Are corporate volunteers' self-reported skill improvements real?

01/03/2017

This study compared self-reported skill improvements with before- and after-volunteering managerial assessments in the workplace. Four work-related skills showed real improvements while these results were independent of any demographic or employment criteria.

Widely Assumed but Thinly Tested: Do Employee Volunteers’ Self-Reported Skill Improvements Reflect the Nature of Their Volunteering Experiences? Jones DA (2016). Frontiers in Psychology, 7:495.

Available free at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4832585/ or Search for the title for a PDF version.

Corporate volunteering programs are often supported by the self-reported opinions of the volunteers that their work-related skills are improved by this activity. This study tested this by before and after assessments of 74 volunteers' skills in: communicating performance expectations, leadership, mentorship, motivating others, project management, providing performance feedback, public speaking and presenting, speaking clearly, teamwork, and time management. The author notes that Caligiuri et al. (2013)* described that critically important for skill development through volunteering are: the volunteering experiences were meaningful; offered novel challenges; and were socially supportive and interactive.

Between one third and half of the volunteers reported skill improvements as a result of the volunteering.

The results showed that the employee volunteers who had more opportunities to practice four specific work-related skills while volunteering had significantly greater improvements in those same four skills, namely: communicating performance expectations; project management; providing performance feedback; and public speaking and presenting.

Study results showed that skill development was not influenced by gender, age, education level, lifetime work experience, employment tenure, and the number of prior volunteering activities. Other analyses showed the same for other job-related training the employee volunteers received during the period of the study, whether they managed or supervised others, and the length of time they had managed others.

Self-reported improvements in six skills were significantly higher among employee volunteers who completed a greater number of pre-volunteering preparation courses.

Importantly, the study found that workplace improvements and volunteering skill development were strongest in those with strong self-efficacy – a belief in one's ability to succeed. Volunteering can be a way to demonstrate to the individual that they have strong self-efficacy – helped by pre-volunteering work to identify specific goals in the volunteering.

The report includes background information on corporate volunteering research and recommendations for such programs. It is a good resource for managers of programs and those providing the volunteering opportunity.

*Caligiuri, P., Mencin, A., and Jiang, K. (2013). Win-win-win: The influence of company-sponsored   volunteerism programs on employees, NGOs, and business units. Pers. Psychol. 66, 825–860. doi: 10.1111/peps.12019