Employer support for volunteering in Canada: A comparison of Francophones from Quebec and Anglophones outside Quebec based on a national survey.

Abstract

Research on employer-supported volunteering (ESV) practices has primarily focused on benefits for participating businesses, whereas literature on outcomes for non-profits and the local community is scarcer. Moreover, considering lower rates of formal volunteering reported by Francophone Quebec respondents in national surveys, there is a need to better understand the dynamics of community engagement by considering factors pertaining to the social and organizational environment. This study investigated whether employer support for volunteering predicted various forms of community engagement behaviors (informal volunteering, charitable donations, and in-kind donations), using data from a nationally representative survey. Analyses were conducted on a national sample of 5,263 full-time employees (979 Francophones from Quebec; 4,283 Anglophones outside Quebec, aged 25-64, 55% women), adjusting for representation (bootstrap weights) and controlling for sociodemographic variables. The presence of ESV was associated with a higher likelihood of participation in informal volunteering, financial donating, and in-kind donating in both Francophone and Anglophone employees. Findings highlight the need for further studies to explore the meaning and implementation of types of employer support for volunteering within Francophone Quebec, and suggest the relevance of aiming to disseminate information on the types of ESV supports available within the workplace. Public Significance StatementResearch on the relationship between employer support for volunteering and community-level outcomes is needed to strengthen the rationale for implementing this type of community involvement in the workplace. Results from this study showed that full-time employees who reported the presence of employer support for volunteering in their workplace were more likely to participate in other forms of local involvement (informal volunteering, financial donating, in-kind donating) among both Francophone Quebec and Anglophones outside Quebec respondents. Types of employer support that can be implemented informally, in a cost-effective way (e.g., time-based support) appear to be relevant organizational practices linked to local community involvement for both groups, though rates of implementation differ between groups.