Join us at the Corporate Community Volunteering and Employee Engagement Think Tank.

In an increasingly competitive marketplace attracting and retaining the best talent extends beyond the more tangible aspects such as role, salary, working conditions and brand. A growing body of evidence suggests that job seekers are attracted to organizations with positive social practices (e.g. volunteering, community involvement and ethical governance). In addition studies show that employees within organisation which have active volunteering programs are likely to have higher job satisfaction, greater trust in the company and more co-operative behaviours.

In Australia there is a large amount of employee volunteering, with almost a quarter of the workforce engaged in unpaid work for a community organisation during work hours. Anecdotally however it appears that these programs are not necessarily as effective as they could be. Community and not-for-profit organisations may feel overwhelmed by the influx of volunteers and may find it difficult to use all of their skills effectively. Employers may find it resource intensive to implement these type of programs, difficult to keep track of and challenging to pull together disparate volunteering efforts into a comprehensive story of the organisations commitment to volunteering and the community.

This session brings together representatives from the not-for-profit space, community organisations, volunteering bodies and for profit organisations in order to initiate discussions, brainstorm ways of approaching the challenges and to learn from best practice in this area. If you are reliant on volunteers, if you are serious about attracting and retaining the best talent, if you are interested in social practices this session is a must.