Volunteering programs are probably the most powerful well-being benefit in your toolkit: ‘It’s a big competitive advantage from a talent perspective’

Emma BurleighBy Emma BurleighReporter, Success
Emma BurleighReporter, Success

    Emma Burleigh is a reporter at Fortune, covering success, careers, entrepreneurship, and personal finance. Before joining the Success desk, she co-authored Fortune’s CHRO Daily newsletter, extensively covering the workplace and the future of jobs. Emma has also written for publications including the Observer and The China Project, publishing long-form stories on culture, entertainment, and geopolitics. She has a joint-master’s degree from New York University in Global Journalism and East Asian Studies.

    Brit MorseBy Brit MorseLeadership Reporter
    Brit MorseLeadership Reporter

    Brit Morse is a former Leadership reporter at Fortune, covering workplace trends and the C-suite. She also writes CHRO Daily, Fortune’s flagship newsletter for HR professionals and corporate leaders.

    Workers volunteer at event.
    Corporate volunteering programs can be the most effective in engaging employees.
    Getty Images

    Good morning!

    Companies around the world right now are looking to combat employee disengagement with all sorts of perks from wellness offerings to caregiving services. But one benefit may be moving the needle more than any other. 

    Volunteering is the most influential tool when it comes to improving employee well-being, according to reporting from my colleague Beth Greenfield. She found that while gym memberships and mental health subsidies are seen as core elements of a wellness package, nothing boosts it quite like philanthropic activities. Corporate volunteering programs can foster new skills, connectivity, and lead to positive health outcomes. One study published by the University of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Centre in 2024, which analyzed data from 50,000 U.K. employees, even found that volunteering was the only wellness intervention that made a difference for workers. 

    “It instills a bit more social meaning,” William Fleming, a sociologist and research fellow at the University of Oxford, who worked on the study, tells Fortune. “Especially if you’re working for a big corporate global organization [where] it can feel like you’re just making money for the man and spinning paper sheets around.”

    Volunteering programs are also growing in popularity. Around 61% of employers saw an increase in employee volunteering participation last year, according to a 2023 study from the Association of Corporate Citizenship Professionals. And corporate volunteer programs grew more in 2023 than any previous year, according to a 2024 report from Benevity, a company that helps companies create philanthropic benefits. 

    About 79% of employees who participate in their company’s volunteer program are satisfied with their jobs, compared to 55% of staffers who didn’t partake, according to a 2023 survey from Edge Research for investment business Ares Management. That should be good news for employers looking to boost worker morale, Kelly Baker, chief human resources officer at financial services organization Thrivent, tells Fortune. 

    “It’s a big competitive advantage from a talent perspective,” she says.

    Read more about the power of corporate volunteering programs here

    Emma Burleigh
    emma.burleigh@fortune.com

    Happy Thanksgiving! CHRO Daily will be off on Thursday for the holiday. We’ll be back in your inbox on Friday, Nov. 29.

    Today’s edition was curated by Brit Morse.

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