Employee well-being is a top priority for many HR leaders, and there’s no shortage of benefits that purport to boost it. A recent study from a researcher at Oxford University, though, found many mental health interventions—from well-being and sleep apps to relaxation practices to coaching—aren’t actually beneficial for workers’ mental well-being.
There was one exception, though: Volunteering did show positive outcomes, with participating employees showing a stronger sense of belonging, collaboration, and feeling supported in handling stress.
Though volunteering isn’t a standard employee benefit, it may be becoming more common. Some 28% of organizations offer paid time-off for volunteering as of 2023, according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), up from 26% in 2019.
Crunchbase, a private company data provider, has been offering “volunteering time off,” or VTO, to its employees (currently numbering around 165) since 2018. The company saw an uptick in the amount of time employees spent volunteering between 2021 and 2023, and its chief people officer, Kelly Mendez-Scheib, said the benefit has given Crunchbase’s remote workforce opportunities to gather and engage with one another in-person.
Connecting employees with opportunities. Crunchbase employees can take 32 hours of time off to volunteer annually. The types of volunteer opportunities workers seek out vary, said Halee Morgan, a social responsibility specialist at the company. Some employees volunteer individually, dedicating their time to a mentorship program or sitting on the board of an organization, she said. Others may volunteer with their Crunchbase team, or as part of an employee resource group.
Morgan added that her team at Crunchbase tries to connect employees with volunteer opportunities that align with their skills and interests. This might mean working with organizations that provide tech mentorship, or support underserved founders. They’ll highlight seasonal volunteer opportunities as well, finding ways for employees to give back to educational organizations once the school-year starts, or gift drives around the holidays. The idea is to frame volunteering “around what’s going on in the world, but also, just what our employees really care about.”
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Though the pandemic posed a challenge for in-person volunteering, Crunchbase saw improvements in the years following Covid-19, with the number of hours employees dedicated to volunteering increasing from 201 in 2021 to 368 in 2023. Morgan attributes this improvement in part to the work of “social responsibility advocates”—an informal position held by employees who help boost the company’s corporate social responsibility efforts—as well as outreach to specific teams and ERGs.
Doing good through ups and downs. “Do good” is one of Crunchbase’s core values, and the volunteering and social responsibility programs are a pillar of this mission, said Mendez-Scheib. She said the company remains dedicated to these efforts even during challenging moments. (The company laid off about 60 employees last August.)
While Crunchbase has offices in San Francisco and New York, employees are not required to work from those offices. Mendez-Schieb said volunteering has been an effective way to bring the company’s remote workforce together and boost employee engagement.
Over the holidays, for example, employees based in northeast California got together to assemble hygiene kits for underserved communities. The people and finance teams also volunteered at a homeless shelter during an off-site event.
“These are all really wonderful moments to build engagement and connection in a way that is, in a way…bigger than all of us.”
