THE BETTERMENT OF THE SOCIETY THROUGH COMMUNITY SERVICE OR SOCIAL WORK

DO YOU ASPIRE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE BETTERMENT OF THE SOCIETY THROUGH COMMUNITY SERVICE OR SOCIAL WORK? MAMTHA SHARMA WRITES ON HOW THIS VERY EXPERIENCE CAN ALSO EQUIP YOU WITH CAREER SKILLS AND TEACH YOU A LESSON OR TWO IN WORKPLACE DYNAMICS

    A few years earlier, the term or concept of ‘skill-based volunteerism’was an unknown entity to most corporates and citizens.The idea started taking shape when employers realised that the best asset they have at their disposal for community service was their employees, and all that it takes to leverage the maximum out of them, is to have the right person do the right job, at the right time. Connecting the volunteer with the right skills to the right job, resulted in a stronger relationship between the volunteer and the non-profit sector ensuring maximum impact. Since the inception of this concept, it has benefited all stakeholders - be it employees, employers, non-profits or the direct community that now have access to experts who would genuinely work towards their development rather than mandatory community service.
    Sectors like education, healthcare and hygiene benefit from this pro-bono volunteerism as they attract experts from corporations to help them. Also, what needs to be emphasised is the knowledge-transfer that happens in this process - first from the employee to the NGO and then from the NGO to the employee.
    The young millennials, increasingly the workforce that constitutes a majority in workplaces, are the ones looking to do meaningful work and creating an impact - a social impact that will associate their work with a larger cause for the betterment of the society. Discussions of the benefits of volunteerism typically focus on the impact such programmes yield for their non-profit beneficiaries, but perhaps more deserving of attention is the way such programmes develop leadership talent within volunteers themselves.
    Employees who lead, and are experts in talent development are priceless to the company and probono volunteer work creates this corps of employees who has great potential to impact the decisions they make on behalf of their company in the future years. Employees get a great chance to enter and work in the emerging markets of the world, where they learn the lessons about the complexity of issues facing the developing world and how to begin introducing solutions to diverse challenges in such operative situations.
    Skill-based volunteerism also helps develop a work culture that is very global in nature - something that today’s young millennial aspires to. Another important aspect of this is skill development. Many volunteers say they do not realise they had a particular skill till they started volunteering. It helps in rediscovering themselves, when they find themselves in a different environment.
    Not only this, volunteers also learn one of the greatest lessons in life - adaptability in a new environment and solving problems while considering possibilities that concern the entire mankind, lessons which they do not forget as they migrate back to their offices with this global adaptive leadership mindset. Skillbased volunteerism opens up an entire gamut of opportunities, challenges and risks involved with the markets where they and their clients operate, both in the developed world and developing nations.These volunteers learn from each other; a very critical part of the entire experience encompasses knowledge-transfer within the team, on a project, with each other.
    - THE AUTHOR IS COUNTRY MANAGER,CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP AND CORPORATE AFFAIRS,IBM INDIA