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Home Blog Why Corporate Volunteering Programs Are Becoming The Go-To Engagement Strategy
Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report puts a hard number on something many leaders feel: 85% of employees are not engaged or are actively disengaged at work.
January 23, 2026
And, this disengagement results in serious costs to businesses, with an estimated $7 trillion in lost productivity globally.
It’s clear from the numbers that this is not only a huge issue but also an opportunity. If your business increases and improves engagement, productivity rises, efficiency improves, and profits increase.
In this blog, we explore some of the key drivers that fuel engagement and why corporate volunteering is an excellent employee engagement strategy.
Across roles and industries, the same core drivers of engagement keep showing up. These typically include:
1) Meaning and purpose: People want to know that what they do matters. It’s telling that 74% of workers say creating a culture of volunteerism at work gives them an improved sense of purpose, a powerful motivator. When everyday tasks clearly connect to a bigger mission or real-world impact, work feels less transactional and more personal.
2) Recognition and appreciation: Feeling seen and valued matters. Recognition doesn’t have to be expensive or formal; even a genuine thank-you or shout-out can go a long way. It’s not just feel-good fluff with about 4 in 5 employees saying that being recognized for their contributions improves their engagement at work.
3) Growth and development: Most employees want to learn, stretch, and advance. Stagnation, on the other hand, is a surefire engagement killer. When organizations invest in their people’s development, employees feel supported rather than stuck. It even boosts retention, with a major survey finding 94% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their career growth.
4) Connection and belonging: Work is social. Trust, camaraderie, and a sense of belonging on the team all strengthen commitment. People who feel they belong at work are far more engaged. In fact, one study showed a strong sense of belonging leads to a 56% increase in job performance and a 50% drop in turnover risk. When employees have positive relationships and feel included, they’ll give more of themselves to their work.
The challenge is that many engagement initiatives acknowledge these drivers in theory, but in practice, the day-to-day employee experience does not typically deliver on them. That gap between words and reality is where disengagement breeds.
This is where corporate volunteering has started to stand out as a powerful solution. And, a well-designed volunteering program naturally brings all these engagement drivers to life in a way traditional internal programs often struggle to do.
Here are a few ways corporate volunteering helps:
1) It creates immediate meaning: Rather than hearing about the company’s mission in a presentation, employees actually see the impact of their time and effort in real situations. Whether it’s planting trees, mentoring youth, or assisting someone with a need via an app, volunteering offers a direct line to purpose.
2) It reinforces recognition and pride: Contributing to something bigger than business-as-usual often brings a quiet sense of pride to employees. They don’t need a trophy or an all-hands announcement to feel good about what they’ve done; the act of helping is its own reward. Volunteering creates moments where leaders can also see their teams shine outside the usual metrics, leading to more genuine appreciation.
3) It supports personal growth and learning: Volunteering often calls on skills and strengths that employees might not use in their everyday roles. Many HR leaders see this benefit too and in one survey, 65% of HR executives said volunteering had a positive impact on employees’ skill development. Unlike formal training programs, volunteering lets people learn by doing, in real-world situations that require problem-solving, teamwork, and creativity.
Just as importantly, the best corporate volunteering programs need to be easy to join and flexible enough to fit the reality of working lives. Good programs make volunteering an opportunity, not an obligation or a logistical nightmare, and when participation is easily accessible, engagement naturally follows.
For businesses, Be My Eyes works extremely well because it removes many of the usual hurdles to volunteering. No travel or full-day commitment is required. Employees can volunteer from wherever they are (particularly useful for global remote or hybrid teams), and calls only take a few minutes.
The impact of a Be My Eyes session – which connects a blind or low-vision person to a sighted volunteer through a one-way video stream – is immediate and personal. When a call comes in, within seconds, a volunteer is connected to someone who genuinely needs their help in that moment. It might be a blind user asking:
“Can you tell me what this label says?” or “Which of these two buttons on my device is the right one?”
The volunteer then helps that person in real time, often leaving a call with an incredible feeling of “I just tangibly helped someone”.
That human-to-human connection, even through a phone, stays with people long after the call ends.
If you’d like to find out what this looks like in action, read our Zain case study here: https://www.bemyeyes.com/business/zain-case-study/
Finally, if you’re ready to start improving employee engagement and want to learn more then download our free eBook, “How to drive employee engagement with corporate volunteering”.
