Is Remote Working a Threat to Corporate Volunteerism?

 

As working remotely becomes a permanent aspect of business America, new consequences continue to emerge. One increasingly obvious example is the challenge of building a sense of teamwork within an organization. Related but less obvious is the question of managing volunteerism, which for many businesses is both a way of giving back to community and a team-building opportunity.

One local company working to address these challenges is iSeatz, whose iHelpz volunteer program has benefited a large number of area schools and nonprofits over the past decade.

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“Volunteer activities provide a way to get together the team that is now mostly working remotely,” commented Jasmyn Farris, chief people operations officer for iSeatz, adding, “You have to find ways that make sense for people to come together.”

iSeatz was founded in New Orleans in 1999, and was one of the first platforms to digitize the restaurant reservation process. The company has since expanded further into the hospitality industry and other areas; it also bounced up to New York City after Hurricane Katrina, then returned home to New Orleans.

The iHelpz program began in 2012. “It was a spontaneous, grassroots initiative that a couple of team members developed,” said Farris. “The company was already involved with some community organizations, and the CEO was also leaning in that direction. The first couple of years it was sort of boot-strapped, helping a couple schools and community organizations with physical labor.”

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As it took root within the company, founder and CEO Kenneth Purcell decided to make iHelpz a more formal, substantial program. One challenge was that the organizations that most needed volunteer assistance were also those with the least capacity to plan large-scale volunteer events. This eventually led to a partnership with Hands-On New Orleans, which helps connect organizations that need volunteers with businesses that want to provide them.

“We go to them and let them know what kind of organization we want to focus on this time around, and they come back with a few different options,” explained Farris.

Two specific issues which iHelpz has homed in on are education and the environment. Numerous local schools have benefited from volunteer hours, and recently, team members completed three major projects at Joe Brown Park.

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Farris reported that “usually we have just about the entire staff participating. It’s always one of the favorite things that team members mention about why they like working at iSeatz.”

Still, the pandemic has definitely created a new challenge for the iHelpz program and for the company itself. Tech firms have led the way in offering remote working opportunities, and iSeatz is no different. Of its eighty full-time employees, only around thirty remain based in New Orleans.

“Being in New Orleans, participating in the things that make New Orleans New Orlean, has always been part of the company’s culture,” stated Farris. “iHelpz is an organic extension of what was already happening in terms of the cultural education of our team members.”

However, when that team is spread out around the country – indeed, around the world – assembling the troops to volunteer together becomes much more difficult. Similarly, building a corporate culture over a computer screen poses a much greater challenge.

To address this, iSeatz now convenes semi-annual company events, and incorporates a volunteer project into the gathering. Still, this reduces the number of local organizations that can benefit from these efforts, a problem that is likely to grow in the future. While the firm remains committed to its home city, the increasing geographic spread of its employees may lead to having some future events in other places.

“iHelpz is a driver for where and how and when we gather,” observed Farris, “but we are looking at other places with similar problems, that have experienced similar devastations. I see the program as sustainable, but we may do one per year elsewhere.”

Among the lessons to be learned from all this, on the corporate side one key point is that creating volunteer opportunities is perhaps even more useful as a team-building method in the world of working remotely. On the nonprofit side, though, organizations may need to be more mindful and proactive with their corporate partners, on everything from volunteers to fundraising. From the cozy confines of the workplace to the broader municipal identity, remote working is clearly fraying that sense of place and connectivity.

 

 

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