Recently, we helped our downstairs neighbors, the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, in their kickoff Project Clean Stream trash pickup event, and it got us thinking.
Volunteering as an individual is a great way to give back to your community and to feel like you’re making a difference. But volunteering also plays an important role in the workplace. Setting aside some work hours to help out worthy causes can actually help your team be more productive and work better as a team.
Getting out of the office and focusing on a singular goal, picking up trash, for example, is a great way to bond with your coworkers and bosses.
It’s a chance to build relationships outside of the walls of your office and get to know each other outside of the typical work-related conversations. Having good relationships with your team improves your workflow back at the office.
Participating in something meaningful like volunteering helps to empower and engage your team. Simply put, giving back just feels good! A team that feels empowered is more likely to come back to the office feeling refreshed and motivated.
People want to work for companies that care. More and more, employees are discerning of what companies stand for and the role a company plays in the community.
According to a study done by Gallup, offices with engaged employees and a positive culture are more likely to have better employee retention. An office with a culture of giving back is of great value to its employees.
We’re not saying you should volunteer for the networking (though our business development guru Bree has some great tips on other ways to network), but what we ARE saying is that getting to know your community is important.
Your company is a part of its community, whether it’s actively involved or not. Getting out and meeting other individuals and companies in your community helps you engage and better understand the culture and needs of that community. There are a lot of ways a community can help each other out, but the first step is knowing each other.
Now that we’ve convinced you to volunteer as an office, go introduce yourself to your neighbor! Find a mission that resonates with you and your team. Pay it forward; it always pays off.
Back to Project Clean Stream – As a group, we were able to pick up more than 350 pounds of trash in under two hours! It was very satisfying walking around Manchester afterward, seeing what a big difference we made. Thanks again to Alliance for inviting us!
About the author:
Celestia Trumbo
Senior Account Manager
Celestia is the Senior Account Manager at Torx. She spends her days meeting with clients and managing projects to ensure everything runs smoothly and that our clients’ visions are brought to life. She loves soaking up as much technical information from our developers as she can, to equip her to best help our clients. She hopes that this technical know-how will also help her win at trivia one day!