My brilliant colleague, Rob Jackson and I have been chatting about corporate volunteering and in particular, the Starbucks initiative. We both are getting the feeling that this is like the first pebble to skitter down the mountain, signaling an avalanche of change is coming.
I’m re-blogging Rob’s original article here and this coming Friday, we will issue a joint blog outlining more questions and thoughts on corporate volunteering’s direction and what we need to do now to get ready. I hope you will join us in prepping for this trend.
-Meridian
Just a few weeks ago my attention was drawn to a headline in The Guardian newspaper, ”Paying employees to volunteer could be key to keeping millennial staff”.
The article reported on Starbucks who, in the USA, have partnered with the Points of Light Foundation to create an initiative designed to attract millennials to work at the coffee chain. As The Guardian reports:
“18-34 years old are quickly becoming the largest group of employees in the workplace. Business owners, both big and small, are trying to come up with innovative benefits to attract the best and the brightest people of this generation to their company as well as keeping existing employees happy and motivated.”
In response to such challenges, Starbucks is running a six-month pilot program where thirty-six employees in thirteen US cities will continue to get full pay while working at selected non-profit organisations for half the work week…
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