With the holidays around the corner, HR leaders may be looking to transform their parties to help their workforce and the business get the most out of the event. Since team-building has never been as important as it is now, with many employees dispersed or operating on different schedules, experts say this is a strategic place to start.
Ira Almeas, co-founder and president of Impact 4 Good—a New Jersey-based philanthropic team-building company—says introducing a charitable element to a holiday team-building event can be especially impactful. In the last few years, employee interest in their employer’s charitable work has grown significantly; grantmaker Fidelity Charitable found last year that more than 80% of employees surveyed want to work for a company with a strong investment in social responsibility.
Team-building events that intentionally bring employees together while also benefitting a charity can drive up the employer brand, supporting talent attraction and retention, experts say.
Adding a charitable giving angle to a team-building event can also ease access to funding, says Shannon Lane DuPont, director of program development at TeamBonding, a team-building experience company based in Massachusetts.
“Financially speaking, it’s often easier to get approval for team-building events when there is some charitable component involved because it does give it that extra meaning,” DuPont says.
Some holiday events TeamBonding offers include Toys for Tykes, in which teams of employees assemble wagons of toys that are donated to charity.
DuPont recently sat down with HR Executive to discuss ways employers can combine team-building events with charitable giving over the holidays. Here is what she has to say.
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