The Business
Case
While
companies are seeking to show their
involvement in community social
programs, most are faced with limited
resources and decisions have to be as to
where to invest their time and financial
resources.
Few
programs meet with universal acceptance
both inside and outside the company,
many are hard to become involved with on
a team basis, and most charities only
exist in or service relatively small
populations or geographic areas.
Some charities run afoul of bad press
due to mismanagement or extensive
administrative costs. For
those who are trying to put a
comprehensive, well-respected, and
well-accepted program, the choices are
few. But Meals-on-Wheels programs
are the exception.
With
few exceptions, Senior Meal programs are
run by and with the help of volunteers
with few paid positions. They do
not have an abundance of administrative
overhead expenses, they operate
independently of any national
organization, and are known to be highly
efficient in their use of funds and
volunteers.
Most of
all, Senior Meals programs are
universally acceptable both inside and
outside your organization.
Everyone can relate to and appreciate
providing meals for seniors and most can
find personal relevance by relating the
service to parents and/or
grandparents.
When
your employees volunteer their efforts,
they WILL work and they WILL be
effective.
But
that's just the start. The
business case for volunteering for
Senior Meal programs is simple but
extensive:
The
Business Case for resource investment in
Senior Meals Programs
Allocating
resources to Senior Meals programs is
not only a good idea on its face, it
makes perfect business sense. When
your company and your employees become
involved, it's a WIN, WIN, WIN situation
for everyone:
Benefits
to the Corporation
- Incredible
opportunities for building team
efforts. Even when employees
aren't working on the same day and
during the same time, they have
something significant in
common. Let's face it.
Most corporate team building
projects are contrived, serve no
useful purpose other than
'team-building', and often lead to
more annoyance than
team-building. Service
projects have purpose and team
building is a by-product, not a
forced goal.
- Tied
to the above is employee
retention. When people are
actively involved, they are more
satisfied. When they see their
employer sponsoring the program, it
helps to break down
employer/employee walls.
Employees want to work for companies
that are obviously not
self-absorbed.
- Builds
corporate image within your own
business, within the community, and
wherever else you choose to make
your project known. Ask your
company PR department if they can
work with this and watch them smile.
- When
your company is seen, so are your
products and services. Is your
company looking for brand awareness?
- Builds
loyalty and trust with your
customers. Sales are seldom
achieved by default and are often
the result of small variances in
attitude. When all else is
relatively the same, people prefer
to do business with those who they
respect and admire. Could your
company do with a little bit more of
that? If you aren't sure, ask
your biz dev and sales
managers.
Benefits
to the Employee:
- Humans
are at their personal best when they
are working and when they are giving
to others.
- Improved
communication and personal affinity
between employees, supervisors, top
management, and between
workgroups. Working together
on equal footing outside the office
allows an increase in personal
communication that cannot exist
elsewhere. When employees see
and work directly with managers and
top corporate management that they
seldom run into at work, the human
connection is reestablished.
- Employees
learn and perfect leadership which
translates into workplace
performance.
- Basically...
see the employee related benefits
mentioned in Benefits to the
Corporation above. In these
cases, the corporation benefits
because the employees do it first.
- Employees
find personal contact with seniors
who need help. Everyone needs
to feel appreciated and there is no
lack of that when working with
Senior Meals programs.
Benefits
to Seniors and the Community
- Frail
seniors are supplied with nutritious
meals that they otherwise would or
could not prepare for themselves.
- There
is a direct cost savings to seniors
when meals are prepared and/or
delivered, helping them stay at home
instead of an institution.
- By
keeping seniors on a stable diet,
medical costs and therefore, tax
funding requirements are reduced.
- Contact
with a daily meal delivery person is
often the only contact that many
seniors have. Without this
human contact, many seniors would
find themselves incredibly isolated
and lonely.
- Introduces
employees who have never volunteered
for anything before to the world and
the necessity of personal
involvement and volunteerism.
This is often a lifelong benefit to
the community and other volunteer
organizations in the future.
- An
increase in strength between the
community and the businesses that
reside there is beneficial to both
the business and the community.
- Helps
provide a public awareness of the
need in the community. While
most volunteer organizations are
hardly noticed, involvement with the
charity by a respected business
brings the needs of that charity to
public view.
