CVNY NOVEMBER 2019: ENGAGING REMOTE AND FIELD COLLEAGUES IN VOLUNTEERING

On November 13th, CVNY brought together a panel to discuss engaging remote and field colleagues in volunteer opportunities. Shannon Ross from Mash & McLennan Companies moderated our guest professionals:
• Armand Biroonak, UBS
• Kayla Carpenter, JetBlue
• Laura Fedoryk, Marsh & McLennan

Our speakers offered guidance on engaging these atypical work forces to create impact across employee populations and geographies which included the following themes:
• Utilizing virtual opportunities for remote volunteering, like OpenStreetMaps and virtual mentoring
• Engaging local philanthropy team leads who are empowered to organize and execute volunteer events in satellite locations
• Thinking outside of traditional internal communications tools to reach remote employees

Key Takeaways:
• Tap into your organization’s unique culture to galvanize events around key moments, like JetBlue organizing volunteer events on aviation-related holidays
• Engage with a mix of nonprofits that allows your employees to get involved with firm-wide priority issue areas while also engaging local partners and issues
• Act as a centralized resource to empower remote and virtual colleagues by creating brand-appropriate tool kits for local event organizers
• Help establish volunteer cohorts for remote associates to give a further sense of community and communal impact, like a Work From Home ERG
• Offer incentives to employees that engage, but know that they may vary across employee populations and geographies