India’s 100 Top Companies Can Benefit Enormously from Volunteering: India Welfare Trust Report

BusinessWire India
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], August 21: A new report that looks at volunteering trends in 100 Top companies in India was released today. The report highlights the huge potential to grow employee volunteering in India and the potential benefits to companies from the same.
Some of the key findings of the report are:
* Need for greater reporting of volunteering data: While 78% of the 100 Top companies in India disclose employee volunteering programs or activities, only 26% of them report the number of volunteers, and 39% report the number of volunteering hours.
* Lack of “formalization” of volunteering policies in India: Only 16% of the 100 Top companies in India have a “formal” volunteering policy.
* Fewer volunteering incentives provided to employees by companies in India compared to US: 22% of the 100 Top companies in India provide volunteering time-off vs. 66% of companies in the U.S., and only 7% provide volunteering matching grants vs. 40% of Fortune 500 companies.
* Limited public targets for volunteering: Only 9% of the 100 Top companies have public targets for volunteering.
* Opportunity to integrate employee volunteering in CSR: 49% of the Indian companies in the list disclose/involve employees as volunteers in CSR projects.
The report also noted some best practices and volunteering initiatives of leading companies in India.
Tata Group, for example, has set a group-wide volunteering target in order to integrate its volunteering efforts and build greater synergies across its group companies. Its targets are set in terms of Per Capita Volunteer Hours (PCVH), with an ambition of reaching 4 PCVH by 2025.
ICICI Lombard’s “Caring Hands” is a CSR initiative that is 100% implemented by its employees as a part of their volunteering activities.
Cisco has one of the most generous volunteering policies in India, with each employee getting 80 hours of volunteering time-off every year, and a $10 per hour volunteering matching grant for approved non-profits.
The report also shows how companies can use volunteering as an HR tool to improve employee well-being, build skills (like empathy, leadership, teamwork), and improve business outcomes like employee engagement and retention. For instance, volunteers in Cognizant’s “Outreach” program have shown 11% lower attrition rates than other associates.
"Volunteering not only helps bring change to society that we want to see, but importantly helps us change from the inside. It can be heroic when done thoughtfully and consistently, and organisations and movements can build around its power,” said Amit Chandra, Chairperson of Bain Capital India Advisors. “This report shows that corporate India is still in very early stages of discovering the full potential of volunteering and the tools to realise it."
Govind Iyer, Retired Partner at Egon Zehnder added, "Volunteering is the key to an inclusive society. While conscious efforts are made in schools to get volunteering into the curriculum, we tend to forget about the need to also include it in the workplace. The report clearly demonstrates the significant impact volunteering can have on the social ecosystem. My own experience of working with corporate volunteers is that it brings in greater sensitivity and empathy into the workplace as well."
Download a summary infographic of the report 
 

Download the full report at

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