2013 VolunteerMatch Corporate Volunteer Awards: A Look at Finalist UnitedHealth Group
On May 16, 2013, winners of the 2013 VolunteerMatch Corporate Volunteer Awards will be announced at our annual VolunteerMatch Client Summit in New York City, NY. In a series of posts at VolunteeringIsCSR.org, we're introducing readers to the people and ideas behind the ten most effective employee volunteer programs in our family of corporate clients compared against our annual benchmarks.
UnitedHealth Group is a diversified health and wellness company that serves more than 70 million customers nationwide and has more than 100,000 employees. UnitedHealth Group leverages their size and the extraordinary abilities of their people, ideas, and resources to help the communities where they live and work.
Harnessing the passion and commitment of their workforce to make a difference has lead to more than one million hours being logged by UnitedHealth Group employees on their VolunteerMatch platform, demonstrating that the company is also a great example of how to leverage unique corporate resources to make a difference.
Involve, the company’s volunteer program, is primarily about engaging UnitedHealth Group’s employees in hands-on, face-to-face activities in their local communities. The volunteer program in 2012 targeted activities that tie into chronic disease prevention and care, health, and community involvement – a point of strong alignment with the company’s core capabilities in healthcare. This focus is also well-aligned with UnitedHealthcare's “Do Good. Live Well” volunteer initiative, which encourages customers to get involved in local efforts to prevent hunger and obesity.
UnitedHealth Group volunteer activities are year-round, and are often lead by company-supported Volunteer Councils. Employees can participate in company-sponsored projects, events coordinated by their local volunteer councils or they can volunteer on their own.
A willingness to innovate is also a signature characteristic of employee volunteering at UnitedHealth Group, where program components include pro bono services by the company’s legal department, board matching for its executives, and skilled micro-volunteering across all levels of the company.
Among UnitedHealth Group's key accomplishments in 2012:- Employees donated their time and skills at record levels in 2012 – recording over 463,000 volunteer hours in 2012, a 21 percent increase over the previous year!
- According to an annual survey of employees, more than 81% of employees participated in the program.
- The 2012 volunteer hours reported had an in-kind value of $10.1 million.
- UnitedHealth Group's one-millionth volunteer hour was logged in 2012, bringing the total in-kind value of volunteering to $26.7 million since 2007.
We are proud to spotlight UnitedHealth Group, a company that truly cares about employee volunteer engagement and community involvement!
Stay tuned for more finalist profiles in the coming weeks, and announcement of the winners on May 16, 2013 during the 2013 VolunteerMatch Client Summit.
