunteering too may be here to stay. Although the face-to-face connection while interacting with a beneficiary and seeing your efforts pay off may be a downside to volunteering virtually, there are some serious upsides also that cannot (rather, should not) be ignored.

Location flexibility- Volunteer can contribute to as many causes as they feel like, be it day or night. They are not tied to specific hours, plus their eorts are yielding successful results.

Cost effectiveness- Since volunteers do not have to move to the site, it saves significant travel and accommodation costs for the corporate.

Wider Reach- Associates can bring a difference in the community from all the corners of the world, all from the comfort of their own home, workplace etc. and can contribute for far and remote places, thus eliminating the distance variable.

More opportunities- Search engines enable people to find out opportunities according to the time they wish to contribute and their interest in any corner of the world thus encouraging cross cultural exchange.

Ease and efficiency- Anyone with the internet connection can volunteer and make an impact. More time can be spent on volunteering instead of travelling.

Impact- Since virtual volunteers contribute their skills, the impact is more often long lasting and deep rooted.

10 Virtual Volunteering Ideas to get you Started

1. Advocacy and Human Rights

With the lockdown in place, home is a safe haven for most. There are, however, few of those who face domestic or child abuse and have no alternate but to stay with their abusers. There are countless such stories and more. Volunteers can assist in managing campaigns, create newsletters and posters or write articles to advocate for this cause. Volunteers can also man hotlines domestic abuse/child rights cases.

2. Art and Culture

Volunteers can help organizations by putting together a documentary of local art, artisans, culture or heritage to contribute to preserving them. Digital volunteers transcribe historic documents and collection records to facilitate research and preserve these valuable assets for future generations. Designers can create catalogues with vibrant pictures to help educate children on their local and national heritage.

3. Community Welfare

Volunteers can connect with local communities of different regions, learn about them and share stories, knowledge, ideas or help them find solutions to local issues. Volunteers can also start fundraising for Community welfare causes.

4. Literacy and Education

With the lockdown, children are silent victims and many in low income homes have stopped learning entirely as their schools have closed down. They are also more vulnerable as they may feel lost and directionless which may further demotivate them and their parents from pursuing education. Volunteer can connect with children and youth either through video calls or phone calls, and can guide them, mentor them, educate them or simply read them stories. This will help to keep children engaged and learning even in such times of crisis.

5. Health & Medicine

Volunteers can help to provide emotional support to mental health patients who are dealing with a wide range of issues– depression, bullying, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, and more. They can become social ambassadors to amplify mental health stories on social media and break the stigma around it. Volunteers can contribute by teaching yoga or meditation through virtual platforms, or can also provide tele-consulting to patients.

6. Entrepreneurship

As the slogan ‘Vocal for Local’ is picking pace, and rightly so, volunteers can help local vendors and enterprising women with tips and support for their micro/small enterprises. They can also create business plans and fundraising or promotional content for such entrepreneurs to help them gain the much needed momentum.

7. Crisis Support

In recent times, many communities have struggled to survive when we have been hit with natural disaster time and again. COVID-19 too has hit us hard, especially those fighting poverty or serious health issues. Such crisis situations are a painful reminder of the disparity and desperate needs to a large chunk of our society. Those who are more fortunate can volunteer to provide a helping hand. Volunteers can raise funds and support through social media campaigns and digital communication. They can also support the underprivileged by putting together ration and medicine kits and distributing food. A clothes drive can also be undertaken in local societies to provide clothing to the homeless.

8. Support the Vulnerable

For most of us, our family is our biggest support system. Unfortunately, this is not true for all. Orphans and the elderly in old age shelters are bereft of such support systems. Volunteers can extend a helping hand, a patient ear or a supportive shoulder to provide comfort to such children and elderly. By virtual means, volunteers can teach subjects or engage with children through art & craft, music, dance, games etc. They can also call the elderly either living alone or in shelters and talk to them about their life experiences, issues or just share day-to-day anecdotes to help them feel heard.

9. Supporting Persons with Disability (PwD)

Another vulnerable group is that of those living with a disability. Volunteers can support PwD by creating learning material for children with disability, or start online campaigns to promote social inclusion. Volunteers can also provide counselling sessions to families of PwD and brainstorm with implementing agency on better ways to promote the cause.

10. Support NGO Operations

NGOs have faced the brunt during the lockdown due to shrinking funds and withdrawn field support. Volunteers can help NGOs strengthen their operations, train their staff, guide them on fund raising and social media outreach etc. Volunteers can also support by helping in writing proposals, digital marketing or help them transition to better soft wares to organize their work.

CSRBOX Catalyzing EVP

With a vast and diverse network of NGOs and Corporate users, CSRBOX is positioned befittingly to map passionate corporate employees with diverse skills, to social development projects where they can be optimally utilized, through structured volunteer programmes. We believe volunteering empowers the volunteer as well as the beneficiary and has tremendous scope for meaningful engagement owing to the large number of nonprofits in India. CSRBOX hosts verified proposals from nonprofits to support their cause, giving opportunity to Corporate leaders who can contribute towards a cause they and their employees feel strongly about.

#ContinueVolunteering with CSRBOX. Visit https://csrbox.org/list-Volunteering-Projects-India-Proposals

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