SINGAPORE - One in two employees polled are interested to take part in volunteer activities organised by their employer, but only one in five said their employers organise such activities.
This is a "distinct gap" and a "mismatch", said Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Lawrence Wong on Wednesday. Speaking at a dialogue session about corporate giving, he encouraged companies to "make giving part of the DNA of corporate Singapore".
The figures are from the latest Employee Giving Survey, which is part of the biennial Individual Giving Survey by the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre (NVPC).
The survey of 968 employees also found that two in three did not volunteer through their employer, but mainly directly with charities.
The top three factors which encourage employees to volunteer are having supportive colleagues and bosses, being given paid time off to volunteer, and being given a choice of volunteer activities, it found.
Besides sharing the survey findings on Wednesday, the NVPC also signed an agreement with Points of Light, an international non-profit organisation based in the United States, to develop a national framework to guide corporate giving efforts.
The Singapore Roadmap for Corporate Giving will, among other things, establish indicators which help companies better measure the impact of their corporate social responsibility programmes.
Over the next few months, the NVPC will co-develop the roadmap by consulting businesses and other partners on how the framework should look like.
